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number of countries, including Brazil, China, France, FRG, and USA. The ISY initiative should single out one or two of those projects and make available to the scientists of developing countries, in a coordinated manner, necessary space observations required for such studies. These will include images and data from SPOT, LANDSAT, GOES, and METEOSAT, which already exist, and from those satellites which will be operational in 1992. 

Global Data Set Production Project

Trends in global change can be determined only by collection of data over long periods. For greenhouse and deforestation trends, the determination process can be accelerated considerably by organizing data collected during the past two decades but not yet applied in a focused manner to those problems. It is recommended, therefore, that an effort be initiated for that purpose. Such reference data sets should include: vegetation state, extent and type, ocean and land surface temperatures, moisture at the surface and in the atmosphere, sea level, ice and snow cover, stratospheric characteristics, and ocean color. 

A key variable which remains elusive to satellite technology is the rate and frequency of precipitation over the ocean. A new space mission to fill this gap in 1992 would be an excellent ISY project.

Conclusion

Success is meeting the three challenges outlined above would constitute a major contribution to the attempt to understand and manage global change. Pilot greenhouse and deforestation projects, complemented by a reference data set project, would provide government leaders with the information necessary to make decisions that will be vital to the future of all forms of life on planet Earth. We recommend that they be undertaken with vigor and resolve.