How NASA Facilities Prepare For Climate Change

With the launch of its "Earth Right Now" program, and dozens of missions in the past that asses the world climate, NASA has always been keeping a close eye on climate change. Now however, the agency had released a report on how these changes could affect them specifically, and how they will shore up their facilities to weather the changes to come.

"Risk management is central to continuity of NASA operations, and the agency is including potential climate extremes in its risk management framework," Calvin Williams, an assistant administrator for NASA's Office of Strategic Infrastructure at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, explained in a statement.

According to Williams, the agency worked with respected Earth scientists and international stewards to find the many types of extreme weather events that are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude in the future and pose hazards to NASA's missions, infrastructure, and workforce.

To do this, they collected data from global and regional climate models, many of which even used dates from NASA's own orbital observation craft.

They quickly found that projected sea level rise by 2050 alone could result in 50 percent more coastal flooding, impacting missions and procedures at NASA facilities with varied severity. The agency reported that they have an estimated $32 billion in constructed assets and about 64,000 employees, contractors and partners - all of whom could be affected in some way.

So what's to be done? If you know a storm is coming, you go and shutter the windows. For NASA, this is no different, with its Climate Adaptation Science Investigator (CASI) working group suggesting that the agency quite literally shores up the shore, contributing to beach sand and renourishing efforts. Architectural and utility changes are also being considered, where more self-sufficient facilities can operate efficiently, even in the wake of extreme weather, be it flood or even drought.

"NASA science provides an important knowledge base that the centers and their surrounding communities can use in preparing for changing climate conditions," added Jack Kaye, associate director of NASA's Earth Science Division. "This integrated, science-based approach to climate risk management can provide a model for other agencies."

These results and suggestions are detailed in full in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.