Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis

The Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis (MEDEA) was a post-Cold-War project of the intelligence community of the United States to leverage US global surveillance records and capabilities for the scientific study of climate change.

In 1992, at the behest of the Council on Foreign Relations and then-Senator Al Gore and with the direction of Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates, the Environmental Task Force (ETF) was formed,[1] which in 1993 became MEDEA.[2] More than 860,000 historical satellite photographs were analyzed by a group of dozens of scientists and new satellite photographs were captured and declassified.[2]

The program was shut down early in the George W. Bush administration, re-started in 2010 under the Obama administration, and concluded in 2015.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Snyder, Diane; Brown, Michael L. (January 6, 1997), "The Intelligence Community and the Environment", The Final Report of the Snyder Commission, Woodrow Wilson School Policy Conference 401a: Intelligence Reform in the Post-Cold War Era, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, archived from the original on June 17, 1997
  2. ^ a b Koonin, Steven E.; Keller, Sallie Ann; Shipp, Stephanie S.; Allen, Ted W.; Walejko, Gina K (March 2013), Pathways to Cooperation between the Intelligence Community and the Social and Behavioral Science Communities (PDF), Alexandria, Virginia: Institute for Defense Analyses, p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on February 11, 2018
  3. ^ Plautz, Jason (May 21, 2015), "CIA Shuts Down Climate Research Program", National Journal, London, ISSN 0015-3710, archived from the original on May 26, 2015
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