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USGS2006

Small satellite multi mission C2 for maximum effect

This paper discusses US Air Force, US Army, US Navy, and NASA demonstrations based around the Virtual Mission Operations Center (VMOC) and its application in fielding a Multi Mission Satellite Operations Center (MMSOC) designed to integrate small satellites into the inherently tiered system environment of operations. The intent is to begin standardizing the spacecraft to ground interfaces needed to reduce costs, maximize space effects to the user, and allow the generation of Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) that lead to Responsive Space employment. Combining the US Air Force/Army focus of theater command and control of payloads with the US Navy's user collaboration and FORCEnet consistent approach lays the groundwork for the fundamental change needed to maximize responsive space effects.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2000

Preface paper to the Semi-Arid Land-Surface-Atmosphere (SALSA) Program special issue

The Semi-Arid Land-Surface-Atmosphere Program (SALSA) is a multi-agency, multi-national research effort that seeks to evaluate the consequences of natural and human-induced environmental change in semi-arid regions. The ultimate goal of SALSA is to advance scientific understanding of the semi-arid portion of the hydrosphere-biosphere interface in order to provide reliable information for environmental decision making. SALSA approaches this goal through a program of long-term, integrated observations, process research, modeling, assessment, and information management that is sustained by cooperation among scientists and information users. In this preface to the SALSA special issue, general program background information and the critical nature of semi-arid regions is presented. A brief description of the Upper San Pedro River Basin, the initial location for focused SALSA research follows. Several overarching research objectives under which much of the interdisciplinary research contained in the special issue was undertaken are discussed. Principal methods, primary research sites and data collection used by numerous investigators during 1997-1999 are then presented. Scientists from about 20 US, five European (four French and one Dutch), and three Mexican agencies and institutions have collaborated closely to make the research leading to this special issue a reality. The SALSA Program has served as a model of interagency cooperation by breaking new ground in the approach to large scale interdisciplinary science with relatively limited resources.

Conference Paper↗