committee recommends that this strategic element be added to the ESE draft document in the section on external partnerships (lines 814-854) and that the text in this section be revised accordingly.

4. Does the ESE draft document provide appropriate attention to interdisciplinary aspects, integration of technology development, and overall scientific balance?

The draft document emphasizes many interdisciplinary aspects, beginning most importantly with the compelling need to treat Earth as a single system consisting of continents, atmosphere, oceans, ice, and life and extending to the influence of solar variability on Earth in collaboration with NASA's Space Science Enterprise. Each of the identified six science focus areas is, independently, also fundamentally interdisciplinary. Together, the focus areas constitute the physical, biogeochemical Earth system. However, some important elements of global Earth science appear to be excluded from the ESE program (e.g., the population-driven contributions to land cover change), possibly because they are addressed in the programs of other agencies. The ESE draft document should describe how NASA will work with other organizations, public and private, to ensure that the full spectrum of important topics is addressed and should make clear how ESE will use the results of work done by other organizations.

The ESE draft document is less successful in addressing the integration of technology development and overall scientific balance. Discussion of technology development is limited to a brief list of strategic elements (lines 570-588), lists of technology requirements needed to support future missions in the focus area roadmaps and the 2025 vision (lines 964-1025), and passing mention of the New Millennium Program for technology flight demonstrations. The draft document could be strengthened by including a discussion of the elements and relative roles of ESE's Earth Science Technology Program and the Aerospace Technology Enterprise's Mission and Sensor Measurements Technology Program in the development of new technologies to support future ESE missions.

The committee has pointed out the importance of ensuring an appropriate balance between basic and applied research and notes here several changes that would improve the ESE draft document's scientific balance. The draft document emphasizes missions, measurements, modeling, and prediction, with less attention to the integration of aircraft, laboratory, and field programs. As noted in several places above, although the draft document lists important science questions (lines 1032-1078), it includes very little discussion of how the science will be addressed, how the questions are (or will be) prioritized, and when answers are expected.

The draft document would be improved by a description of how the Earth System Science Pathfinder program will be strategically coupled to ESE's set of defined missions. While such a description might be too detailed for an overview of this kind, including it in the draft document would emphasize the role of technology and hardware in achieving ESE's objectives.

Executive Summary (1-4)

Introduction (5-6)

Responses to the Five Questions (7-18)

Appendix A: Letter of Request (19-19)

Appendix B: Statement of Task (20-20)

Appendix C: Members of the Committee to Review the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Strategic Plan (21-21)

Appendix D: Members of the Space Studies Board (22-22)