A SUMMIT in Washington DC this weekend could change the way scientific information about our planet is collected. Hosting ministers from 25 countries, including all the G8 nations, as well as top scientists from space agencies and meteorological offices, the meeting aims to develop a strategy to catalogue Earth observations and spot any gaps in them.
At present, geographical and climate data that streams in from thousands of satellites and monitoring stations is poorly coordinated by the countries and organisations that collect it. No one organisation knows how many observing systems there are, or what data they are gathering.
This…
