The book focuses on the topic of trends and challenges with regards to satellite-based earth observation. Contributors include legal experts in the field and representatives from institutions such as the European Space Agency, the European Space Policy Institute, academia and the private sector.

An examination of environmental satellite data sharing policies, offering a model of data-sharing policy development, case and practical recommendations for increasing global data sharing. Key to understanding and addressing climate change is continuous and precise monitoring of environmental conditions. Satellites play an important role in collecting climate data, offering comprehensive global coverage that can't be matched by in situ observation. And yet, as Mariel Borowitz shows in this book, much satellite data is not freely available but restricted; this remains true despite the data-sharing advocacy of international organizations and a global open data movement. Borowitz examines policies governing the sharing of environmental satellite data, offering a model of data-sharing policy development and applying it in case studies from the United States, Europe, and Japan—countries responsible for nearly half of the unclassified government Earth observation satellites. Borowitz develops a model that centers on the government agency as the primary actor while taking into account the roles of such outside actors as other government officials and non-governmental actors, as well as the economic, security, and normative attributes of the data itself. The case studies include the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS); the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT); and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA). Finally, she considers the policy implications of her findings for the future and provides recommendations on how to increase global sharing of satellite data.

Do you know the meaning of the following acronyms? How many of these can you identify? EPA, OSFR, NIOSHTIC, SHEEP, CISDDOC, SFIREG, SPALD, HSELINE, SGOMSEC, OSPED, MHIDAS, STALAPCO, OPPTS, SNRE, PRISMA, OPP-SRRD, SWDSCMA, OTAG, SOLAGRAL, OPPT-EETD, PFEER, OSTZ, OSSF, PEACE, OPP-BPPD, PACE, OW-AIEO, PARIS, PECSQA, PHHVAS, REED, PERI, VON, RTECS, PNUE, WAS, VCE, WBMEPD, UWQRPPSC, USAPEHEA, OTSB, TEOTWAWKI, TRIFID, and finally TYVM for buying this book. How many did you know for sure? The answers are contained in this book. If you knew all of these, you are an expert, but this book can still help you. If you knew about half, you are good, and this book can be very helpful. If you only knew a few, this book is absolutely necessary. Again, TYVM. This book can be a great source of enjoyment, entertainment and games. This book is an excellent source of acronyms and abbreviations for guessing games. Make up games and quiz friends about acronyms, abbreviations and their meanings. See who is the fastest in finding the meaning of an acronym or who can find the most acronyms from page-to-page in two minutes.

Water systems are building blocks for poverty alleviation, shared growth, sustainable development, and green growth strategies. They require data from in-situ observation networks. Budgetary and other constraints have taken a toll on their operation and there are many regions in the world where the data are scarce or unreliable. Increasingly, remote sensing satellite-based earth observation is becoming an alternative. This book briefly describes some key global water challenges, perspectives for remote sensing approaches, and their importance for water resources-related activities. It describes eight key types of water resources management variables, a list of sensors that can produce such information, and a description of existing data products with examples. Earth Observation for Water Resources Management provides a series of practical guidelines that can be used by project leaders to decide whether remote sensing may be useful for the problem at hand and suitable data sources to consider if so. The book concludes with a review of the literature on reliability statistics of remote-sensed estimations.

Global change involves complex and far-reaching variations in the Earth’s systems, and satellite observations have been widely used in global change studies. Over the past five decades, Earth observation has developed into a comprehensive system that can conduct dynamic monitoring of the land, the oceans and the atmosphere at the local, regional and even global scale. At the same time, although a large number of Earth observation satellites have been launched, very few of them are used in global change studies. The lack of scientific satellite programs greatly hinders research on global change. This book proposes using a series of global change scientific satellites to establish a scientific observation grid for global environmental change monitoring from space, and offers the first comprehensive review of lunar-based Earth observation. These scientific satellites could provide not only basic datasets but also scientific support in facilitating advances in international global change research.