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These earth observing platforms 
possess a wide variety of new land, 
ocean and atmospheric sensor 
systems which will produce a vast 
new set of data useful for resource 
develop- ment, global change study, 
and environmental management as 
discussed below. 
International Cooperation 
International cooperation 
amongst the countries providing or 
planning to provide earth observing 
systems under the Mission to Planet 
Earth initiatives is provided 
through several international 
bodies, chief of which is the Earth 
Observations International 
Coordination Working Group (E0- 
ICWG). Through EO-ICWG, the U.S., 
Europe, Japan, and Canada 
coordinate international 
cooperation essential for 
implementation of a global polar- 
orbiting observing capability. EO- 
ICWG representatives are led by the 
respective space agencies - NASA, 
ESA, STA/NASDA and CSA supported by 
the operational environmental 
monitoring agencies -NOAA, 
EUMETSAT, JMA, and AES. EO-ICWG 
addresses technical and policy 
issues including payload, opera 
tional data management, data 
policy, and instrument interfaces. 
Additional international 
cooperation and coordination is 
provided by SASISY, the 23 nation 
Space Agency Society for the 
International Space Year, 1992. 
This international space agency 
organization has adopted the 
Mission to Planet Earth (MPE) as 
its theme and will coordinate 
international space data collected 
in support of MPE. SASISY will 
also assist in planning the 
International Geosphere-Biosphere 
Program (IGBP) which is an open- 
ended, broad international 
scientific assessment of the 
Earth's environment. 
Basic Scientific Research and 
Practical Applications 
Under the current planning for 
the polar orbiting satellites to be 
operating at the end of the 1990's, 
a large number of new state-of-the- 
art sensor instruments will provide 
a plethora of earth observation 
data for both basic science and 
practical applications depending on 
eventual distribution systems and 
data policies. NASA's EOS system 
currently is planned as three polar 
orbiting platforms (EOS-A, EOS-B, 
and EOSAR), of which there will be 
three platforms each of 5-year 
lifetime over a total span of 15 
years for each system. Between the 
three EOS platform types, NASA is 
planning to fly 9 facility instru 
ments and 23 instrument investi 
gation sensor systems (NASA, 1990). 
These 9 NASA platforms with 32 
instruments, if funded and flown as 
planned, will have the capacity to 
produce one terrabit (10 to the 
13th) of data per day and will cost 
at least $27 billion over 20-25 
years. In addition to NASA's 
systems, the ESA platforms (EPOP-N1 
and EPOP-M1) will have 35 
instruments of both similar and 
complimentary capabilities. The 
Japanese JPOP will carry a similar 
instrument load that is yet to be 
finalized. 
Prior to the late 1990 launch of 
the EOS systems, global change 
studies will utilize data from 
present and planned operational 
systems earth observation systems. 
It is important to note that the 
EOS type systems are designed 
primarily as research systems and 
not as operations systems. In 
fact, NASA has planned it's EOS