NASA is moving away from tracking climate change

The Trump administration is calling for the destruction of two satellite missions that have been crucial in global climate and ecological monitoring over the past decade. This is part of a larger NASA shift away from climate research.

How is climate research being affected?

While NASA is known for its exploration of the cosmos, the agency also plays a pivotal role in climate science through its collection of climate data. The soon-to-be-ended missions are collectively known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories (OCO), and they can "precisely show where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed and how well crops are growing," said The Associated Press.

They have been operating for more than 10 years, producing data of "exceptionally high quality," said a 2023 NASA review. "Together, the OCO-2, a free-flying satellite, and OCO-3, which is mounted on the International Space Station, measure the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, specifically sniffing out climate pollution," said CNN. The instruments are also "critical for farmers and the researchers studying forest loss."

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Decommissioning the satellites is not a simple feat. OCO-3 could be "switched off and remain attached to the ISS, perhaps to be turned on again in the future," said CNN. However, the process for OCO-2 is "far more complicated — and fiery" because it would have to be "moved into a much lower orbit and exist there as space junk for years until it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere."

Can it be saved?

The Trump administration has decided to put climate change data on the back burner, or perhaps take it off the stove altogether. "All the climate science and all of the other priorities that the last administration had at NASA, we're going to move aside, and all of the science that we do is going to be directed towards exploration, which is the mission of NASA," said Sean Duffy, the acting administrator of NASA and Secretary of Transportation, to Fox Business. "That's why we have NASA — is to explore, not to do all of these Earth sciences."

The president's 2026 budget request includes no money for the OCO. The decision to decommission the missions is "extremely shortsighted," said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, to the AP. A lack of access to climate data may lead to unforeseen consequences down the road, which could be difficult to reverse. Destroying the OCO "will hamstring climate research for decades," said Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times. "The zeroing out of climate research budgets by the Trump White House, of which the cancellation of the OCO program is a part, is taking place just as the value of space-borne climate research has been rising sharply."

But all hope for the research is not yet lost. Congress could potentially come to the rescue and "reject Trump's proposal and offer NASA the budget it needs to maintain U.S. climate and Earth science status quo," said CNN. However, Trump would also have to sign the bill.

The OCO already received funding from Congress through Sept. 30. NASA has also said it would "consider proposals from private companies and universities that are willing to take on the cost of maintaining the device that is attached to the International Space Station, as well as another device that measures ozone in the atmosphere," said NPR.