Gore Prods NASA for Live Coverage of Earth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Inspired by a huge version of the photograph of Earth taken by Apollo 17 that hangs in his White House office, Vice President Al Gore has cooked up a plan to provide round-the-clock live coverage of the home planet to anyone with Internet access.

Gore challenged NASA on Friday to launch a satellite equipped with the technology necessary to take and broadcast live images of Earth. The satellite would act as a mirror for the planet, capturing the motions of changing clouds, the movement of weather systems and the destructive path of large fires.

“It will bring into the digital age those remarkable pictures we received of our earth a generation ago,” Gore said, referring to the stunning photographs taken 26 years ago from Apollo 17.

The project, which Gore said he conceived about a month ago, has been developed by a small team at NASA, which believes it can have the satellite in place by 2000 at the cost of $20 million to $50 million--if Congress approves.

Significant obstacles, however, stand in the way of making Gore’s dream a reality.

One influential member of Congress scoffed at the project as a “visual circus.” And some experts questioned the scientific merit of the proposal, noting that live images of the Earth are already available from European weather satellites on the Internet.

John Pike, director of the space policy project at the Federation of American Scientists, called Gore’s proposal “performance art” and said it lacks scientific justification. “The Earth is big and the weather is slow, so it’s not like there is perceptible motion. It is about as exciting as watching the grass grow.”

But NASA Director Daniel S. Goldin said: “It’s a creative idea. We are committed to making this happen.”

He and Gore said the images could be used to help predict the movement of storms and aid the study of such weather patterns as El Nino.