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GPM Ground Validation (GV) Activity
2024.04.05
Members of NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) GV team [David Wolff (612), GPM GV PI], the University of Connecticut, the Oklahoma State University (Gus Azevedo, PI), the Advanced Radar Research Center, and the Oklahoma NASA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) completed two deployments of a Weather Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) collocated with NASA’s GPM Atmospheric Instrumentation Laboratory (GAIL) trailer. There were 46 flights gathering profiles in challenging conditions of +35 mph wind during drizzle, rain, freezing rain, and snow events.
2023 Atmospheres (AT) Awards Announced
2023.11.30
It is a pleasure to announce the recipients of this year's Atmospheres (AT) Peer Awards!
• Daeho Jin (613/UMBC), Best Earth Science Research Results Portal (ESRRP) Entry
• Sergey Korkin (613/UMBC), Best Senior Author Publication
• Alfonso Delgado-Bonal (613/UMBC), Best Senior Author Publication
• Dan Anderson (614/UMBC), Outstanding Performance in Science
• Yuli Liu (612/UMBC), Outstanding Performance in Science
• Michael Watson (612/McCallie Associates), Engineering/Instrumentation Support
• GPM Ground Validation (GV) Team
- Carl Schirtzinger (615/SSAI), Engineering/Instrumentation Support
- Alexey Chibisov (615/McCallie Associates), Engineering/Instrumentation Support
- Mick Boulanger (840/SSAI), Engineering/Instrumentation Support
• Erin Delaria (614/NPP), Field Campaign Support
• Jayne Boehmler (614/SSAI), Field Campaign Support
• Eric Nelkin (612/SSAI), Science Software Development
• Rama Varma Raja Mundakkara-Kovilakom (614/SSAI), Science Software Development
• Zachary Fasnacht (614/SSAI), Science Software Development
• Claudia Alvarez-Warren (610/ADNET), IT Support
• Lara Clemence (610/GST), Web Support
• Mariel Friberg (613/UMD), Mentoring
• Sallie Smith (619/GST), Outreach
• Marcy August (613/X3M), Business Support
• Johnny Brendle (610/ASRC), Business Support
• ARSET Team, Distinguished Contribution Group Award
- Melanie Follette-Cook (612/NASA)
- Brock Blevins (612/SSAI)
- Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC)
- Natasha Johnson-Griffin (612/SSAI)
- Sarah Cutshall (612/SSAI)
- Jonathan O’Brien
- Suzanne Monthie (612/GST
- David Barbato (612/UMBC)
- Sean McCartney (610/SSAI)
- Amita Mehta (612/UMBC)
- Pawan Gupta (618/NASA)
- Carl Malings (610.1/MSU)
- Marines Martins (612/Space Systems)
- Sarah Strode (614/NASA)
• Ozonesonde Team, Distinguished Contribution Group Award
- Rhonie Wolff
- Thomas Northam
- Chris Wright
- Debra Kollonige (614/SSAI)
- Niko Fedkin (614/NPP)
- Anne Thompson (610/Emeritus)
• Bob Meneghini (612/NASA), Special Recognition Award
• Deanna Adamcyzk (157/NASA), Special Recognition Award
Lab Personnel Support ARSET Training
2023.10.27
NASA ARSET just completed an intermediate, online training titled Transforming Earth Observation (EO) Data into Building Infrastructure Data Sets for Disaster Risk Modeling. This three-part training, partly funded by the NASA Applied Sciences Disasters Program, covered the basics of natural hazard risk modeling and exposure development with a focus on fusing data from multiple datasets expressly for the purposes of risk assessment. It also presented examples applying the techniques to applications related to flood risk assessment, climate adaptation, and earthquake modeling. This training was delivered by guest speakers Charles Huyck (ImageCat), Georgiana Esquivias (ImageCat), Michael Eguchi (ImageCat), Paul Amyx (ImageCat), Marina T. Mendoza (ImageCat), Greg Yetman (CIESIN, Columbia University), Juan Martinez (CIESIN, Columbia University) Taylor Hauser (Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL]), Amy Rose (ORNL), Philipe AmbrozioDias (ORNL). Melanie Follette-Cook (612), Natasha Johnson-Griffin (612/GST), Brock Blevins (612/SSAI), Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC), David Barbato (612/UMBC), Sarah Cutshall (612/SSAI), Sue Monthie (612/GST), and Jonathan O’Brien (612/SSAI) supported the training. In attendance were 808 participants from 101 countries and 29 US states. Approximately 400 unique organizations were represented.
GPM Outreach Team Focuses on Hurricane Hilary
2023.08.22
The GPM Outreach Team developed a visualization and web story about heavy rainfall in the Southwest U.S. from Hurricane Hilary, the first tropical storm to strike California since 1939. The animation was developed by Jason West (619/KBR), and the story was written by Stephen Lang (612/SSAI) with edits by Jacob Reed (617/Telophase). Jacob posted the story to the website and helped share the story on @NASAAtmosphere social media.
ESD Personnel Serve as ARSET Water Quality Trainers/Speakers
2023.08.04
July 18 - July 25, NASA ARSET just completed an advanced, online training titled Monitoring Water Quality of Inland Lakes using Remote Sensing. This three-part training focused on demonstrating the use of remote sensing observations from Landsat 8 and 9, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 for assessing water quality parameters, including chlorophyll-a concentration and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) in inland lakes. This training also highlighted the importance of in situ measurements of these parameters, coincident with satellite observations, in developing methodologies for operational water quality monitoring. ARSET trainers Amita Mehta (612/UMBC) and Sean McCartney (610/SSAI) delivered the training along with guest speakers Bridget Seegers (616/MSU) and Blake Schaeffer (US EPA). Melanie Follette-Cook (612), Brock Blevins (612/SSAI), Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC), David Barbato (612/UMBC), Sarah Cutshall (612/SSAI), Natasha Johnson-Griffin (612/GST), Suzanne Monthie (612/GST), and Jonathan O’Brien (612/SSAI) supported the training. In attendance were 1,054 participants from 108 countries and 32 U.S. states. Approximately 500 unique organizations were represented.
Milani Elected Vice President of IRSC
2023.07.20
Lisa Milani (612/UMD) has been elected Vice President of the International Remote Sensing Commission, one of the commissions of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). Elections took place this past July, during the 28th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG).
ER-2 Payloads Support ALOFT
2023.07.01
Lab members are participating in the Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT) field campaign. The Cloud Radar System, the ER-2 X-band Doppler Radar, and the Conical Scan Submillimeter Imaging Radiometer (CoSSIR) are on the NASA ER-2 high-altitude airplane flying over thunderstorms in the southeastern USA, the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, and the northeast Caribbean during July 2023.
Goddard Monitors Smoke from Canada Wildfires
2023.06.07
An unusually intense start to Canada’s wildfire season filled skies with smoke in May 2023. Then, at the beginning of June, scores of new fires raged in the eastern Canadian province of Quebec. NASA’s Aqua satellite, operated at Goddard, has captured imagery of the smoke. The Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) based at Goddard has computed models of where the smoke may travel in coming days.
ARSET Completes Advanced Training in Mexico
2023.06.02
NASA ARSET completed an advanced, in-person training in Nuevo León, Mexico, May 8-11, 2023, titled La Teledetección para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres por Sequías, Incendios Forestales e Indundaciones en México. This four-day workshop was in collaboration with the Mexican Civil Protection Agency of the Municipality of García, Nuevo León, Mexico, and covered methodologies for generating disaster-related products from satellite data relevant to the assessment of droughts, fires, and floods. The content was adapted to states in Mexico that have suffered these catastrophes in recent years. This training enhanced the ability to identify at-risk disaster areas in Mexico to better prepare Civil Protection Agencies across the country in planning, mitigation, and recovery strategies. This training was delivered by Erika Podest (JPL/Caltech), Sean McCartney (610/SSAI), and Amita Mehta (612/UMBC). Melanie Follette-Cook (612), Brock Blevins (612/SSAI), Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC), David Barbato (612/UMBC), Sarah Cutshall (612/SSAI), Natasha Johnson-Griffin (612/GST), Sue Monthie (612/GST), and Jonathan O’Brien (612/SSAI) supported the training. In attendance were 33 participants from 10 states and Mexico City.
Delay of TROPICS Launch Due to Unfavorable Winds
2023.05.24
NASA and Rocket Lab are now targeting no earlier than 11:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 25, (3:30 p.m. NZST Friday, May 26th) for the launch of the agency’s TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) mission, from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.
It’s Launch Day Again for NASA’s TROPICS CubeSats
2023.05.24
Launch day is here for NASA’s TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats) mission! Atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, a pair of small satellites await liftoff from Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand, to join a pair of recently deployed TROPICS satellites that launched just over two weeks ago.
Earth Expeditions: In Dust and Clouds Over Africa, Scientists Find Clues to How Hurricanes Form
2023.05.24
When the dust that wafts off the Sahel and Sahara regions of Africa mixes with tropical clouds, it creates what’s known as a rainy “disturbance” in the eastern Atlantic. These disturbances are hurricanes in their youngest form, and as they travel across the ocean, they can either dissipate or grow into powerful storms.
To study these infant storms, a group of NASA scientists in September 2022 spent a month flying off the northwestern coast of Africa aboard NASA’s DC-8 research plane. Each day, the team took off from Cabo Verde, an island nation off the west coast of Africa, logging roughly 100 hours altogether. The mission, known as the Convective Processes Experiment – Cabo Verde (CPEX-CV) released its data publicly on April 1.
Research on Megafire Smoke Plumes Cited
2023.04.20
Steve Guimond (612/UMBC) had two news stories published last week highlighting new science on megafire smoke plumes analyzed with the NASA GEOS climate model. The findings were published in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems and reveal the impact of model dynamics on identifying the aerosol properties of these smoke plumes and the formation of anti-cyclonic vortices. Read the stories here and here.
Division Members Support Bilingual NASA ARSET Training
2023.04.11
NASA ARSET just completed an advanced, bilingual, online training titled "Crop Mapping using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Optical Remote Sensing." This three-part training built on previous ARSET agricultural trainings. Here we presented more advanced radar remote sensing techniques using polarimetry and a canopy structure dynamic model to monitor crop growth. The training also covered how to apply machine learning methods to classify crop type using a time series of Sentinel-1 & Sentinel-2 imagery. ARSET trainers Sean McCartney (610/SSAI) and Erika Podest (JPL/Caltech) delivered the training along with guest speakers Armando Marino (University of Stirling), Krištof Oštir (University of Ljubljana), Matej Račič (University of Ljubljana), Heather McNairn (AAFC/AAC), Emily Lindsay (AAFC/AAC), and Xianfeng Jiao (AAFC/AAC). Brock Blevins (612/SSAI), Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC), David Barbato (612/UMBC), Sarah Cutshall (612/SSAI), Natasha Johnson-Griffin (612/GST), and Jonathan O’Brien (612/SSAI) supported the training. In attendance were 1,977 participants from 127 countries and 37 US states. Approximately 900 unique organizations were represented. You can access the materials en español here.
Lab Members Participate in ARSET Training
2023.04.05
Brock Blevins (612/SSAI), Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC), David Barbato (612/UMBC), Sarah Cutshall (612/SSAI), Natasha Johnson-Griffin (612/GST), and Jonathan O’Brien (612/SSAI) supported the NASA ARSET training titled "Biodiversity Applications for Airborne Imaging Systems." This four-part training first highlighted the use of hyperspectral Visible to Shortwave Infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectroscopy data for measuring and monitoring terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity (e.g., mapping plant or phytoplankton functional types). Next, the series focused on using thermal and LiDAR data for characterizing the structure and function of ecosystems using airborne campaigns including the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) and NASA's Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS). In attendance were 1,342 participants from 108 countries and 44 US states. Approximately 700 unique organizations were represented.
Terra, Aqua, and Aura Data Continuity Workshop Dates Announced and Questions and Answers Posted
2023.04.03
NASA’s Terra, Aqua, and Aura Data Continuity Workshop will be held virtually on May 23-25, 2023. Sessions will run daily from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time/10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Central Time/8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) has posted a questions and answers document on the Request for Information’s (RFI) Landing Page. When they become available following the close of the RFI, NSPIRES will post on the RFI’s landing page under “Other Documents” 1) a Workshop Agenda, 2) Registration link and 3) Webex Information. Agenda suggestions and additional questions or comments may be emailed to david.b.considine@nasa.gov; please include "NNH23ZDA010L" in the subject line. Request for Information: NASA’s Terra, Aqua, and Aura Data Continuity Workshop Number: NNH23ZDA010L Release Date: March 1, 2023 Response Date: April 4, 2023 Short Direct URL to the RFI: https://go.nasa.gov/TAARFI4VCW
Three GPM Scientists Selected for 2022 Agency Honor Awards
2023.03.17
Three GPM scientists have been selected for 2022 NASA Agency Honor Awards
- David T. Bolvin (612/SSAI) – Exceptional Public Service Medal: For outstanding sustained contributions that position NASA as the leading trusted source of global precipitation data.
- Gerald M. Heymsfield (612) – Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal: For outstanding end-to-end innovation and use of NASA high-altitude aircraft and satellite radars that provide fundamental and unique precipitation data and science results.
- Jackson Tan (612/UMBC) – Early Career Achievement Medal: For outstanding advancement of precipitation science by unveiling the rainfall properties of cloud regimes and providing multi-satellite algorithm innovations.
Congratulations to each of them!
Topical Cyclone Freddy Video Proves Popular
2023.03.17
The GPM video "Tropical Cyclone Freddy NASA Tracks Freddy, Longest-lived Tropical Cyclone on Record" is now in the top-10 most-viewed videos posted to Goddard’s YouTube channel over the past year (see the list of the most popular all-time here: NASA Goddard - YouTube), and the top Earth science video over the same period with 80K views. Credits: Jason West (619-PPS/ADNET), animation; Steve Lang (612/SSAI), story; George Huffman (612), voice-over; Ryan Fitzgibbons (130/KBRwyle), production.
IMPACTS on The Weather Channel
2023.03.13
Ed Nowottnick (612) and Charles Helms (612/UMD) appeared in a segment on The Weather Channel discussing the NASA IMPACTS field campaign. The segment aired on 13 March and is available on the NASA Ames Earth Science Projects Office website here.
NPR Highlights 2023 IMPACTS Campaign
2023.02.27
National Public Radio's All Things Considered recently featured NASA's 2023 IMPACTS campaign.
Earth Expeditions: A Nervous Flier’s Guide to Riding the Snowy Skies
2023.02.06
This blog comes to you from NASA’s P-3 plane for the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign.
GPM Mentorship Program Registration Opens
2023.01.15
The second edition of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) Mentorship program is now open for registration. Limited seats are available.
In 2022 over 50 participants from around the world learned from top subject matter experts on a wide array of precipitation-related topics. IMERG, DPR, ground validation, data discovery, and processing were some of the many topics discussed in the program. 12 capstone projects were also developed by the participants in close collaboration with SMEs who acted as mentors.
In 2023, the program will continue to offer a unique training opportunity to users (novice to intermediate). Staff will also introduce exciting upgrades for an even more interactive and competitive learning experience.
The deadline to register is Jan. 31, 2023.
IMPACTS 2023 Begins
2023.01.06
The IMPACTS field campaign is flying out of Wallops to study how snowstorms form. By flying through and around storms, IMPACTS is collecting data to improve forecasts of snowstorms from space. This is the fourth year of the IMPACTS mission.
2022 610AT Peer Awards Announced
2022.12.07
On December 6, 2022, ESD's Atmospheres organization hosted its annual peer awards ceremony in hybrid format. The 2022 610AT Peer Awards included:
Best Senior Author Publication: Tianle Yuanz (613/UMD) and Jerald Ziemke (614/Morgan State Univ.); Best Science Highlight or Nugget: Sujung Go (613/Morgan State Univ.) and Ghassan Taha (614/Morgan State Univ.); Distinguished Contribution Group Award: Lisa Nalborczyk (612/SSAI), Cathy Newman (613/SSAI), and Tyeisha Philson (614/SSAI), Susannah Pearce (613/GST), Rashida Holland (613/GST), and Nathan Perrin (613/GST) and NO2 Sonde Instrument Team (614 ) – Steve Bailey (555), Andrew Swanson (614/UMBC), Hieu Nguyen (JSC-OD/CACI NSS), Reem Hannun (614/UMBC), Ryan Stauffer (614), and Tom Hanisco (614); Field Campaign Support: Taka Iguchi (612/UMD); Science: Chris Kidd (612/UMD) and Can Li (614/UMD); Engineering and/or Instrument Development or Support: Jason St Clair (614/UMBC) and Michael Gray (614/SSAI); Science Software Development: Vinay Kayetha (614/SSAI) and Robert Joyce (612/SSAI); IT or Web Support: Frank Gomez (61A/ADNET); Administrative or Business Support: Kyu-Myong Kim (613/NASA), Linda Whetzel (614/X3M Systems), and Carol Holcombe (157.1/NASA); Outreach or Mentoring: Andrea Portier (612/SSAI); Special Recognition Award: G. Thomas Arnold (613/SSAI).
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