The FY 1999 Budget Request for the Geosciences Activity (GEO) is $507.31 million, an increase of $52.2 million, or 11.5 percent, over the FY 1998 Current Plan of $455.11 million.
 

The GEO Activity supports research in the atmospheric, earth, and ocean sciences. As the principal source of federal funding for university-based fundamental research in the geosciences, GEO addresses the nation's need to understand, predict and respond to environmental events and changes and to use Earth's resources wisely. Basic research in the geosciences advances scientific knowledge of Earth's environment, including resources such as water, energy, minerals, and biological diversity. GEO-supported research also advances the ability to predict natural phenomena of economic and human significance, such as climate changes, weather, earthquakes, fish-stock fluctuations, and disruptive events in the solar-terrestrial environment.

Three goals guide GEO's activities:

• Advancement of knowledge about the Earth system, which includes both maintaining adequate bases of support across all geoscience fields and identifying opportunities where more focused support can play a catalytic role in advancing scientific progress.
• Enhancement of the infrastructure for the conduct of geoscience research. GEO will identify and make investments in instrumentation and facilities (including ships, aircraft, computers, radars, seismographs, and data management systems) needed to do world-class research.
• Improvement of the quality of geoscience education and training. GEO will advance the education and training for current geoscientists, facilitate the education and training for future generations of geoscientists, and enhance the general public’s knowledge about the integrated components of the Earth system.

Life and Earth's Environment: Activities related to Life and Earth’s Environment advance scientific knowledge about the Earth system. Because the geosciences are inherently linked to the environment in which we live, the majority of activities supported by GEO relate to LEE. In FY 1999, GEO will provide an increment of approximately $34 million for activities related to LEE. (Many of these activities are inherently overlapping and contribute to more than one area.) Plans will include:

• Global Change: One facet of LEE is that many of the LEE-related activities GEO supports are components of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This research investment addresses interactions among physical, biological, and human systems at varying scales. GEO’s support for the USGCRP will increase over $14 million in FY 1999 to expand activities to address these and other Earth system interactions.
• Integrated Research Challenges: The complexity of many environmental issues requires research integrated over disciplines, spatial scales and time periods to an extent not customary in traditional research. GEO plans to increase support of programs that will permit research teams to identify major scientific questions requiring comprehensive, long-term research and to design and carry out effective, integrated approaches to addressing these questions. Examples of such programs include the National Space Weather Research Program, Active Tectonics, and Water and Watersheds. Overall support for Integrated Research Challenges within GEO is increasing by $22.24 million.
• Environmental Observatories: GEO supports research that contributes to our understanding of environmental processes through extended observation and that encompasses focused activities which enhance our ability to predict natural disasters, including those originating from environmental or climatic shifts. Examples of such programs include: Atmospheric Technology at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR); coastal Long Term Ecological Research; the Southern California Earthquake Center; and Ridge and Sea Floor Observatories. Overall support for Environmental Observatories within GEO is increasing by $4.85 million.
• Life in Extreme Environments (LExEn): The LExEn program seeks to improve fundamental understanding of the formation and development of life and an understanding of the physical, chemical, and geological processes that sustain life. The study of microbial life forms that exist in extreme conditions on Earth, ranging from volcanoes to polar sea ice to hydrothermal vents, will provide important new insights about how life originated and evolved on Earth and whether and how life may thrive on other planets. GEO support for LExEn increases by $660,000 in FY 1999.
• Urban Communities: Urban communities present a unique environment in which to study interactions not present elsewhere. An increase of $660,000 will support programs that participate in this effort, including, the U.S. Weather Research Program, Hydrological Sciences, and the Ecology of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) program.

• Knowledge Networking: Collaboratories link disciplinary communities, allowing the sharing of observations, tools, and methods for analysis and prediction. In FY 1999, GEO will increase support by $600,000 for Collaboratory efforts. It is through the collaboratory and other experiments (such as the Distributed Climate Model Laboratory) that GEO has begun to provide an application-driven framework for the development of the Next Generation Internet. The early results from prototype experiments have resulted in increased productivity and impact for the geoscience community by enabling scientists to investigate problems of greater complexity, such as Earth System modeling, than has previously been possible. GEO's support for Unidata, IRIS, SeaNet, and UARC help shape the Integrated Spatial Information System (ISIS) initiative. In FY 1999 support for ISIS will be increased by $300,000 to accelerate this initiative's long-term goal of achieving full and functional interoperability of geospatial information systems, allowing transparent, platform-independent access to different data sets.
• New Challenges in Computation: GEO will increase its support by $610,000 for continued development and integration of information systems, which enable storage and access of massive amounts of retrospective and real time information about the Earth System. Examples of areas that participate in ntegrated information systems research include the IRIS data management center, the Distributed Ocean Data System, and NCAR Data Park facilities that enable scientists to analyze, manage, and visualize massive data sets generated by global models and observations.
• Learning and Intelligent Systems (+$250,000): The concept of "just in time" preparation of geoscience curriculum will continue to be supported. By using the latest networking technologies, teachers at university, and community colleges will be able to draw on the latest data and multimedia education techniques to assemble instructional material just prior to class. Using geoscience-wide material, the students will be able to be presented with a view of a more integrated view of the Earth System than has previous been possible with discipline-specific instruction. In addition, GEO will continue to support research on intelligent systems; systems that generate observations and model components of the Earth System and organize this information for effective use. The emphasis will be on development of a new generation of smart sensors.

• Integration of Research and Education. GEO will continue to expand programs with strong educational components. Examples include:
• An increase of $400,000 for the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) to provide additional support for young investigators.
• An increase of $170,000 for Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) program to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in NSF funded research activities.
• Continued support for the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training program. This program reflects an emphasis on multidisciplinary training in all areas of NSF-supported research.
• Learning Technologies.
• In FY 1999, GEO will direct $1.0 million to participate in a Foundation-wide inititative on Research on K-12 Education and Training Technologies. This initiative, a partnership with the Department of Education, will include support for efforts such as basic research on educationally relevant technologies; research aimed at developing educational software and technology-enabled pedagogy; and studies to determine the most effective educational approaches and practices.

Key Program Functions

GEO supports its activities through the following key program functions:
 

Research Project Support

Research projects supporting individual researchers and small groups of investigators advance fundamental knowledge across a wide range of topics. Research projects in Atmospheric Sciences improve the understanding and prediction of climate, weather, and the global environmental system.  Earth Science research projects advance knowledge of the structure, composition, and history of the solid Earth and of the geological and hydrological processes that modify Earth. Research projects in Ocean Sciences improve knowledge of the global climate system, coastal environments, the character of the ocean floor, processes that control the chemical composition and motion of ocean waters, and the production of marine organisms underlying fish stocks.

Almost two-thirds of GEO’s funding is directed toward research project support in all GEO disciplinary areas. Over 1,000 awards are made each year, with an average annual award size of approximately $79,600 and a duration of 2.4 years. Although some GEO-sponsored research projects represent a single discipline, a significant fraction are multidisciplinary efforts drawing on the talents and perspectives of several researchers, who together provide valuable knowledge about the complex interactions among different facets of the integrated Earth system.

Priorities for FY 1999 include increased support for the U.S. Weather Research Program, the National Space Weather Program, Research Experiences for Undergraduates, and several programs associated with the U.S. Global Change Research Program, including Earth System History, Global Tropospheric Chemistry, and Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics. Support will be maintained for ongoing programs in coastal ocean processes and environmental geochemistry and biogeochemistry.

In FY 1999, GEO will implement efforts to address Foundation-wide concerns about grant sizes by increasing the average size and duration of the awards and providing more support for researchers, with particular attention to new investigators.  These efforts will also contribute to increasing the efficiency of the Foundation's merit review process and achieve greater cost-effectiveness for both NSF and the university community.

GEO will also continue to participate in a Foundation-wide Major Research Instrumentation program to support the acquisition and development of research instrumentation for academic institutions in FY 1999.

In addition, GEO will direct $1.0 million to participate in a Foundation-wide inititative on Research on K-12 Education and Training Technologies in FY 1999.  This initiative, a partnership with the Department of Education, will include support for efforts such as basic research on educationally relevant technologies; research aimed at developing educational software and technology-enabled pedagogy; and studies to determine the most effective educational approaches and practices.

GEO-supported centers include Science and Technology Centers and Long Term Ecological Research sites.
 

GEO supports four Science and Technology Centers (STCs):

• Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms (University of Oklahoma), which seeks to develop sophisticated computer models for the analysis, prediction, and visualization of thunderstorms and associated severe weather.
• Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate (University of California at San Diego), whose objectives include improving the understanding of the roles of clouds and chemistry in climate change.
• Southern California Earthquake Center (University of Southern California), which has emerged as a focal point for earthquake research in southern California. It has fostered unprecedented cooperation among the major southern California universities, Federal, state and local agencies, and private corporations.
• Center for High Pressure Research (State University of New York at Stony Brook), which brings together multidisciplinary teams from universities, national laboratories, and industry to study the effect of pressure on the properties of natural and synthetic materials. The Center is the U.S. focus of fundamental research on processes in Earth’s deep interior, through controlled experimentation under simulated natural conditions.

Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites support projects requiring long periods of study; the sustained nature of the studies allows scientifically sound evaluations of major environmental phenomena. The LTERs are "research platforms" representing many disciplines that enhance our understanding of general ecological phenomena which occur over long temporal and broad spatial scales, provide information for the identification and solution of environmental problems, and enable interdisciplinary collaborative activities.

In FY 1998, the GEO and BIO Activities are collaborating to establish one new LTER site that focuses on ecological systems at the interfaces of land masses and coastal oceans (including the Laurentian Great Lakes). This new site will expand our knowledge of the organization and function of land/ocean-margin ecosystems, the linkages between these systems and adjacent terrestrial and marine systems, and the impacts of major natural environmental perturbations in these regions. In FY 1999, GEO will increase support for this long-term project and continue to evaluate potential new Coastal LTER sites.

Research Facilities

The GEO Activity supports user facilities necessary for the conduct of research in the geosciences. These include large national user facilities such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S. academic fleet, and smaller facilities in atmospheric, earth, and ocean sciences. NSF support provides for ongoing operations and maintenance, including upgrades to existing facilities as well as regularly scheduled repair.
 

• Continued operation and maintenance of observational and computer facilities at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). NCAR is a world center for atmospheric research, and maintains an active visiting scientist program. The facilities available to university, NCAR, and other scientists include supercomputers, instrumented research aircraft and ground-based portable observing systems. Since its creation in 1960, more than 33,000 people from 250 institutions across the country and around the world have visited NCAR and used its facilities. In FY 1998, more than 1,500 researchers and students will use the facilities, and approximately 150 visiting scientists will stay for extended periods.
• In FY 1999 NCAR will focus on: 1) global change research, including climate system modeling and the operation of the computation facilities for the Climate Simulation Laboratory; 2) the U.S. Weather Research Program and the National Space Weather Program which aim to achieve a better understanding and improved predictive capability of costly and disruptive storms on Earth and in space; and 3) continued support and development of observational and computational capabilities. In addition, the primary building housing NCAR will begin a three-year refurbishment; FY 1999 support for the refurbishment will be at least $2.0 million.
• Maintaining support for multi-user atmospheric facilities including observatories in Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Greenland, and Peru; aircraft and radar facilities at universities; and facilities for disseminating atmospheric data to university research and education programs. These facilities are critical to ground-based studies of the atmosphere and Earth’s nearby space environment (geospace).
• Support for infrastructure associated with the Ocean Drilling Program including operation of the JOIDES Resolution. In FY 1998, the JOIDES Resolution began a mid-life refit. This refit, which totals $6.0 million over two years, is necessary to extend the life of the ship.
• Continued support for operation of the academic research fleet. Approximately 325 projects with about 2,500 scientists and students will use the fleet's 28 ships. The projects range from individual investigator studies of coastal waters to integrated multi-investigator studies of global ocean processes. NSF-funded researchers are the primary users of the ships, accounting for about 75 percent of their total use. NSF ship operation funds support the costs associated with the use of the fleet by these researchers.
• Support for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). IRIS originated in 1986 to install a global network of seismometers (Global Seismic Network, or GSN), provide portable seismometers for regional studies, and establish a data management system to provide on-line, distributed access to data on global seismic activity. IRIS facilities provide rapid analysis of earthquakes, aid in monitoring nuclear proliferation, and permit imaging of the internal physical structure of Earth. GEO, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, is assuming financial responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the GSN from the Department of Defense.
• Other Geosciences Facilities support will be maintained, including facilities to support the use of the Global Positioning System for scientific research, and multi-user analytical facilities such as accelerator-based mass spectrometers and synchrotrom beamlines.
• The reduction in Multi-User Atmospheric Facilities in FY 1999 results from a one-time addition of up to $5 million for Polar Cap Observatory research and development activities in FY 1998.

Education and Training

GEO places a high priority on programs for education, training, and human resource development. This emphasis helps to ensure that the next generation of scientists is adequately prepared for a future in which the borders between scientific disciplines is increasingly blurred, and that is increasingly dependent on technology and on the sharing and analyzing of information utilizing currently-emerging technologies. This emphasis on education and training also aids in the development of a scientifically and technologically literate populace.
 

Examples of GEO efforts to integrate research and education throughout its activities include:

• Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program -- In FY 1999, $1.0 million will be directed to support this continuing cross-Foundation program for graduate traineeships. The program reflects an emphasis on multidisciplinary training in all areas of NSF-supported research.
• Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS), which brings ethnically diverse students from groups underrepresented in the atmospheric sciences into careers in atmospheric and related sciences. Students participate in scientific research with a mentor from NCAR or the University Consortium for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and are supported at their home institution during the academic year. The goal is to graduate these students with Masters of Science (MS) degrees. It is expected that a significant number will continue on to Ph.D. programs in atmospheric sciences and ultimately to careers in the field.
• Continued involvement in the Model Institutions for Excellence program which enhances the capabilities of a small number of minority institutions that are poised to make a substantial contribution to the nation’s goal of increasing the number of minorities who enter the science, engineering and mathematics fields. The program seeks to increase the number of minorities earning undergraduate degrees in these fields and encourages students to go on to pursue doctoral degrees. Areas of emphasis include academic enrichment, early research experience, and mentoring.

The administration and management key program function includes the cost of Intergovernmental Personnel Act appointments and contractors performing administrative functions.