January 2024

January 3

A paper presented at AGU by Ian Brosnan, Morgan Gilmour, and colleagues continues to receive media attention – finding that tagged frigate birds trace the planetary boundary layer (PBL). TV interview by CBS San Francisco: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/great-frigatebirds-soar-to-help-bay-area-scientists-collect-climate-data/

At the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Deputy Administrator Col. Pam Melroy specifically called out the enormous success of the December 6, 2023 TOPS Open Science 101 Curriculum roll-out, an effort managed by Diana Ly at Ames for the agency.

January 10

Ames researchers Forrest Melton and Alberto Guzman published a paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution, “Droughts impede water balance recovery from fires in the Western United States”, using OpenET data. The paper led by scientists from the Earth Information System (EIS) at GSFC is a great example of cross-center collaboration to tackle some of the immense challenges faced by both drought and wildfire in an all-NASA approach. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02266-8

January 17

Ames Earth Science welcomes Dr. Reem A. Hannun as our newest Civil Servant. Hannun joins the Atmospheric Science Branch (ARC-SGG) from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a research assistant professor.

The OCEANOES team (Ocean Community Engagement and Awareness using NASA Earth Observations and Science for Hispanic/Latino Students) led by Science Activation Program PI Juan Torres-Perez, wrapped up a successful retreat in Puerto Rico in preparation for the summer 2024 OCEANOS campaign and student experience.

January 24

A new study published in NATURE Water, “Assessing the accuracy of OpenET satellite-based evapotranspiration data to support water resource and land management applications.” rigorously documented the accuracy of the OpenET data, described implications of the accuracy assessment for the OpenET user community, and described future priorities for applied research to further increase the accuracy of the OpenET data. Forrest Melton, Lee Johnson, Will Carrara, Conor Doherty, Alberto Guzman, and AJ Purdy are among the authors. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-023-00181-7 An accompanying journal News & Views commentary was included  https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-023-00183-5.

On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, Jessica McCarty hosted the all-day Wildfire Thermal Detection Kickoff Meeting with Planet, JPL, and Ames at the Ames Conference Center. This FireTech project aims to further refine and mature the technology for a space-based fire-detection instrument that can be used during the active fire stage of the overall wildfire lifecycle.

February 2024

February 7

On Tuesday, January 30, 2024, the Ames Earth Science Division hosted Prof. Hugo Enrique Hernandez Figueroa, Dean of School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Campinas, Brazil. He gave a seminar on “Airborne-Drone Synthetic Aperture Radars Applied to Underground Tomography.”

February 14

ASIA-AQ: Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality completed a week of science flights in the Philippines. Staff from the Earth Science Projects Office (ESPO), who manages the campaign, and researchers of the Meteorological Measurement System (MMS) team at Ames participated, including postdoctoral fellows.

Rei Ueyama has been appointed by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Commission on Professional Affairs to serve a three-year term on the Board on Best Practices.

The TOPS Open Science 101 curriculum, led and developed by the ARC team, was highlighted in the January 31, 2024 Fact Sheet: “Biden-⁠Harris Administration Marks the Anniversary of OSTP’s Year of Open Science.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2024/01/31/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-marks-the-anniversary-of-ostps-year-of-open-science/

February 21

Charles Gatebe, Atmospheric Science Branch Chief at Ames’ Earth Science Division, was highlighted in the Faces of NASA feature, as part of our Black History Month commemoration. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/atmospheric-science-branch-chief-dr-charles-gatebe/ The United Business Journal UBJ covered it as a story as well. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/dr-charles-gatebe-from-humble-beginnings-to-chief-of-nasa-s-atmospheric-science-branch/ar-BB1io6fN

Matt Fladeland presents at the 3rd HAPS4ESA Conference in Leiden, Netherlands. High Altitude Platform Systems are of interest to NASA for the ability to serve as an observing system component for earth and planetary observations.

February 28

The ASIA-AQ project (Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality) has moved on to Osan Air Base in South Korea, where the ESPO team hosted a Media Day on February 16 with a major press conference that included many local scientists and members of the South Korean media.

March 2024

March 6

The Ames Earth Science Division warmly welcomes Zhaoyan Liu as its newest senior civil servant staff member; Liu joined the Atmospheric Science Branch from Langley Research Center (LaRC) on February 26, and will assume the group lead role for the sun photometry/ satellites (SunSat) group, among other duties.

ASIA-AQ: Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality, is a R&A airborne science campaign managed by ESPO. Over the past week, ASIA-AQ management had to make the difficult decision to cancel its planned deployment to Malaysia. Instead, the project will continue its deployment at Osan AB in South Korea until March 13 when the aircraft will transit to Thailand.

March 13

OpenET is on a roll!

On February 26 – 27, Forrest Melton, Lee Johnson, AJ Purdy, Will Carrara and Alberto Guzman co-hosted the first OpenET Applications Conference in Albuquerque, NM.

On March 1, the non-profit OpenET, Inc. signed a three-year, ~$3.3 million agreement with CA DWR to support implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in California and provide technical assistance to the state in quantifying ET, consumptive use of irrigation.

The OpenET accuracy assessment (Volk et al., 2024) is the cover story for the February 2024 issue of Nature Water.

March 20

On Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Earth Science leadership from across NASA kicked off the Earth Science to Action (ES2A) roadshow tour at Ames Research Center. Deputy Director Julie Robinson led the opening presentation on the new strategy, which focuses on bridging the gap between available NASA data and tenable applications, with the ultimate goal of accelerating and advancing the impact of NASA Earth Science across the globe.

March 27

ASIA-AQ: Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (https://espo.nasa.gov/asia-aq/) is an R&A project managed by ESPO. The campaign is now in full swing in Thailand, the last deployment location of the ASIA-AQ campaign.

April 2024

April 3

ASIA-AQ: Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (https://espo.nasa.gov/asia-aq/), an R&A project managed by ESPO, wrapped up flight operations in Thailand; the last deployment location of the ASIA-AQ campaign.

April 10

ASIA-AQ: Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (https://espo.nasa.gov/asia-aq/), an R&A project managed by ESPO: Both aircraft supporting the ASIA-AQ campaign have returned to their home bases.

April 17

The Ames Airborne Sensor Facility instrument MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator) flew on the ER-2 for the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx) mission, a joint research effort between the USGS and NASA.

April 24

On Wednesday, April 17 the Ames Earth Science Division hosted an early Earth Science showcase at the monthly Center Happy Hour, featuring work from across the division.

ARCSIX: Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction Experiment (https://espo.nasa.gov/arcsix), an R&A project managed by ESPO, is gearing up for its first deployment in Greenland.

May 2024

May 1

Kayla Bryant will be working with Diana Gentry from April 22 – July 30. Kayla is a Department of Defense (DOD) Skillbridge fellow (https://skillbridge.osd.mil/ ), a program that allows active-duty military to spend the last part of their service at another federal agency.

Iris Garthwaite (USGS) visited Ames on April 23 – she is a PMF (Presidential Management Fellow) and ecologist, exploring the opportunity to do a half year rotation at NASA Ames, in coordination with JPL, working on the SBG mission as a USGS science partner.

Steve Broccardo, an early career scientist in the Atmospheric Science Branch, leads an Interdisciplinary Science project (ROSES 2019) as PI out of Ames. A new publication from the project assesses the continuous total CO2 degassing budget of the passively degassing Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377027324000672

May 8

The NASA Ames Airborne Science Office has published the FY2023 Annual Report for the Science Mission Directorate Earth Science Division Airborne Science Program. https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/

Alek Shrestha and other team members of the Ames-based Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) are supporting the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx) aircraft campaign out of AFRC, with the Ames MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator) instrument. The Earth Science Projects Office (ESPO) is managing the campaign. Science flights over California from 30 April through 2 May made it all the way to the Bay Area and Ames.

Matt Johnson significantly contributed to a landmark international publication in Environmental Research Letters, on the dramatic 2020-2021 wildfires that ravaged the Southwestern US, documenting a massive carbon dioxide (CO2) release, and providing a process understanding of how some droughts and following wildfires affect the terrestrial carbon budget on a regional scale. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad3cf7/

May 15

Ames specialists traveled to Langley to support the NASA 777 aircraft and campaign management planning in a Science Mission Meeting to share best practices.

The Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) at Ames continues to participate in the GEMx campaigns with the MASTER instrument aboard the ER-2. GEMx data acquisitions support EMIT and SBG mission objectives. On May 2, 2024 the ER-2 flew over Ames Research Center.

May 22

After nearly 40 years of service to science, on May 15 the Ames community bid a final farewell to the DC-8 Flying Laboratory as it made its way to retirement to be a maintenance training platform in Idaho. Ames, in coordination with NASA Armstrong, arranged for two low-pass flyovers of Ames Research Center in honor of the staff, scientists, and engineers who enabled the DC-8 to make such a profound impact on Earth science around the globe.

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article on May 11, 2024, “Federal study shows vast amount of forest lost in California after wildfires, drought” that highlighted the actionable information from a recent paper led by Christopher Potter, which used the award-winning CASA (Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach) model to determine that California’s landscapes are not recovering after large wildfires as they did in the recent past.

May 29

On May 21-23, 2024, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) visited NASA Ames Research Center, with participants representing 14 federal and tribal organizations.

ARCSIX: Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction Experiment – ESPO manages ARCSIX for the ESD R&A program. For the week of May 20, Dan Chirica and Daisy Gonzalez are at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland with ARCSIX PI Sebastian Schmidt and NASA HQ Program Manager Hal Maring.

June 2024

June 5

ARCSIX: Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction Experiment is an R&A project managed by ESPO.  ARCSIX successfully completed their first science flight on May 28.

On May 16, 2024, Forrest Melton participated in the NASA Satellite to Seeds event at the U.S. Capitol Rayburn Building.

On Thursday, May 30, 40 delegates representing Denmark’s industrial, academic, and government sectors visited Ames Research Center to learn about NASA’s Earth Action strategy, Open Science, and Earth observations capabilities.

June 12

Matt Johnson is a co-author on a June 7th Science Advances article examining why the 2021 La Niña climate anomaly exhibited near-neutral impact on the atmospheric CO2 growth rate. Prior La Niña climate anomalies have been associated with substantial reductions in the CO2 growth rate, but extreme drought and warm anomalies in 2021 significantly reduced carbon uptake in Europe and Asia. This study contributes to the broader understanding of how regional processes can shape the trajectory of atmospheric CO2 concentration under climate change.

June 19

FireSense site survey with ESPO: From June 10-12, ESPO’s Erin Czech joined NASA LaRC and US Forest Service colleagues in a site survey of Fishlake National Forest, which included meetings in the town of Richfield, UT.

The OCEANOS Science Activation project led by PI Juan Torres-Perez closed out their second week of field work in Puerto Rico. Undergraduate student participants visited remote locations to apply what they had learned in the courses.

June 26

ARCSIX (Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction Experiment) completed its first deployment phase in Greenland on June 17, 2024.

Students arrived at NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on June 16, marking the beginning of the 2024 Student Airborne Research Program (SARP). SARP is supported by ESPO.

Will Carrara (ARC), Mac Friedrichs (USGS), Jordan Wilson (USGS), and Forrest Melton (ARC) led a training for USGS employees on the OpenET Data Explorer API and public data catalog, on June 18, 2024.

July 2024

July 10

Taejin Park and Jessica McCarty were interviewed by the Bay Area’s ABC 7 News to describe how NASA Ames is helping agencies in California manage fires, July 4, 2024.

The OCEANOS summer interns conducted reef field work with do-it-yourself water quality sondes, NASA satellite imagery profiling four beaches of Culebra Island in eastern Puerto Rico. Next week will be the closeout activity for this summer’s internship program.

July 17

SARP: The Student Airborne Research Program (supported by ESPO) concluded Science flights on the WFF P-3 and a commercial B200 aircraft on July 2.

Christopher Potter was interviewed for a news story that aired on KPIX television at 7:00 PM on July 8, 2024. This story, “NASA using satellites to help identify potentially dangerous areas for wildfires”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0cqROlv6JI

The MASTER instrument aboard the NASA ER-2 has collected 365 flight tracks worth of multispectral TIR data for GEMx since spring of 2023, 245 of which were collected during this most recent spring 2024 campaign.  This represents nearly 497,000 km2 of coverage across the American Southwest.

On Friday, July 12, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon visited Ames, on a tour that included the Earth Science Division. Presentations focused on four Catalyst projects – partnerships between NASA Ames Earth Science and various New Zealand organizations – and were met with great interest from the Prime Minister.

July 24

On July 15, Ames Earth Science participated in a center tour for Tony Smith, former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives.

Ames researchers A.J. Purdy and Lee F. Johnson at CSUMB were awarded a USDA NIFA grant to support “Applications of OpenET and satellite-based evapotranspiration information to advance data-driven water management in the Southwest (SW) and Southern Plains (SP) Regions”.

AJ Purdy is co-author on a new NATURE publication, “Groundwater-dependent ecosystem map exposes global dryland protection needs”. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07702-8

July 31

The Ocean Community Engagement and Awareness using NASA Observations and Science for Hispanic/Latino Students (OCEANOS) 2024 Summer Internship came to a successful conclusion!

August 2024

August 7

A successful STRATO balloon launch on Sunday, August 5! The STRATO Aerostar Thunderhead balloon launched at ~9:40AM from Baker City, OR with a payload that consists of a gimbal mounted LTE transmitter and an EO/IR imaging payload.

The Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction Experiment (ARCSIX), a suborbital R&A project managed by ESPO, is in its second deployment phase in Greenland, ARCSIX-2.

In support of the Catalyst: Strategic New Zealand – NASA Research Partnerships 2023, NASA’s Indigenous Peoples Initiative (IPI) hosted seven partners from Māori communities in New Zealand for the project Tātai Arorangi he kaiarataki – Integrating space-based observations into Maramataka at the Ames Research Center from July 29-30, 2024.

August 14

ARCSIX (Arctic Radiation Cloud Aerosol Surface Interaction Experiment)-2 second deployment operating out of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland is completing three science flights focused on Arctic sea ice, clouds, aerosol, and radiation (thermal and solar) using the NASA P-3 and the Spec Inc Learjet.

The STRATO (Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch) flight team (NASA-USFS-Aerostar) continues to support flight operations for wildland fires in Idaho.

August 21

ARCSIX (Arctic Radiation Cloud Aerosol Surface Interaction Experiment)-2 second deployment operating out of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland is completing three science flights focused on Arctic sea ice, clouds, aerosol, and radiation (thermal and solar) using the NASA P-3 and the Spec Inc Learjet.

PACE-PAX PM Sommer Nicholas is at AFRC with Jaden Ta supporting the NASA ER-2 instrument integration period, which entered its second week on Monday, August 12.

August 28

The drifting Fish Aggregating device (dFAD) TrajEctory modeling tool for marine protected area management (FATE) project, led by PIs Dan Whitt and Morgan Gilmour, wrapped up its 2024 field campaign.

Jaquelyn Shuman, FireSense project scientist, played a key role in a new landmark publication, “Reimagining Earth in the Earth System”. Led by UCAR’s Gordon Bonan, analyzes and highlights biases in Earth System Science from academic and other factors, concluding that “to realize the potential for planetary stewardship, Earth system models must embrace the living world equally with the fluid world”. This is highly relevant for SMD’s Earth Science to Action 10-year strategic plan.

September 2024

September 4

Ames researcher Matthew Johnson, hosted by the NSF/NASA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) PI Bassil El Masri, visited Murray State University in Kentucky from August 20-21, 2024 to deliver an invited seminar entitled “Carbon Cycle Modeling at NASA Ames Research Center”.

September 11

The OpenET team, which is led by Forrest Melton at Ames, published another landmark paper: Estimating irrigation water use from remotely sensed evapotranspiration data: Accuracy and uncertainties at field, water right, and regional scales. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377424003718

ARCSIX (Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Surface-Aerosol-Interaction Experiment) summer deployment based out of Pituffik, Greenland, concluded successfully with a full complement of observational platforms including the NASA P-3, G-III, and the Spec Inc. Learjet, amidst challenging weather conditions.

The FireSense project successfully concluded its first small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) campaign over three days of sampling, with final measurements on August 29, 2024. The NASA Alta X, using Graw Radiosondes GmbH & Co and a LI-COR TriSonica Sphere anemometer, was tested in the smoke-impacted airshed of Missoula, Montana.

September 18

PICARD (Pushbroom Imager for Cloud and Aerosol Research and Development) is a VSWIR imaging spectrometer designed to support atmospheric research, built at Ames. PICARD has now flown on five flight sorties, including four science flights for the Plankton Aerosol Cloud Ecosystem (PACE) Airborne Validation experiment. Several fires have been imaged over California, and PACE is sharing this data with the FireSense team.

Amber McCullum and Nikki Tulley of NASA’s Indigenous Peoples Initiative (IPI) provided multiple training sessions at the Indigenous Mapping Workshop (IMW) on 2-6 September 2024 in Perth Australia. These workshops were created with a vision to build a conference that gave Indigenous peoples direct access to the tools and training they need to map their lands.

September 25

PACE-PAX (The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment) has entered its third week of deployment operations and the team is well on track to meet its goals. Successful underpasses of both the PACE and EarthCARE satellites have been achieved with coordinated data collections from both aircraft, participating research vessels, and other scientific ocean craft.

PICARD (Pushbroom Imager for Cloud and Aerosol Research and Development) is a new Ames-built VSWIR imaging spectrometer designed to support atmospheric research. PICARD is not only imaging clouds and aerosols – it is also a superb land surface imaging instrument. PICARD has now flown on seven flight sorties, including six science flights for PACE-PAX.

October 2024

October 2

Swift Engineering Solar-electric high altitude platform system (HAPS) reaches major milestone with first stratospheric test flight.

GeoNEXTools were released on NASA’s GitHub site on September 20, 2024. These new tools provide researchers with the ability to download and read GeoNEX subset data at specific ground observation sites and within designated time ranges.

PICARD (Pushbroom Imager for Cloud and Aerosol Research and Development) is a new Ames-built VSWIR imaging spectrometer designed to support atmospheric research. It images clouds and aerosols, as well as the land surface. PICARD has now flown on 10 flight sorties.

PACE-PAX (The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment), an R&A project managed by ESPO, has entered its fourth week of deployment operations. As of September 25, the NASA ER-2 team has completed nine science flights (50.7 science data hours) and the CIRPAS Twin Otter team has completed 14 science flights (49.7 science data hours).

October 9

The first at-sea testing of the prototype shipborne SeaSTAR Sunphotometer was performed on 9/26/24 and 9/27/24 on NOAA’s research vessel “Shearwater” during the PACE-PAX field campaign.

PACE-PAX: The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment, an R&A project managed by ESPO, successfully concluded its field campaign during the last week of September.

October 16

The drifting Fish Aggregating Device (dFAD) TrajEctory modeling tool for marine protected area management (FATE) project led by Dan Whitt and Morgan Gilmour at Ames released four more Lagrangian surface drifters around the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific on October 7, 2024.

The Airborne asSessment of Hyperspectral Aerosol optical depth and water-leaving Reflectance Product Performance for PACE (AirSHARP) project, led by Liane Guild with Co-Is Kristina Pistone and Sam LeBlanc, and Ames Associates Jim Eilers and Steve Dunagan, completed integration on the NPS Twin Otter in Marina on October 4 and was certified for flight on October 7.

The USGS’ Volcano Hazards Program’s coordinator (program lead) Gari Mayberry visited the Ames Earth Science Division for a brief tour on Thursday October 10, 2024.

October 23

AirSHARP (Airborne asSessment of Hyperspectral Aerosol optical depth and water-leaving Reflectance Product Performance for PACE) under PI Liane Guild has started its observations on board the NPS (Naval Post-Graduate School) Twin Otter, sampling the water leaving radiance with C-AIR (Coastal Airborne In-situ Radiometers) and the aerosol optical depth with 4STAR (Spectrometers for Sky-Scanning Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research).

Vidal Salazar spoke to over 150 students from various schools in Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico, during a presentation organized by the Grupo Astronomico de Gomez Palacio.

Juan L. Torres-Pérez, Sativa Cruz, and Justin Fain participated as trainers in the joint NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET)/ ORNL-DAAC/ BioSCape (Biodiversity Survey of the Cape) Field Spectroscopy and Data Skills workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, which was a great success!

A delegation from Ames attended the 2nd California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) Science Day at the California Natural Resources Agency’s (CNRA) headquarters in Sacramento CA.

October 30

Liane Guild has been endorsed and appointed to the University – National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) Scientific Committee for Oceanographic Aircraft Research (SCOAR).

PACE-PAX (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment) has finished its September 2024 deployment achieving our threshold objectives, and nearly reached baseline, with 13 flights of the NASA ER-2, 17 flights with the NPS Twin Otter, 15 sailings with the NOAA R/V Shearwater, and 9 sailings of the R/V Shearwater. ESPO, the Airborne Sensor Facility, and our flight planning/forecasting team participated.

The Airborne Sensor Facility’s MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator) is being deployed in support of the October 2024 WH2yMSIE (Westcoast & Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment) airborne campaign.

November 2024

November 6

The Ames Airborne Sensor Facility’s MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator) is being deployed in support of the October 2024 WH2yMSIE (Westcoast & Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment) airborne campaign. MASTER aircraft integration is complete, and science flights have commenced.

November 13

A systematic, scheduled “round robin” annual intercomparison between calibration facilities at GSFC and ARC is ongoing at the Ames Airborne Sensory Facility (ASF) for the next two weeks, ensuring maximum interoperability in NASA Airborne Science campaigns.

Christopher Potter has been invited to deliver the plenary presentation at the NASA SciAct Earth To Sky Partnership Workshop at Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, November 12-15, 2024. https://earthtosky.org/related-news/470-apply-now-for-wild-a-team-idaho-course.html

November 20

Members of the Ames Earth Science Division visited University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA (a NASA Space Grant College Program university) to scope out collaborative opportunities in the Midwest.

In the final 2024 (fall) WhyMSIE (Westcoast & Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment) field deployment for FY24, the Ames Airborne Sensor Facility’s (ASF) MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator) flew on multiple sorties between October 18 and 13 November 13, 2024.

December 2024

December 4

FireSense Project Coordinator Harrison Raine, along with NASA Ames researchers Taejin Park and Aakash Chhabra, attended and observed a Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) at Sedgwick Reserve in Central California on November 15, 2024.

The Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) is actively supporting its final field deployment for FY24: WhyMSIE (Fall, MASTER). MASTER\WH2yMSIE provided for interesting opportunities. MASTER also imaged numerous fires during several overpasses targeting atmospheric phenomena.

December 11

The Ames Earth Science Division hosted a visit by the Deputy Associate Administrator SMD, Ms Sandra Connelly, on Friday December 6, 2024. She visited the Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) and Hangar 248 to learn about airborne sensors and uncrewed platforms for science, and their use for wildfire and other research, and technology development.

December 18

AirSHARP – Per NASA’s PACE Validation Science Team requirements for Open Science, Team AirSHARP (Airborne asSessment of Hyperspectral Aerosol optical depth and water-leaving Reflectance Product Performance for PACE) led by PI Liane Guild is nearing completion of the October 2024 airborne/field campaign data delivery to NASA DAACs by December 20, 2024. This is the first time that such a rapid turnaround of airborne data has been required by the Agency, and the AirSHARP team completed it on schedule.

Ames Earth Scientists actively participated in the AGU Fall meeting in Washington, DC, with many oral and poster presentations, invited presentations, and as panelists and session chairs.