In their study published in Nature Water, Matt Rodell (610) and Bailing Li (617/UMD) examined 20 years of data from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites to identify extreme wet and dry events. Articles highlighting this study appeared in many publications, including the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and CNN.
Congratulations to Dr. Christa Peters-Lidard, Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate, for being named one of three NASA-affiliated newly-elected members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Dr. Peters-Lidard was honored for contributions to understanding land-atmosphere interactions, soil moisture monitoring and modeling, and leadership in Earth system modeling.
Perry Oddo (617/SSAI) is featured in an Applied Sciences profile for his work on the NASA International Water Strategy and his service to the U.S. Department of State and White House as a NASA representative.
The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program invites you to take part in our upcoming Land Cover Challenge: “Land Cover in a Changing Climate.”
The photos you take using The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app document the current land cover and may also show evidence of land cover or land use change in the area. We especially encourage you to look for places you know have changed (or where you know change is coming), and put any information about the reasons or timing for that change in the field notes section. While existing land cover databases (such as the 50-year record from the Landsat satellite) may be able to indicate where change is happening, they don’t always include the reasons why those changes occurred, so any local, on-the-ground knowledge you share with us can be especially helpful.
The Goddard Landslides team assisted the UN World Food Programme by analyzing satellite imagery and developing maps of potential landslide locations for April/May 2022 flood events in South Africa.
Lab Members Participate in SMAPVEX22
05/13/2022
Abheera Hazra (617/UMD) and Brendan McAndrew (617/SSAI) participated in the SMAPVEX22 field campaign’s first intensive observing period (IOP) in western Massachusetts. During IOP #1, participants collected measurements of soil moisture, vegetation structure, and surface roughness to improve SMAP soil moisture and vegetation optical depth retrievals over forested areas. The field campaign was led by JPL in collaboration with USDA and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory. A second IOP is scheduled for July 2022.
Kirschbaum Named Earth Sciences Division Director
04/25/2022
Congratulations to Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum on her appointment as the Director of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Earth Sciences Division. Dalia currently serves as the Chief of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory (Code 617), where she leads an interdisciplinary Earth system science lab at GSFC, conducting large-scale hydrological science research using data from NASA’s satellites, land surface models, and fieldwork.
Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum has been named as the National Space Club and Foundation's 2022 NOAA-David Johnson Award recipient. The award will be presented at the 65th Annual Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner on March 18, 2022. Congratulations, Dalia!
Various science news outlets such as Physics.org and Meteorological Technology International carried the recent NASA story about Dr. Antonia Gambacorta (613) and Dr. Joseph Santanello (617) developing new technology to study the Earth's planetary boundary layer (PL).
Kumar Receives American Meteorological Society (AMS) Award
02/11/2022
Sujay Kumar was awarded the American Meteorological Society’s Scientific and Technical Activities Commission (STAC) award for leading the organization of the 35th conference in Hydrology in 2021.
Antonia Gambacorta (613) and co-investigators of the Hyperspectral Microwave Photonic Instrument (HyMPI) project Mark Stephen (REP from 550), Fabrizio Gambini (554/UMBC) and Joe Santanello (617) were interviewed for an article in the latest edition of CuttingEdge. Hyperspectral microwave measurements hold promise to significantly improve our understanding of the Planetary Boundary Layer and improve extreme weather forecasting. New optical processing technology brings the ability to gather hundreds or thousands of frequencies within reach.
Alicia Joseph (617) was featured in a Climate People Profile for her multifaceted work on soil moisture, STEM engagement and leadership of the MAINSES program.
SLAP in Spain for LIAISE Field Campaign
07/16/2021
Goddard's Scanning L-band Active Passive (SLAP) airborne soil moisture sensor is participating in the European Land surface Interactions with the Atmosphere over the Iberian Semi-arid Environment (LIAISE) campaign, with applications to Planetary Boundary Layer and related science. Ed Kim (617), Hessam Izadkhah (617/Aerotek), Albert Wu (61A/ATA Aerospace), and NASA Langley's B200 aircraft are currently in Spain for the campaign.
The American West is in the grip of an exceptional drought. Following one of the planet’s hottest years on record — and with rainfall and snowfall in the western U.S. well below average — water managers, policymakers, government agencies, and scientists are facing strapped water supplies and anticipating potentially devastating wildfires.
The Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) program completed its longest (six part) bilingual series, "Satellite Observations and Tools for Fire Risk, Detection, and Analysis." The training covered the use of Earth observations pre-fire (fire types, conditions, and fire danger), during-fire (thermal anomalies and smoke mapping), and post-fire (burned area, landscape changes, and regrowth), and the content spanned air quality, disasters, and land applications. The course instructors were Melanie Follette-Cook (614/MSU), Pawan Gupta, Amita Mehta (612/UMBC), Erika Podest, Sean McCartney (610/SSAI), Juan Torres-Pérez, Zach Bengtsson, Robert Field (611/CU), and Ana Prados (614/UMBC); and guest presenters Elijah Orland (617/USRA) and Blanca Rios. Brock Blevins (614/SSAI), Selwyn Hudson-Odoi (612/UMBC), David Barbato (614/UMBC) and Jonathan O’Brien (614/SSAI) supported the training. There were 2,544 attendees from 110 countries and 47 US states. Approximately 1,200 unique organizations were represented. en Español
Dalia Kirschbaum (617) gave an interview about climate change and natural disasters for the YouTube series Create Together hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
David Mocko (617/SAIC) and Eric Kemp (617/SSAI) wrote a LIS blog post on using simulated near real-time NLDAS-2 soil temperatures as a proxy method for monitoring Brood X cicada emergence in Maryland. Figures (updated daily) show a map as well as time series of soil temperatures centered over/at GSFC. These figures are produced only for local interest, and do not represent any official cicada emergence monitoring or forecast.
The GPM website and @NASA Atmosphere social media recently featured IMERG visualizations depicting precipitation totals from recent flooding rainfalls in Australia.
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) issued a news release on a new study by David Mocko (SSAI/617), Sujay Kumar (617), Christa Peters-Lidard (610), and Shugong Wang (SSAI/617) relating to the important role land surface models play in monitoring and forecasting drought.
Being a snow scientist is an interesting career. Growing up in a small town in Montana, I was immersed in snow. But I saw it as one set thing—a blanket, unmoving, a cold, white mass. Only far later in life did I learn what a changing and integral role snow plays in our day-to-day life. Snow drives the winter economies of most Western states, acts as water reservoirs for those same regions and far beyond and is a fundamental part of life—whether we see it fall on our city streets or not.
Cho and Vuyovich Receive Editors' Choice Award
12/08/2020
Congratulations to Eunsang Cho (617/UMD) and Carrie Vuyovich (617) for receiving the Water Resources Research Editors’ Choice Award, which was highlighted at the AGU Hydrology Section business meeting at the AGU Fall meeting.
Kim Member of Team Awarded NOAA Bronze Medal Award
06/26/2020
A multi-agency group including Edward Kim (617) was recently awarded a NOAA Bronze Medal, the highest honor that can be granted by NOAA's administrator. The group also included Karen St. Germain, our new HQ Earth Science Division Director, Harry Cikanek, the Director of the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Mitch Goldberg, JPSS Program Scientist, and Jeff Piepmeier (555), among others. The team was nominated by the Office of Under Secretary "for conducting a study on the potential effects of 5G interference on the 24GHz remote sensing band, and working closely with the NOAA Acting Administrator and Department of Commerce leadership to communicate the risks to satellite remote sensing and weather prediction if safeguards are not in place."