Astrophysics

Introduction to the “Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Data Analysis” Seminar Presentations for the LISA Early Career Scientists Group

Michael Katz (Astrophysics Branch) was invited to give a seminar for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Early Career Scientists group for an introduction to LISA Data Analysis and Global Fit. Katz spoke to a group of roughly 30 early career scientists eager to learn about the status of LISA work in the data analysis area. He detailed the status of the overall large-scale global fit pipelines, as well as giving status updates, resource information, and future work opportunities for each of the individual source classes (e.g., massive black hole binaries, galactic binaries, etc.).

Earth Science

Participation in the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS) Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) Workshop for Earth System Predictability

Manil Maskey of NASA’s Science Research and Projects Division participated in the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS) workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) technologies for enhancing Earth system observations, data assimilation, predictions, and services. Maskey also served as a breakout session co-chair. This is the first in a series of workshops focusing on collaboration in topics such as AI-enabled observations, edge computing, physics-informed hybrid models, AI/ML for pre-Exascale and Exascale computing, downscaling methodologies, characterizing uncertainty in multi-scale systems, and extreme events predictability. ICAMS is the formal mechanism by which all relevant Federal departments and agencies coordinate the implementation of policies and practices to ensure U.S. global leadership in the meteorological services enterprise.

Presentations at the Supercomputing 2024 Conference

Manil Maskey from NASA’s Science Research and Projects Division, along with Sujit Roy and Amy Lin from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, delivered presentations at the annual Supercomputing 2024 conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. Maskey presented a Hyperwall talk titled “AI and NASA Science,” showcasing numerous achievements of NASA’s Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT). Roy highlighted advancements in the Prithvi Weather and Climate Foundation Model while Lin discussed the Prithvi Geospatial Foundation Model. In addition to their presentations, the team engaged in several key meetings, including discussions with the Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre and the Director of the National AI Research Resource, exploring potential collaborations.

SPoRT Team Partners with NASA Heliophysics to Further Space Weather Research-to-Operations and Operations-to-Research  

The Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) team is partnering with the NASA Heliophysics community as part of two Heliophysics Internal Scientist Funding Model projects. SPoRT is partnering with Hyunju Connor from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Ionospheric, Thermospheric, Mesospheric Physics Lab on her project “Ai-driven Models of Solar Wind – Upper Atmosphere Interactions and their Applications to Space Weather Forecasting.” SPoRT will support Research-to-Operations and Operations-to-Research (R2O/O2R) by running their thermosphere density model in real-time and interacting with operational users making decisions regarding satellite drag and orbital debris. In addition, SPoRT is partnering with Valeriy Tenishev of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s Heliophysics and Planetary Science Branch on his project “Characterization of the solar energetic particle dynamics in geospacer.” SPoRT will foster R2O/O2R of the Average Magnetic Field and Polar current System (AMPS) model and provide access to the low latency Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) data stream which will be integrated in AMPS to nowcast the radiation environment in geospace. 

SPoRT Team Members Present Ongoing Efforts at the National Weather Association Annual Meeting  

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s Dr. Andrew White and Dr. Sebastian Harkema, and National Weather Services’s Kristopher White of NASA’s Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center attended the 2024 National Weather Association (NWA) annual meeting September 2024 in Irving, Tex. They presented on ongoing NASA SPoRT research-to-operations (R2O) and operations-to-research (O2R) efforts. Dr. White’s presentation was on Streamflow-AI. Dr. Harkema discussed sea surface temperature (SST) product updates. White gave two presentations, one on lightning-initiated wildfires and the other on his position as the Application Integration Meteorologist (AIM).  

In addition to attending the NWA annual meeting, they also visited the NWS West Gulf River Forecast Center (WGRFC) in Fort Worth. During this meeting, they engaged with WGRFC staff, learning about their operations and how they use NASA SPoRT’s Streamflow-AI in their workflow. This visit prompted additional collaboration efforts between SPoRT and NWS River Forecast Centers. 

SPoRT Team Members Visit Shaw Air Force Base and Fort Liberty for Collaborative Development of Training Material 

Kevin Fuell and Steve Stolze of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s Earth Science Branch attended meetings at Shaw Air Force Base and Fort Liberty in support of the Global Hydro Intelligence (GHI) project. These meetings allowed Fuell and Stolze to provide initial capability demonstrations of the NASA Land Information System (LIS) and to collaborate on training materials to support the transition of GHI output to operations. The Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) team is developing the foundational and application training to allow Air Force weather staff to support both air and ground operations on a global scale and to respond to military requests for sub-seasonal to seasonal projections of hydrometeorological conditions for long-range planning. Reviews and feedback from Air Force staff were collected as part of meeting discussions. Demonstrations of the series of web-based microlessons (approximately 15 minutes in length each) are to be delivered to the Air Force for individual professional development in hydrology and hydrometeorology. 

SPoRT Air Quality Products Presented at the SERVIR Annual Global Exchange in Marrakesh, Morocco 

More than 120 representatives from across the SERVIR network participated in the SERVIR Annual Global Exchange (SAGE) 2024 from Oct. 20-25, 2024. The SAGE event provided an opportunity for participants from SERVIR’s global network to share regional activities, progress, insights, and lessons learned related to co-development and strategic engagement. Attendees from NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), SERVIR Applied Sciences Teams (ASTs), and SERVIR’s hubs in  West Africa, Hindu Kush Himalaya, Southeast Asia, Central America, and Amazonia participated in sessions related to partnerships, sustainability, continuous improvement, and reaching the “last mile” to impact at the community level. 

Dr. Aaron Naeger, Principal Investigator of the Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) and lead of SERVIR’s Applied Sciences Team (AST) project, presented on a suite of air quality products and tools being developed for the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region of South Asia. A major focus of the presentation was on the application of geostationary satellite instruments including the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) and Advanced Meteorological Instrument (AMI) for deriving value-added air quality products in the HKH region. Naeger also helped lead the air quality and health thematic area meetup which consisted of discussions on collaboration opportunities between AST projects across the SERVIR hub regions of HKH, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. 

NASA’s SERVIR Science Coordination Office Hosts Delegation from Belize for Earth Observation Exchange and Hackathons

From Aug. 5-9 the SERVIR Science Coordination Office (SCO) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center hosted a delegation of environmental scientists from Belize for an exchange focused on the use of cloud computing in Earth observation. The delegation consisted of five representatives hailing from the Forest Department of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Climate Change, the Land Information Centre (LIC) of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Environmental Research Institute of the University of Belize (UB-ERI).

Executed via ‘hackathon’ type sessions, the exchange focused on the use of the Google Earth Engine platform for mapping Belize’s land cover using open data from sources such as Landsat, MODIS, Planet / NICFI, and Sentinel-2. Those hackathons resulted in the development of a draft land cover map of Belize for 2023, coinciding with the final year of surveys collected by Belizean institutions during a mapathon activity last year in which almost 22,000 one-hectare sites were mapped using Collect Earth Online, a platform co-developed by SERVIR. In terms of next steps, Belize’s National Climate Change Office will be supporting follow-up workshops in Belize, focused on editing and validating the 2023 draft land cover map, which is planned to be integrated into the update to Belize’s Forest Reference Level report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office Team Members Support Training, Field Testing for SERVIR West Africa Project

The SERVIR Science Coordination Office (SCO) team and colleagues from the World Resources Institute (WRI) supported the kickoff training and initial field testing for Centre for Remote Sensing and Geospatial Information Services’ (CERSGIS’) cocoa data collection project in West Africa, which is funded by the Lacuna Fund and WRI. The trainees included CERSGIS staff and students from various universities in Ghana involved in YouthMappers, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded program that uses public geospatial technology to address development and environmental challenges. The project aims to improve understanding of the relationship between people and forests and the potential impacts of future sustainable sourcing policies on local livelihoods. To do so, the project team will extensively map cocoa farms to improve the publicly available reference data for classification algorithms. Additionally, the team will conduct comprehensive socioeconomic data collection in rural cocoa farming communities to integrate into Earth observation work and inform decision making that is responsive to the local context.

NASA’s Disaster Response Coordination System Formally Launches

The NASA Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS) officially launched on June 13, 2024, during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters with Administrator Bill Nelson as the keynote speaker. The DRCS is a revamped, one-NASA approach in how the agency responds to natural hazards and disasters domestically and internationally to support partners and stakeholders. The DRCS will be organized by the Program Office located at NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC.) NASA Marshall  and Earth Science Branch Disasters team will use subject matter experts to continue supporting the DRCS and events that are responded to by NASA.

Center Response Coordinators Jordan Bell, Ronan Lucey, and Earth Action Associate Disasters Program Manager Lori Schultz represented Marshall at the DRCS launch. Read more about the DRCS launch.

Data Science

NASA Marshall Scientists Highlight Artificial Intelligence Initiatives on Capitol Hill

Dr. Manil Maskey represented NASA’s Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) during a discussion about the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot program held on Capitol Hill. The event brought together key members of the House Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus, including U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo, Bill Foster, Haley Stevens, Jim Baird, and Sean Casten. In attendance were several congressional staffers and the director of the National Science Foundation. During the discussion, Maskey highlighted the AI initiatives of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and emphasized the potential benefits of the NAIRR to NASA’s activities. He also showcased the advancements in SMD’s AI foundation model developments. The event served as a platform for sharing insights and fostering collaboration between NASA, other agencies, and key legislative stakeholders on the future of AI research and its applications.

Heliophysics and Planetary

Presentation on Large Solar Eruptions Given at Superstorms Workshop 

Dr. Alphonse Sterling of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s Heliophysics and Planetary Science Branch presented at the May 2024 Solar & Geospace Superstorm Workshop at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. The presentation was entitled “Examining the Early Onset of Selected Large Solar Eruptions During the 2024 May Superstorm Episode.” The workshop focused on the physical processes on the Sun and in the heliosphere that resulted in the low latitude auroral displays visible in various locations around the U.S. including Huntsville, Alabama – where they are not often seen. The workshop was attended by researchers in various disciplines that were impacted by the events, including solar, heliosphere, space weather, magnetosphere, thermosphere, and ionospheric physics. 

Marshall Scientist is Keynote Speaker at Lunar Plasma International Network Workshop in Sweden

Dr. Heidi Haviland of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center’s Heliophysics and Planetary Science Branch was invited to provide the keynote presentation at the Lunar Plasma International Network Workshop (LuPIN-2) on induced lunar magnetism and its interaction with plasma. In her speech, Haviland discussed the Lunar Vehicle Active Charge Control System (LVACCS) instrument development effort led by Dr. Omar Leon of the University of Michigan and Dr. Linda Krause of Marshall’s Heliophysics and Planetary Science Branch. The meeting was held Sept. 23-27, 2024 at the Hotel Storforsen in Vidsel, Sweden. The conference was particularly interested in the interdisciplinary aspect of lunar plasma science and building an international network to advocate for future lunar plasma science. Made up of 30 participants, the group reviewed limitations of existing observations and analyses, noted open questions in the field, and documented additional measurements for future missions to contribute. Learn more on the conference’s website.