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NASA Ames Earth Science

Significant announcements:

31st August 2020

  • Juan L. Torres-Pérez will be conducting the ARSET webinar “Remote Sensing of Coastal Ecosystems” on 25 August, 1 and 8 September 2020 – This is an introductory webinar aimed at presenting an overview of major temperate and tropical coastal ecosystems, the satellite/sensors typically used to retrieve information from these systems, how light interacts with the water column and how it affects the characterization of benthic components, and what are the different types of shorelines and which remote sensing and field collections can help in characterizing these environments. The webinar will be conducted bilingual (English and Spanish). Juan will be accompanied by Amber McCullum from the Biospheric Sciences Branch. More than 1,000 people registered for the webinar 24 hours after it was announced on the ARSET webpage a few weeks ago.
    Link: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/join-mission/training/english/remote-sensing-coastal-ecosystems
  • NASA Ames is in Stage 3 in the NASA Response Framework to pandemics – Staff are continuing work with adjustments in work style, focus and schedules due to the COVID-19 distancing protocols. ESPO-managed NASA airborne missions and other programs and projects at ARC are experiencing major schedule delays due to COVID-19. Ames Earth Science Division staff are focusing on data analysis, publications/proposals/reports writing, and computer-aided design work. Staff are continuing telework and managing workflows and productivity while travel, lab work and most mission-critical flight and instrument work are on hold. The division is actively engaged with the directorate/center and with HQ on obtaining “mission-critical” designation from HQ for a number of select facilities and activities and has begun preparing return-to-onsite-work implementation plans. As a first mission, the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) Earth Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) field campaign managed by ESPO has received a “mission-critical” designation and has their return-to-onsite-work plan under final review at Ames.
  • Thomas Vandal received the DeepSpatial’20 Best Spotlight Presentation Award at SIGKDD ’20 – This award acknowledges the high-quality presentation given on 24 August 2020, recorded for the workshop. His paper, “Temporal Interpolation of Geostationary Satellite Imagery with Task Specific Optical Flow” was co-authored by Ramakrishna Nemani.
    The presentation is available to watch here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10uTfgB-_aSBAy01VCKKNgXguW_zv3TIH/view?usp=sharing
  • A discussion with Vince Ambrosia entitled: “With Earth Observations I saw it as a great challenge and opportunity to study our planet” was featured on StoryCorp – The interview was led by science communicator Kassie Perlongo and they spoke about Vince’s 40 years working at NASA Ames, how remote sensing has evolved, and his 40 years at Ames.
    Link: https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/kassie-perlongo-and-vince-ambrosia/
    New interviews can be found under the “Share your Science: A collection of stories from scientists at NASA Ames” community on StoryCorp. Interviews are uploaded weekly.
    Link: https://archive.storycorps.org/communities/share-your-science-a-collection-of-stories-from-scientists-at-nasa-ames/

24th August 2020

  • Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) held their Science Team Meeting on 13 & 14 August 2020 – TEMPO was selected in 2012 by NASA as the first Earth Venture Instrument, for launch in 2022 into geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above Earth’s equator as a payload on Intelsat 40e. It will measure atmospheric pollution for greater North America in unprecedented detail during daylight hours. Laura Iraci, Matthew Johnson, and Robert Chatfield participated and the Earth Science Project Office (ESPO) hosted this virtual meeting with 209 participants from across the US as well as from Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Korea. There were 12-15 breakout rooms used for virtual poster sessions each day. The science team considered the meeting well organized and a great success.
  • The Navajo Drought Severity Evaluation Tool (DSET) was featured on Twitter by NASA Earth. NASA Earth used DSET to highlight the Space for US series on 8 August 2020. This series highlights a NASA Earth Science project from each state, with DSET being the highlight for Utah. Amber McCullum leads the Navajo Nation Drought Project, with funding from NASA’s Western Water Applications Office.
    NASA Earth Twitter: https://twitter.com/NASAEarth/status/1292119375684788230
    Space for US series: https://www.nasa.gov/SpaceforUS/stories/ut.html
  • NASA Ames is in Stage 3 in the NASA Response Framework to pandemics – Staff are continuing work with adjustments in work style, focus and schedules due to the COVID-19 distancing protocols. ESPO-managed NASA airborne missions and other programs and projects at ARC are experiencing major schedule delays due to COVID-19. Ames Earth Science Division staff are focusing on data analysis, publications/proposals/reports writing, and computer-aided design work. Staff are continuing telework and managing workflows and productivity while travel, lab work and most mission-critical flight and instrument work are on hold. The division is actively engaged with the directorate/center and with HQ on obtaining “mission-critical” designation from HQ for a number of select facilities and activities and has begun preparing return-to-onsite-work implementation plans. As a first mission, the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) Earth Venture Suborbital- 3 (EVS-3) field campaign managed by ESPO has received a “mission-critical” designation and has their return-to-onsite-work plan under final review at Ames.

17th August 2020

  • The Airborne Science Program Mission Tools Suite (MTS) was put to the test during recent NOAA reconnaissance flights for Hurricane Isaias – MTS is a real-time mission monitoring tool for the planning, operations, and overall management of airborne missions. The MTS team is making progress on developing its new public tracker (see attached screenshots). The new tracker will include integrated 3D models and an AR (augmented reality) view. It is currently designed for a smartphone and can be viewed at: https://mts2.nasa.gov/tracker 
  • NASA Ames is in Stage 3 in the NASA Response Framework to pandemics – Staff are continuing work with adjustments in work style, focus and schedules due to the COVID-19 distancing protocols. ESPO-managed NASA airborne missions and other programs and projects at ARC are experiencing major schedule delays due to COVID-19. Ames Earth Science Division staff are focusing on data analysis, publications/proposals/reports writing, and computer-aided design work. Staff are continuing telework and managing workflows and productivity while travel, lab work and mission-critical flight and instrument work are on hold. The division is actively engaged with the directorate/center and with HQ on obtaining “mission-critical” designation from HQ for a number of select facilities and activities and has begun preparing return-to-onsite-work implementation plans. As a first mission, the Submesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) Earth Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) field campaign managed by ESPO has received a “mission-critical” designation and has their return-to-onsite-work plan under review at Ames.
  • In celebration of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Sunday 9 August 2020 the Group on Earth Observations (GE) announced via Twitter that they published the report from last month’s high-level forum. During this forum, Amber McCullum presented on the Indigenous Peoples Capacity Building Initiative and pathways for future international Indigenous collaborations. This side event was a collaborative effort led by 19 contributors from Canada-Europe-USA-Asia (CANEUS), Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), Group on Earth Observations (GEO), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Conservational International, Agvesto, and others, representing Indigenous representatives as well as key actors in the field of EO and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) design. It served as a platform for Indigenous Peoples to discuss opportunities and challenges for increasing Indigenous Peoples engagement with other stakeholders in the co-development, creation and use of culturally relevant EO data and tools. 
    Report Link: http://earthobservations.org/documents/articles_ext/Report_2020_HLPF_Side-Event.pdf

10th August 2020

  • IMPACTS (Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms) Virtual Science Team Meeting. The chief objective of this Earth Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) investigation managed by ESPO is to improve predictive capability for East Coast snowstorms. IMPACTS successfully conducted their first virtual science team meeting using the WebEx Training platform on 27-29 July 2020 – With over 75 participants in virtual attendance, the team shared preliminary data from the first deployment and covered planning for the upcoming 2nd deployment, scheduled for the mid-January to February time frame. The team discussed and will continue to evaluate the ramifications of COVID-19 on the deployment. 
  • Cindy Schmidt (SGE) co-led a virtual workshop on Remote Sensing Tools for Conservation on 30 and 31 July 2020, as part of the Society for Conservation Geographic Information Systems (GIS) virtual conference – The workshop focused on the use of open source tools for basic land cover analysis and change detection. Presenters included Schmidt and Nancy Thomas, the director of the Geospatial Innovation Lab at UC Berkeley. There were 35 attendees working primarily for Conservation Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from the US, Europe and South and Central America. This workshop provided participants with tools for monitoring and managing wildlife habitat. 
  • NASA’s SpaceTech website features the SBIR UAS partnership with SWIFT and the US Forest Service, preparing a high-altitude long-endurance UAS for 30-day science flights. The Ames Office of Airborne Science within the Earth Science Division supports the Airborne Science Program (ASP) with new technology infusion to enable new observations. The High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) UAS capability assessment project (PI: Matt Fladeland) secured a $1M+ partnership with the USFS to demonstrate the capability of the newly developed Swift Ultra Long Endurance UAS, a NASA Small Business Innovative Research Phase II project to build and demonstrate a 30+ day endurance aircraft. The USFS plans to deploy a variety of cameras in the visible, shortwave, and longwave infrared coupled with onboard processing and high-speed telemetry to demonstrate real-time fire observations. A first 2-hour test flight from the Spaceport America in New Mexico was successfully completed on July 7th. For the test flight, the Swift HALE took NASA’s FluidCam, a high-frame-rate video camera coupled with artificial intelligence processing capable of providing unprecedented observations of the coastal ocean seafloor. The flight test with FluidCam has implications for extensive scientific and environmental research of coral reefs. FluidCAM is a product of the Earth Science Division’s Laboratory for Advanced Sensing (PI: Ved Chirayath), with funding from ESTO.
    Full article Link: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/nasa-small-business-partnership-prepares-drone-for-30-day-science-flights
    FluidCam: https://www.nasa.gov/ames/las/fluidcam-suas-imaging-system 
  • CAARE student internship presentations – On Tuesday 4 August 2020, the summer 2020 cohort of student interns with the Center for Applied Atmospheric Research and Education (CAARE) Program participated in a closeout presentation for Ames scientists, family, and friends. CAARE is a partnership with SJSU, NASA, USRA, tribal colleges, and CSUMB to increase multi-disciplinary research, education, and diversity in STEM. This summer we had 15 all-virtual interns working directly with mentors from Ames and CSUMB present their work in a wide variety of application areas including air quality, water resources, land cover, coastal processes, communication, and much more. These closeout presentations highlighted the successful work and dedication of the students and the ongoing support from their mentors. 
  • NASA Ames is in Stage 3 in the NASA Response Framework to pandemics – Staff are continuing work with adjustments in work style, focus and schedules due to the COVID-19 distancing protocols. ESPO-managed NASA airborne missions and other programs and projects at ARC are experiencing major schedule delays due to COVID-19. Ames Earth Science Division staff are focusing on data analysis, publications/proposals/reports writing, and computer-aided design work. Staff are continuing telework and managing workflows and productivity while travel, lab work and mission-critical flight and instrument work are on hold. The division is actively engaged with the directorate/center and with HQ on obtaining “mission-critical” designation from HQ for a number of select facilities and activities and has begun preparing return-to-onsite-work implementation plans. As a first mission, the Submesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) Earth Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) field campaign managed by ESPO has received a “mission-critical” designation and has their return-to-onsite-work plan under review at Ames. 
  • Gina Cova, Fellow – DEVELOP National Program, Highlights: The DEVELOP Ames Pacific Northwest Health and Air Quality team wraps up their 10 weeks summer term on 7 August 2020. Their project, titled Utilizing NASA Earth Observations to Analyze Air Quality Impacts from Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, analyzed both the spatial extent of wildfire smoke as well as smoke plume height and its relation to fire radiative power. The team presented their research during NASA Earth Applied Sciences week on Tuesday, 4 August 2020 at 9:28am PT.
    More information about the event and their presentation is available here: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/our-impact/events/nasa-earth-applied-sciences-week

3rd August 2020

  • Jim Bridenstine: NASA Weekly Update from the Administrator (27 July 2020) – “Recently, I enjoyed learning how NASA’s Indigenous Peoples Capacity Building Initiative, which is a program first conceptualized by Ames research scientist Dr. Cindy Schmidt, is helping Indigenous communities manage their natural and cultural resources through access to our agency’s satellite assets. I am a big believer that our work developing technology to further understand our world and explore our solar system also has significant indirect impacts on improving human life.” 
    Link: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/blending-science-and-tradition-sharing-remote-sensing-technologies-with-indigenous
  • NASA Ames is in Stage 3 in the NASA Response Framework to pandemics – Staff are continuing work with adjustments in work style, focus and schedules due to the COVID-19 distancing protocols. ESPO-managed NASA airborne missions and other programs and projects at ARC are experiencing major schedule delays due to COVID-19. Ames Earth Science Division staff are focusing on data analysis, publications/proposals/reports writing, and computer-aided design work. Staff are continuing telework and managing workflows and productivity while travel, lab work and mission-critical flight and instrument work are on hold. The division is actively engaged with the directorate/center and with HQ on obtaining “mission-critical” designation from HQ for a number of select facilities and activities and has begun preparing return-to-onsite-work implementation plans. As a first mission, the Submesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) Earth Venture Suborbital-3 (EVS-3) field campaign managed by ESPO has received a “mission-critical” designation and has their return-to-onsite-work plan under review at Ames. 
  • Dialogues on Diversity and Inclusion – Ames Earth Science Division staff have participated in D&I dialogues held at the branch level initially, and continuing division-wide. Ames ODEO staff and the NASA Special Emphasis Program Manager LGBT have helped facilitate. 

Designated Observables (DO) studies:

  • The Surface Deformation and Change (SDC) Team will introduce their pre-phase A concept study to Karen St Germain, the new ESD Director, on 7 August 2020. Ian Brosnan will present on the commercial ‘new space’ studies and strategy development for SDC.
  • The Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Team present their architecture recommendations to the Earth Science Division at HQ on 29 July 2020, Karen Saint Germain, Sandra Cauffman, Lawrence Friedl, and others were present and asked questions. Ian Brosnan and Liane Guild represented Ames Research Center, with Florian Schwandner present. ARC contributed directly to the architecture trades through its small satellite augmentation study, one of several mission design activities performed by JPL, GSFC, and LaRC.
  • The NASA Earth Observatory published their Story-of-the-Day for 27 July 2020 on results from the Alaska MODIS vegetation change paper published by Christopher Potter in the journal Remote Sensing – The title of the story named “Alaska’s Vegetation is Changing Dramatically”.
    Link: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147021/alaskas-vegetation-is-changing-dramatically
  • A discussion with Ved Chirayath, titled, “From Planetary Detection to Planetary Protection – Ved’s Journey to Becoming a NASA Scientist and Inventor,” was featured on StoryCorps – This interview was led by Luke Gezovich, a Center for Applied Atmospheric Research and Education (CAARE) communications intern working with Kassie Perlongo.
    Dr. Ved Chirayath is both a director and lead research scientist for NASA’s Laboratory for Advanced Sensing (LAS) at NASA Ames in Mountain View, California. His research is focused on inventing new instruments and technologies to map the ocean and planetary bodies. Dr. Chirayath is also the chair emeritus of the NASA Ames LGBTQ+ advisory group and serves as a Special Emphasis Program Manager for NASA HQ’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. In this interview with Ved, we explore his research background and experience, as well as discuss outreach, inclusion, and engagement with underrepresented groups in STEM at NASA.
    Link: https://www.nasa.gov/content/share-your-science-a-selection-of-articles-and-oral-interviews