
39 min read
An Intertwined History: The Earth Observer and EOS
The Earth Observer, a newsletter issued for more than 36 years, will release its last online content at the close of 2025. This newsletter evolved in parallel with NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS). It is almost impossible to speak of this newsletter without mentioning EOS. As The Earth Observer prepares its final publication, NASA also plans to shutter its three EOS flagship satellites (discussed below) possibly as early as the end of 2026.
While EOS was "much more than its satellites," one cannot deny that the satellite missions and their iconic images provide an entry point to the overarching work conducted by the EOS science teams for almost three decades. These efforts spanned crucial complementary ground- and aircraft-based observations along with focused field campaigns to coordinate observations across multiple levels of Earth system time and spatial scales. The teams worked (and continue to work) closely with the NASA Earth Science Division Earth Observing System Data and Information System