U.S President Barack Obama, along with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch an initiative that would raise public awareness on climate change.
According to the White House's press release, the Climate Data Initiative is built on two significant Administration commitments. First is to strengthen America's resilience to climate change, and second is to make government-held data more accessible to the public, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others as fuel for innovation and economic growth.
During the third annual International Space Apps Challenge, five NASA earth missions, categorized as Robotics, Human Spaceflight, Earth Watch, Asteroids, and Technology in Space will be launched into space in the same year. This is believed to help the public see and monitor changes in Earth and educate people on how to protect it.
Participants of the initiative will be asked to develop data visualization, mobile applications, hardware, software, and platform solutions that could improve life on Earth and enhance space exploration missions.
"The International Space Apps Challenge is one of the U.S. commitments to the Open Government Partnership to explore new ways that open space data can help the planet and further space exploration," said Deborah Diaz, deputy chief information officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in the press release.
It will give geeks, scientists, developers, and others a chance to solve problems related to space explorations and social needs. It also encourages them to create and set out data-driven simulations and visualizations that will raise public awareness and understanding about climate change, coastal-inundation hazards and other vulnerabilities.
NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan added, "Solutions developed through this challenge could have many potential impacts. This includes helping coastal businesses determine whether they are currently at risk from coastal inundation, and whether they will be impacted in the future by sea level rise and coastal erosion."
