From a few hundred to 20,000 miles above us, 120 devices gather data for scientist. They are looking at hundreds of different subjects, weather patterns, wind, water temperature, soil temp, pollution by dozens of different chemicals and sources, tectonic plate movement, fires, clouds, forest cover, algae blooms, crop growth, CO2, humidity, air borne particles, crop diseases, lightening, ice thickness and it goes on and on.
The Germans have two satellites that pass over Greenland and part of the Arctic 3 times a day, one a hundred miles behind the other. With radar and gravity sensors triangulating between the two, they weigh the ice on Greenland a thousand times a year. Argentina has a satellite that measures the salinity of the oceans, passing over every surface every day.
Most of the US birds are old, it is expected about half of them will die within 6 years. At that point, the rest of the world will continue to learn about global warming and tectonics and the changing earth. The GOP has tried and failed to defund some of this "crazy science stuff", time and gridlock is on their side. Oh, emerging nations like Brazil and China and India will own the info soon, maybe they will share it, or maybe they will use it to their advantage. We should be down to 6 weather birds within 6 years, it's not back to the future, it's onward to the past.
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