From climate data to climate knowledge

Last month President-elect Barack Obama delivered forceful remarks on the topic of global climate change.

Speaking to the Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, the president-elect warned that, if left unaddressed, climate change “will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security.”

The president-elect’s determination to confront climate change is timely. Never before has American technical innovation been more ready to answer this call. Only through national determination and innovation can we hope to take advantage of the priceless opportunities presented today: opportunities for initiating a new understanding of our climate, for providing global leadership in climate change mitigation and for enhancing our economic competitiveness in the bargain.

These opportunities are made possible, first, through the sound foundation of years of scientific research and data collection by such organizations as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Air and Space Administration, U.S Geological Survey and others; and second, by a body of available technologies that could build on that foundation to give us our next level of climate understanding. The missing piece is integration. Let me explain.

The eminent biologist E.O. Wilson, who once observed, “We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom,” might as well have had global climate change in mind. Today, our scientific community is the recipient of enormous amounts of Earth-monitoring data from a dizzying number of space, airborne and surface sensors located around the globe, maintained by scores of countries — their data analyzed by institutions here and abroad. However, most of these measurements are segregated from each other with their respective analysts correspondingly isolated. The result? An excess of data and a deficit of shared knowledge.

But what if all these data sources could be integrated to provide a genuine understanding of our changing climate that is more than just descriptive, but reliably predictive? And what if that new understanding could then be networked beyond just the scientific community to also help inform public policy and business decisions? Today, the planning of coastal highways or harbor facilities is a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar endeavor. What if those planners could reliably anticipate water levels and coastlines 20 years hence? Think of the economic implications for agricultural and urban planning, disaster relief, public health, energy and insurance costs reduction, and natural resource preservation.

How might your city council, for example, tease out the teaspoon of knowledge relevant to its local issues from a mountain of environmental data? The challenge, colloquially known in military circles as “sipping water from a fire hose,” is one long faced by our combat commanders. They have to be able to take in volumes of data generated by satellites, submarines and everything in between, and instantly pull out only that needed to create knowledge relevant to this tank platoon or that Special Operations team. What they need is the ability to access and integrate disparate data, correlate it for situational awareness and network it across the force. The technologies designed to do this are in use and continue to advance and improve.

Applying that capability to the understanding of our changing climate requires new decision support centers that leverage our existing computer infrastructure, tailor data for use and provide an interface with government and the public. If we leverage our many sensors, integrate their climate data and tailor it for practical applications, we can make this information more relevant to a larger community. We can inspire innovation, establish effective mitigation policies and sustainable practices, and create a knowledge base for economic growth.

We now have a grand opportunity to systematically integrate limitless data into usable, predictive shared knowledge, and in the process reap dividends that we can scarcely imagine. The president-elect appears to possess the determination. American innovation can supply the technology. Perhaps a breakthrough is closer than we think.

Sugar is the chairman of the board and CEO of Northrop Grumman.