Environmental changes and national security space programs

Concerns regarding the strategic impacts of environmental change will soon begin to affect space system requirements and budget priorities. Various climate impacts are projected globally in this century. The predicted impacts of these global changes are already becoming hard to ignore, and the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as numerous other organizations have identified specific regions and phenomena of significant concern. The focus of this research project is to better understand the impacts of changing climate scenarios on national security issues and requirements, and to explore new mission needs that are arising as a result of changing military priorities, missions, and technologies. Our approach is to cross-reference climate change threats with vulnerable geographic regions, then match existing space-based assets with potentially useful capabilities in suitable orbits (e.g., polar, low-inclination, or geosynchronous) to each regional threat pairing. Several examples of vulnerable regions and threats are: melting ice/opening seas in the Arctic; sea level rise near worldwide coastal military bases and launch facilities; severe storms and flooding in the Gulf Coast and Mississippi River Valley regions. This task will help us determine where there are gaps in capabilities, leading to recommendations for future missions.