Intelligent Systems Technologies to Assist in Utilization of Earth Observation Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram K.; McConaughy, Gail; Lynnes, Christopher; McDonald, Kenneth; Kempler, Steven

2003-01-01

With the launch of several Earth observing satellites over the last decade, we are now in a data rich environment. From NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites alone, we are accumulating more than 3 TB per day of raw data and derived geophysical parameters. The data products are being distributed to a large user community comprising scientific researchers, educators and operational government agencies. Notable progress has been made in the last decade in facilitating access to data. However, to realize the full potential of the growing archives of valuable scientific data, further progress is necessary in the transformation of data into information, and information into knowledge that can be used in particular applications. Sponsored by NASA s Intelligent Systems Project within the Computing, Information and Communication Technology (CICT) Program, a conceptual architecture study has been conducted to examine ideas to improve data utilization through the addition of intelligence into the archives in the context of an overall knowledge building system. Potential Intelligent Archive concepts include: 1) Mining archived data holdings using Intelligent Data Understanding algorithms to improve metadata to facilitate data access and usability; 2) Building intelligence about transformations on data, information, knowledge, and accompanying services involved in a scientific enterprise; 3) Recognizing the value of results, indexing and formatting them for easy access, and delivering them to concerned individuals; 4) Interacting as a cooperative node in a web of distributed systems to perform knowledge building (i.e., the transformations from data to information to knowledge) instead of just data pipelining; and 5) Being aware of other nodes in the knowledge building system, participating in open systems interfaces and protocols for virtualization, and collaborative interoperability. This paper presents some of these concepts and identifies issues to be addressed by research in future intelligent systems technology.

The computational future for climate and Earth system models: on the path to petaflop and beyond.

PubMed

Washington, Warren M; Buja, Lawrence; Craig, Anthony

2009-03-13

The development of the climate and Earth system models has had a long history, starting with the building of individual atmospheric, ocean, sea ice, land vegetation, biogeochemical, glacial and ecological model components. The early researchers were much aware of the long-term goal of building the Earth system models that would go beyond what is usually included in the climate models by adding interactive biogeochemical interactions. In the early days, the progress was limited by computer capability, as well as by our knowledge of the physical and chemical processes. Over the last few decades, there has been much improved knowledge, better observations for validation and more powerful supercomputer systems that are increasingly meeting the new challenges of comprehensive models. Some of the climate model history will be presented, along with some of the successes and difficulties encountered with present-day supercomputer systems.

Ontology of Earth's nonlinear dynamic complex systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babaie, Hassan; Davarpanah, Armita

2017-04-01

As a complex system, Earth and its major integrated and dynamically interacting subsystems (e.g., hydrosphere, atmosphere) display nonlinear behavior in response to internal and external influences. The Earth Nonlinear Dynamic Complex Systems (ENDCS) ontology formally represents the semantics of the knowledge about the nonlinear system element (agent) behavior, function, and structure, inter-agent and agent-environment feedback loops, and the emergent collective properties of the whole complex system as the result of interaction of the agents with other agents and their environment. It also models nonlinear concepts such as aperiodic, random chaotic behavior, sensitivity to initial conditions, bifurcation of dynamic processes, levels of organization, self-organization, aggregated and isolated functionality, and emergence of collective complex behavior at the system level. By incorporating several existing ontologies, the ENDCS ontology represents the dynamic system variables and the rules of transformation of their state, emergent state, and other features of complex systems such as the trajectories in state (phase) space (attractor and strange attractor), basins of attractions, basin divide (separatrix), fractal dimension, and system's interface to its environment. The ontology also defines different object properties that change the system behavior, function, and structure and trigger instability. ENDCS will help to integrate the data and knowledge related to the five complex subsystems of Earth by annotating common data types, unifying the semantics of shared terminology, and facilitating interoperability among different fields of Earth science.

Effect of Knowledge Integration Activities on Students' Perception of the Earth's Crust as a Cyclic System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kali, Yael; Orion, Nir; Eylon, Bat-Sheva

2003-01-01

Characterizes students' understanding of the rock cycle system. Examines effects of a knowledge integration activity on their system thinking. Interprets answers to an open-ended test using a systems thinking continuum ranging from a completely static view of the system to an understanding of the system's cyclic nature. Reports meaningful…

Earth and Space Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meeson, Blanche W.

1999-01-01

Workshop for middle and high school teachers to enhance their knowledge of the Earth as a system. NASA data and materials developed by teachers (all available via the Internet) will be used to engage participants in hands-on, investigative approaches to the Earth system. All materials are ready to be applied in pre-college classrooms. Remotely-sensed data will be used in combination with familiar resources, such as maps, to examine global climate change.

Native Geoscience: Pathways to Knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolman, J. R.; Seielstad, G.

2006-12-01

We are living in a definite time of change. Distinct changes are being experienced in our most sacred and natural environments. This is especially true on Native lands. Native people have lived for millennia in distinct and unique ways. The knowledge of balancing the needs of people with the needs of our natural environments is paramount in all tribal societies. This inherent accumulated knowledge has become the foundation on which to build a "blended" contemporary understanding of western science. The Dakota's and Northern California have embraced the critical need of understanding successful tribal strategies to engage educational systems (K-12 and higher education), to bring to prominence the professional development opportunities forged through working with tribal peoples and ensure the continued growth of Native earth and environmental scientists The presentation will highlight: 1) past and present philosophies on building and maintaining Native/Tribal students in earth and environmental sciences; 2) successful educational programs/activities in PreK-Ph.D. systems; 3) current Native leadership development in earth and environmental sciences; and 4) forward thinking for creating proaction collaborations addressing sustainable environmental, educational and social infrastructures for all people. Humboldt State University (HSU) and the University of North Dakota's Northern Great Plains Center for People and the Environment and the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC) have been recognized nationally for their partnerships with Native communities. Unique collaborations are emerging "bridging" Native people across geographic areas in developing educational/research experiences which integrate the distinctive earth/environmental knowledge of tribal people. The presentation will highlight currently funded projects and initiatives as well as success stories of emerging Native earth system students and scientists.

Towards an Earth System Knowledge Environment Designed to Promote More Usable Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Killeen, T. L.

2006-12-01

It is abundantly clear that fundamental decisions about how to manage future human society will need to be informed by quantitative scientific analyses of processes, options, impacts, and responses. In fact, one could argue that the human experience into the foreseeable future will increasingly be tied to the integrating of information, understanding, and experiences to create knowledge and with it solutions to emerging problems as well as opportunities for further progress. This is particularly true for the Geosciences. Our scientific field, and by extension our Union, has a special responsibility for informing policy makers and the public about how the earth system functions and about the relationship between environmental stressors and human activities. In this regard, a greatly improved working interface between natural and social scientists is needed. In this talk, I argue that something like an "Earth System Knowledge Environment" or "Earth System Collaboratory" should be developed using modern information technologies to encapsulate and make accessible existing and emerging interdisciplinary knowledge of particular use to decision makers. Such a "work place" should be open to all and could provide access to observations, models and theories in ways that more easily allow for credible scientific understanding to be translated into policy options at all levels. Examples of fledgling efforts along these lines will be cited in areas such as severe weather impacts and climate change. The challenges involved in creating more usable scientific knowledge are, of course, quite significant and include major issues such as: institutional impediments to interdisciplinary research, the role of proprietary interests, the difficulties involved in working across the natural/social science boundary, and the challenge of developing the kind of human capital needed to effectively close the gap between good science and public policy.

Era-Planet the European Network for Observing Our Changing Planet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirrone, N.; Cinnirella, S.; Nativi, S.; Sprovieri, F.; Hedgecock, I. M.

2016-06-01

In the last decade a significant number of projects and programmes in different domains of Earth Observation and environmental monitoring have generated a substantial amount of data and knowledge on different aspects related to environmental quality and sustainability. Big data generated by in-situ or satellite platforms are being collected and archived with a plethora of systems and instruments making difficult the sharing of data and transfer of knowledge to stakeholders and policy makers to support key economic and societal sectors. The overarching goal of ERAPLANET is to strengthen the European Research Area in the domain of Earth Observation in coherence with the European participation in the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) and Copernicus. The expected impact is to strengthen European leadership within the forthcoming GEO 2015-2025 Work Plan. ERA-PLANET is designed to reinforce the interface with user communities, whose needs the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) intends to address. It will provide more accurate, comprehensive and authoritative information to policy and decision-makers in key societal benefit areas, such as Smart Cities and Resilient Societies; Resource efficiency and Environmental management; Global changes and Environmental treaties; Polar areas and Natural resources. ERA-PLANET will provide advanced decision-support tools and technologies aimed to better monitor our global environment and share the information and knowledge available in the different domains of Earth Observation.

Professional Development: Building Effective Virtual Communities through Cooperative Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyers, Robert; Davis, Hilarie; Botti, James

A web site for an online graduate course in Earth systems science for middle school teachers was designed to affect teachers' knowledge about Earth systems science and resources and their use of constructivist teaching practices, particularly collaboration, rubrics and the use of journals. In the 16-week course 44 teachers experienced…

A Web-Based Earth-Systems Knowledge Portal and Collaboration Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Agnese, F. A.; Turner, A. K.

2010-12-01

In support of complex water-resource sustainability projects in the Great Basin region of the United States, Earth Knowledge, Inc. has developed several web-based data management and analysis platforms that have been used by its scientists, clients, and public to facilitate information exchanges, collaborations, and decision making. These platforms support accurate water-resource decision-making by combining second-generation internet (Web 2.0) technologies with traditional 2D GIS and web-based 2D and 3D mapping systems such as Google Maps, and Google Earth. Most data management and analysis systems use traditional software systems to address the data needs and usage behavior of the scientific community. In contrast, these platforms employ more accessible open-source and “off-the-shelf” consumer-oriented, hosted web-services. They exploit familiar software tools using industry standard protocols, formats, and APIs to discover, process, fuse, and visualize earth, engineering, and social science datasets. Thus, they respond to the information needs and web-interface expectations of both subject-matter experts and the public. Because the platforms continue to gather and store all the contributions of their broad-spectrum of users, each new assessment leverages the data, information, and expertise derived from previous investigations. In the last year, Earth Knowledge completed a conceptual system design and feasibility study for a platform, which has a Knowledge Portal providing access to users wishing to retrieve information or knowledge developed by the science enterprise and a Collaboration Environment Module, a framework that links the user-access functions to a Technical Core supporting technical and scientific analyses including Data Management, Analysis and Modeling, and Decision Management, and to essential system administrative functions within an Administrative Module. The over-riding technical challenge is the design and development of a single technical platform that is accessed through a flexible series of knowledge portal and collaboration environment styles reflecting the information needs and user expectations of a diverse community of users. Recent investigations have defined the information needs and expectations of the major end-users and also have reviewed and assessed a wide variety of modern web-based technologies. Combining these efforts produced design specifications and recommendations for the selection and integration of web- and client-based tools. When fully developed, the resulting platform will: -Support new, advanced information systems and decision environments that take full advantage of multiple data sources and platforms; -Provide a distribution network tailored to the timely delivery of products to a broad range of users that are needed to support applications in disaster management, resource management, energy, and urban sustainability; -Establish new integrated multiple-user requirements and knowledge databases that support researchers and promote infusion of successful technologies into existing processes; and -Develop new decision support strategies and presentation methodologies for applied earth science applications to reduce risk, cost, and time.

Proterozoic Milankovitch cycles and the history of the solar system.

PubMed

Meyers, Stephen R; Malinverno, Alberto

2018-06-19

The geologic record of Milankovitch climate cycles provides a rich conceptual and temporal framework for evaluating Earth system evolution, bestowing a sharp lens through which to view our planet's history. However, the utility of these cycles for constraining the early Earth system is hindered by seemingly insurmountable uncertainties in our knowledge of solar system behavior (including Earth-Moon history), and poor temporal control for validation of cycle periods (e.g., from radioisotopic dates). Here we address these problems using a Bayesian inversion approach to quantitatively link astronomical theory with geologic observation, allowing a reconstruction of Proterozoic astronomical cycles, fundamental frequencies of the solar system, the precession constant, and the underlying geologic timescale, directly from stratigraphic data. Application of the approach to 1.4-billion-year-old rhythmites indicates a precession constant of 85.79 ± 2.72 arcsec/year (2σ), an Earth-Moon distance of 340,900 ± 2,600 km (2σ), and length of day of 18.68 ± 0.25 hours (2σ), with dominant climatic precession cycles of ∼14 ky and eccentricity cycles of ∼131 ky. The results confirm reduced tidal dissipation in the Proterozoic. A complementary analysis of Eocene rhythmites (∼55 Ma) illustrates how the approach offers a means to map out ancient solar system behavior and Earth-Moon history using the geologic archive. The method also provides robust quantitative uncertainties on the eccentricity and climatic precession periods, and derived astronomical timescales. As a consequence, the temporal resolution of ancient Earth system processes is enhanced, and our knowledge of early solar system dynamics is greatly improved.

Land management: data availability and process understanding for global change studies.

PubMed

Erb, Karl-Heinz; Luyssaert, Sebastiaan; Meyfroidt, Patrick; Pongratz, Julia; Don, Axel; Kloster, Silvia; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Fetzel, Tamara; Fuchs, Richard; Herold, Martin; Haberl, Helmut; Jones, Chris D; Marín-Spiotta, Erika; McCallum, Ian; Robertson, Eddy; Seufert, Verena; Fritz, Steffen; Valade, Aude; Wiltshire, Andrew; Dolman, Albertus J

2017-02-01

In the light of daunting global sustainability challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security, improving our understanding of the complex dynamics of the Earth system is crucial. However, large knowledge gaps related to the effects of land management persist, in particular those human-induced changes in terrestrial ecosystems that do not result in land-cover conversions. Here, we review the current state of knowledge of ten common land management activities for their biogeochemical and biophysical impacts, the level of process understanding and data availability. Our review shows that ca. one-tenth of the ice-free land surface is under intense human management, half under medium and one-fifth under extensive management. Based on our review, we cluster these ten management activities into three groups: (i) management activities for which data sets are available, and for which a good knowledge base exists (cropland harvest and irrigation); (ii) management activities for which sufficient knowledge on biogeochemical and biophysical effects exists but robust global data sets are lacking (forest harvest, tree species selection, grazing and mowing harvest, N fertilization); and (iii) land management practices with severe data gaps concomitant with an unsatisfactory level of process understanding (crop species selection, artificial wetland drainage, tillage and fire management and crop residue management, an element of crop harvest). Although we identify multiple impediments to progress, we conclude that the current status of process understanding and data availability is sufficient to advance with incorporating management in, for example, Earth system or dynamic vegetation models in order to provide a systematic assessment of their role in the Earth system. This review contributes to a strategic prioritization of research efforts across multiple disciplines, including land system research, ecological research and Earth system modelling. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Kwf-Grid workflow management system for Earth science applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, V.; Hluchy, L.

2009-04-01

In this paper, we present workflow management tool for Earth science applications in EGEE. The workflow management tool was originally developed within K-wf Grid project for GT4 middleware and has many advanced features like semi-automatic workflow composition, user-friendly GUI for managing workflows, knowledge management. In EGEE, we are porting the workflow management tool to gLite middleware for Earth science applications K-wf Grid workflow management system was developed within "Knowledge-based Workflow System for Grid Applications" under the 6th Framework Programme. The workflow mangement system intended to - semi-automatically compose a workflow of Grid services, - execute the composed workflow application in a Grid computing environment, - monitor the performance of the Grid infrastructure and the Grid applications, - analyze the resulting monitoring information, - capture the knowledge that is contained in the information by means of intelligent agents, - and finally to reuse the joined knowledge gathered from all participating users in a collaborative way in order to efficiently construct workflows for new Grid applications. Kwf Grid workflow engines can support different types of jobs (e.g. GRAM job, web services) in a workflow. New class of gLite job has been added to the system, allows system to manage and execute gLite jobs in EGEE infrastructure. The GUI has been adapted to the requirements of EGEE users, new credential management servlet is added to portal. Porting K-wf Grid workflow management system to gLite would allow EGEE users to use the system and benefit from its avanced features. The system is primarly tested and evaluated with applications from ES clusters.

Semantics-enabled knowledge management for global Earth observation system of systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, Roger L.; Durbha, Surya S.; Younan, Nicolas H.

2007-10-01

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is a distributed system of systems built on current international cooperation efforts among existing Earth observing and processing systems. The goal is to formulate an end-to-end process that enables the collection and distribution of accurate, reliable Earth Observation data, information, products, and services to both suppliers and consumers worldwide. One of the critical components in the development of such systems is the ability to obtain seamless access of data across geopolitical boundaries. In order to gain support and willingness to participate by countries around the world in such an endeavor, it is necessary to devise mechanisms whereby the data and the intellectual capital is protected through procedures that implement the policies specific to a country. Earth Observations (EO) are obtained from a multitude of sources and requires coordination among different agencies and user groups to come to a shared understanding on a set of concepts involved in a domain. It is envisaged that the data and information in a GEOSS context will be unprecedented and the current data archiving and delivery methods need to be transformed into one that allows realization of seamless interoperability. Thus, EO data integration is dependent on the resolution of conflicts arising from a variety of areas. Modularization is inevitable in distributed environments to facilitate flexible and efficient reuse of existing ontologies. Therefore, we propose a framework for modular ontologies based knowledge management approach for GEOSS and present methods to enable efficient reasoning in such systems.

Apollo experience report: Earth landing system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

West, R. B.

1973-01-01

A brief discussion of the development of the Apollo earth landing system and a functional description of the system are presented in this report. The more significant problems that were encountered during the program, the solutions, and, in general, the knowledge that was gained are discussed in detail. Two appendixes presenting a detailed description of the various system components and a summary of the development and the qualification test programs are included.

A review of exoplanetary biosignatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grenfell, John Lee

2017-11-01

We review the field of exoplanetary biosignatures with a main focus upon atmospheric gas-phase species. Due to the paucity of data in Earth-like planetary atmospheres a common approach is to extrapolate knowledge from the Solar System and Early Earth to Earth-like exoplanets. We therefore review the main processes (e.g. atmospheric photochemistry and transport) affecting the most commonly-considered species (e.g. O2, O3, N2O, CH4 etc.) in the context of the modern Earth, Early Earth, the Solar System and Earth-like exoplanets. We consider thereby known abiotic sources for these species in the Solar System and beyond. We also discuss detectability issues related to atmospheric biosignature spectra such as band strength and uniqueness. Finally, we summarize current space agency roadmaps related to biosignature science in an exoplanet context.

Promoting the Earth Charter in Sao Paulo's Municipal Education System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inojosa, Rose Marie

2010-01-01

This article presents the process of widespread teacher training based on the Earth Charter in the municipal area of Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America. This effort diffused knowledge of the Earth Charter through 800 educators and by means of them, to one million children. This process was developed by the team from UMAPAZ--Open University of the…

[Activities of Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, Maryland University

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is recognized as a world leader in the application of remote sensing and modeling aimed at improving knowledge of the Earth system. The Goddard Earth Sciences Directorate plays a central role in NASA's Earth Observing System and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology (GEST) is organized as a cooperative agreement with the GSFC to promote excellence in the Earth sciences, and is a consortium of universities and corporations (University of Maryland Baltimore County, Howard University, Hampton University, Caelum Research Corporation and Northrop Grumman Corporation). The aim of this new program is to attract and introduce promising students in their first or second year of graduate studies to Oceanography and Earth system science career options through hands-on instrumentation research experiences on coastal processes at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Intelligent Systems Technologies and Utilization of Earth Observation Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.; McConaughy, G. R.; Morse, H. S.

2004-01-01

The addition of raw data and derived geophysical parameters from several Earth observing satellites over the last decade to the data held by NASA data centers has created a data rich environment for the Earth science research and applications communities. The data products are being distributed to a large and diverse community of users. Due to advances in computational hardware, networks and communications, information management and software technologies, significant progress has been made in the last decade in archiving and providing data to users. However, to realize the full potential of the growing data archives, further progress is necessary in the transformation of data into information, and information into knowledge that can be used in particular applications. Sponsored by NASA s Intelligent Systems Project within the Computing, Information and Communication Technology (CICT) Program, a conceptual architecture study has been conducted to examine ideas to improve data utilization through the addition of intelligence into the archives in the context of an overall knowledge building system (KBS). Potential Intelligent Archive concepts include: 1) Mining archived data holdings to improve metadata to facilitate data access and usability; 2) Building intelligence about transformations on data, information, knowledge, and accompanying services; 3) Recognizing the value of results, indexing and formatting them for easy access; 4) Interacting as a cooperative node in a web of distributed systems to perform knowledge building; and 5) Being aware of other nodes in the KBS, participating in open systems interfaces and protocols for virtualization, and achieving collaborative interoperability.

Common Infrastructure for Neo Scientific and Planetary Defense Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Robert; Wilks, Rodney

2009-01-01

While defending the Earth against collisions with asteroids and comets has garnered increasing attention over the past few decades, our knowledge of the threats and methods of mitigation remain inadequate. There exists a considerable gap in knowledge regarding the size, composition, location, internal structure and formation of near earth asteroids and comets. Although estimates have been made, critical experiments have not yet been conducted on the effectiveness of various proposed mitigation techniques. Closing this knowledge gap is of interest to both the planetary defense and planetary science communities. Increased scientific knowledge of asteroid and comet composition and structure can confirm or advance current theories about the formation of the solar system. This proposal suggests a joint effort between these two communities to provide an economical architecture that supports multiple launches of characterization and mitigation payloads with minimal response time. The science community can use this architecture for characterization missions of opportunity when multiple scientific targets or targets of uncommon scientific value present themselves, while the planetary defense community would be able to fire characterization or mitigation payloads at targets that present a threat to the Earth. Both communities would benefit from testing potential mitigation techniques, which would reveal information on the internal structure of asteroids and comets. In return, the Earth would have the beginnings of a viable response system should an impact threat prove real in the near future.

Effects of Thinking Style and Spatial Ability on Anchoring Behavior in Geographic Information Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Dai-Yi; Lee, Mei-Hsuan; Sun, Chuen-Tsai

2013-01-01

The authors propose an instructional use for Google Earth (a GIS application) as an anchoring tool for knowledge integration. Google Earth can be used to support student explorations of world geography based on Wikipedia articles on earth science and history topics. We asked 66 Taiwanese high-school freshmen to make place marks with explanatory…

Transforming Undergraduate Education Through the use of Analytical Reasoning (TUETAR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bishop, M. P.; Houser, C.; Lemmons, K.

2015-12-01

Traditional learning limits the potential for self-discovery, and the use of data and knowledge to understand Earth system relationships, processes, feedback mechanisms and system coupling. It is extremely difficult for undergraduate students to analyze, synthesize, and integrate quantitative information related to complex systems, as many concepts may not be mathematically tractable or yet to be formalized. Conceptual models have long served as a means for Earth scientists to organize their understanding of Earth's dynamics, and have served as a basis for human analytical reasoning and landscape interpretation. Consequently, we evaluated the use of conceptual modeling, knowledge representation and analytical reasoning to provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to develop and test geocomputational conceptual models based upon their understanding of Earth science concepts. This study describes the use of geospatial technologies and fuzzy cognitive maps to predict desertification across the South-Texas Sandsheet in an upper-level geomorphology course. Students developed conceptual models based on their understanding of aeolian processes from lectures, and then compared and evaluated their modeling results against an expert conceptual model and spatial predictions, and the observed distribution of dune activity in 2010. Students perceived that the analytical reasoning approach was significantly better for understanding desertification compared to traditional lecture, and promoted reflective learning, working with data, teamwork, student interaction, innovation, and creative thinking. Student evaluations support the notion that the adoption of knowledge representation and analytical reasoning in the classroom has the potential to transform undergraduate education by enabling students to formalize and test their conceptual understanding of Earth science. A model for developing and utilizing this geospatial technology approach in Earth science is presented.

The Earth: Plasma Sources, Losses, and Transport Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welling, Daniel T.; André, Mats; Dandouras, Iannis; Delcourt, Dominique; Fazakerley, Andrew; Fontaine, Dominique; Foster, John; Ilie, Raluca; Kistler, Lynn; Lee, Justin H.; Liemohn, Michael W.; Slavin, James A.; Wang, Chih-Ping; Wiltberger, Michael; Yau, Andrew

2015-10-01

This paper reviews the state of knowledge concerning the source of magnetospheric plasma at Earth. Source of plasma, its acceleration and transport throughout the system, its consequences on system dynamics, and its loss are all discussed. Both observational and modeling advances since the last time this subject was covered in detail (Hultqvist et al., Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses, 1999) are addressed.

A Rules-Based Service for Suggesting Visualizations to Analyze Earth Science Phenomena.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prabhu, A.; Zednik, S.; Fox, P. A.; Ramachandran, R.; Maskey, M.; Shie, C. L.; Shen, S.

2016-12-01

Current Earth Science Information Systems lack support for new or interdisciplinary researchers, who may be unfamiliar with the domain vocabulary or the breadth of relevant data available. We need to evolve the current information systems, to reduce the time required for data preparation, processing and analysis. This can be done by effectively salvaging the "dark" resources in Earth Science. We assert that Earth science metadata assets are dark resources, information resources that organizations collect, process, and store for regular business or operational activities but fail to utilize for other purposes. In order to effectively use these dark resources, especially for data processing and visualization, we need a combination of domain, data product and processing knowledge, i.e. a knowledge base from which specific data operations can be performed. In this presentation, we describe a semantic, rules based approach to provide i.e. a service to visualize Earth Science phenomena, based on the data variables extracted using the "dark" metadata resources. We use Jena rules to make assertions about compatibility between a phenomena and various visualizations based on multiple factors. We created separate orthogonal rulesets to map each of these factors to the various phenomena. Some of the factors we have considered include measurements, spatial resolution and time intervals. This approach enables easy additions and deletions based on newly obtained domain knowledge or phenomena related information and thus improving the accuracy of the rules service overall.

Problems of sampling and radiation balances: Their problematics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crommelynck, D.

1980-01-01

Problems associated with the measurement of the Earth radiation balances are addressed. It is demonstrated that the knowledge of the different radiation budgets with their components is largely dependent on the space time sampling of the radiation field of the Earth atmosphere system. Whichever instrumental approach is adopted (wide angle view of high resolution) it affects the space time integration of the fluxes measured directly or calculated. In this case the necessary knowledge of the reflection pattern depends in addition on the angular sampling of the radiances. A series of questions is considered, the answers of which are a prerequisite to the the organization of a global observation system.

Building Knowledge Graphs for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, J.; Lee, T. J.; Ramachandran, R.; Shi, R.; Bao, Q.; Gatlin, P. N.; Weigel, A. M.; Maskey, M.; Miller, J. J.

2016-12-01

Inspired by Google Knowledge Graph, we have been building a prototype Knowledge Graph for Earth scientists, connecting information and data in NASA's Earth science enterprise. Our primary goal is to advance the state-of-the-art NASA knowledge extraction capability by going beyond traditional catalog search and linking different distributed information (such as data, publications, services, tools and people). This will enable a more efficient pathway to knowledge discovery. While Google Knowledge Graph provides impressive semantic-search and aggregation capabilities, it is limited to search topics for general public. We use the similar knowledge graph approach to semantically link information gathered from a wide variety of sources within the NASA Earth Science enterprise. Our prototype serves as a proof of concept on the viability of building an operational "knowledge base" system for NASA Earth science. Information is pulled from structured sources (such as NASA CMR catalog, GCMD, and Climate and Forecast Conventions) and unstructured sources (such as research papers). Leveraging modern techniques of machine learning, information retrieval, and deep learning, we provide an integrated data mining and information discovery environment to help Earth scientists to use the best data, tools, methodologies, and models available to answer a hypothesis. Our knowledge graph would be able to answer questions like: Which articles discuss topics investigating similar hypotheses? How have these methods been tested for accuracy? Which approaches have been highly cited within the scientific community? What variables were used for this method and what datasets were used to represent them? What processing was necessary to use this data? These questions then lead researchers and citizen scientists to investigate the sources where data can be found, available user guides, information on how the data was acquired, and available tools and models to use with this data. As a proof of concept, we focus on a well-defined domain - Hurricane Science linking research articles and their findings, data, people and tools/services. Modern information retrieval, natural language processing machine learning and deep learning techniques are applied to build the knowledge network.

Earth Science Education Plan: Inspire the Next Generation of Earth Explorers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

The Education Enterprise Strategy, the expanding knowledge of how people learn, and the community-wide interest in revolutionizing Earth and space science education have guided us in developing this plan for Earth science education. This document builds on the success of the first plan for Earth science education published in 1996; it aligns with the new framework set forth in the NASA Education Enterprise Strategy; it recognizes the new educational opportunities resulting from research programs and flight missions; and it builds on the accomplishments th'at the Earth Science Enterprise has made over the last decade in studying Earth as a system. This document embodies comprehensive, practicable plans for inspiring our children; providing educators with the tools they need to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); and improving our citizens' scientific literacy. This plan describes an approach to systematically sharing knowledge; developing the most effective mechanisms to achieve tangible, lasting results; and working collaboratively to catalyze action at a scale great enough to ensure impact nationally and internationally. This document will evolve and be periodically reviewed in partnership with the Earth science education community.

Research and technology, 1987

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

Three broad goals were presented by NASA as a guide to meet the challenges of the future: to advance scientific knowledge of the planet Earth, the solar system, and the universe; to expand human presence beyond the Earth into the solar system; and to strengthen aeronautics research and technology. Near-term and new-generation space transportation and propulsion systems are being analyzed that will assure the nation access to and presence in space. Other key advanced studies include large astronomical observatories, space platforms, scientific and commercial payloads, and systems to enhance operations in Earth orbit. Longer-range studies include systems that would allow humans to explore the Moon and Mars during the next century. Research programs, both to support the many space missions studied or managed by the Center and to advance scientific knowledge in selected areas, involve work in the areas of atmospheric science, earth science, space science (including astrophysics and solar, magnetospheric, and atomic physics), and low-gravity science. Programs and experiment design for flights on the Space Station, free-flying satellites, and the Space Shuttle are being planned. To maintain a leadership position in technology, continued advances in liquid and solid propellant engines, materials and processes; electronic, structural, and thermal investigations; and environmental control are required. Progress during the fiscal year 1987 is discussed.

Development of an expert system prototype for determining software functional requirements for command management activities at NASA Goddard

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, J.

1986-01-01

The development of an expert system prototype for software functional requirement determination for NASA Goddard's Command Management System, as part of its process of transforming general requests into specific near-earth satellite commands, is described. The present knowledge base was formulated through interactions with domain experts, and was then linked to the existing Knowledge Engineering Systems (KES) expert system application generator. Steps in the knowledge-base development include problem-oriented attribute hierarchy development, knowledge management approach determination, and knowledge base encoding. The KES Parser and Inspector, in addition to backcasting and analogical mapping, were used to validate the expert system-derived requirements for one of the major functions of a spacecraft, the solar Maximum Mission. Knowledge refinement, evaluation, and implementation procedures of the expert system were then accomplished.

Global Reach: A View of International Cooperation in NASA's Earth Science Enterprise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

Improving life on Earth and understanding and protecting our home planet are foremost in the Vision and Mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA's Earth Science Enterprise end eavors to use the unique vantage point of space to study the Earth sy stem and improve the prediction of Earth system change. NASA and its international partners study Earth's land, atmosphere, ice, oceans, a nd biota and seek to provide objective scientific knowledge to decisi onmakers and scientists worldwide. This book describes NASA's extensi ve cooperation with its international partners.

Pedotransfer functions in Earth system science: challenges and perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Looy, K.; Minasny, B.; Nemes, A.; Verhoef, A.; Weihermueller, L.; Vereecken, H.

2017-12-01

We make a stronghold for a new generation of Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) that is currently developed in the different disciplines of Earth system science, offering strong perspectives for improvement of integrated process-based models, from local to global scale applications. PTFs are simple to complex knowledge rules that relate available soil information to soil properties and variables that are needed to parameterize soil processes. To meet the methodological challenges for a successful application in Earth system modeling, we highlight how PTF development needs to go hand in hand with suitable extrapolation and upscaling techniques such that the PTFs correctly capture the spatial heterogeneity of soils. Most actively pursued recent developments are related to parameterizations of solute transport, heat exchange, soil respiration and organic carbon content, root density and vegetation water uptake. We present an outlook and stepwise approach to the development of a comprehensive set of PTFs that can be applied throughout a wide range of disciplines of Earth system science, with emphasis on land surface models. Novel sensing techniques and soil information availability provide a true breakthrough for this, yet further improvements are necessary in three domains: 1) the determining of unknown relationships and dealing with uncertainty in Earth system modeling; 2) the step of spatially deploying this knowledge with PTF validation at regional to global scales; and 3) the integration and linking of the complex model parameterizations (coupled parameterization). Integration is an achievable goal we will show.

Earth Science Enterprise Technology Strategy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) is dedicated to understanding the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment. The goals of ESE are: (1) Expand scientific knowledge of the Earth system using NASA's unique vantage points of space, aircraft, and in situ platforms; (2) Disseminate information about the Earth system; and (3) Enable the productive use of ESE science and technology in the public and private sectors. ESE has embraced the NASA Administrator's better, faster, cheaper paradigm for Earth observing missions. We are committed to launch the next generation of Earth Observing System (EOS) missions at a substantially lower cost than the EOS first series. Strategic investment in advanced instrument, spacecraft, and information system technologies is essential to accomplishing ESE's research goals in the coming decades. Advanced technology will play a major role in shaping the ESE fundamental and applied research program of the future. ESE has established an Earth science technology development program with the following objectives: (1) To accomplish ESE space-based and land-based program elements effectively and efficiently; and (2) To enable ESE's fundamental and applied research programs goals as stated in the NASA Strategic Plan.

Earth Day 2017

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Happy Earth Day! Explore the diverse colors, unique shapes and striking patterns of our very favorite planet, Earth - as only NASA can see it. Credit: NASA/Goddard #nasagoddard NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Autonomous scheduling technology for Earth orbital missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Srivastava, S.

1982-01-01

The development of a dynamic autonomous system (DYASS) of resources for the mission support of near-Earth NASA spacecraft is discussed and the current NASA space data system is described from a functional perspective. The future (late 80's and early 90's) NASA space data system is discussed. The DYASS concept, the autonomous process control, and the NASA space data system are introduced. Scheduling and related disciplines are surveyed. DYASS as a scheduling problem is also discussed. Artificial intelligence and knowledge representation is considered as well as the NUDGE system and the I-Space system.

Towards a Conceptual Design of a Cross-Domain Integrative Information System for the Geosciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaslavsky, I.; Richard, S. M.; Valentine, D. W.; Malik, T.; Gupta, A.

2013-12-01

As geoscientists increasingly focus on studying processes that span multiple research domains, there is an increased need for cross-domain interoperability solutions that can scale to the entire geosciences, bridging information and knowledge systems, models, software tools, as well as connecting researchers and organization. Creating a community-driven cyberinfrastructure (CI) to address the grand challenges of integrative Earth science research and education is the focus of EarthCube, a new research initiative of the U.S. National Science Foundation. We are approaching EarthCube design as a complex socio-technical system of systems, in which communication between various domain subsystems, people and organizations enables more comprehensive, data-intensive research designs and knowledge sharing. In particular, we focus on integrating 'traditional' layered CI components - including information sources, catalogs, vocabularies, services, analysis and modeling tools - with CI components supporting scholarly communication, self-organization and social networking (e.g. research profiles, Q&A systems, annotations), in a manner that follows and enhances existing patterns of data, information and knowledge exchange within and across geoscience domains. We describe an initial architecture design focused on enabling the CI to (a) provide an environment for scientifically sound information and software discovery and reuse; (b) evolve by factoring in the impact of maturing movements like linked data, 'big data', and social collaborations, as well as experience from work on large information systems in other domains; (c) handle the ever increasing volume, complexity and diversity of geoscience information; (d) incorporate new information and analytical requirements, tools, and techniques, and emerging types of earth observations and models; (e) accommodate different ideas and approaches to research and data stewardship; (f) be responsive to the existing and anticipated needs of researchers and organizations representing both established and emerging CI users; and (g) make best use of NSF's current investment in the geoscience CI. The presentation will focus on the challenges and methodology of EarthCube CI design, in particular on supporting social engagement and interaction between geoscientists and computer scientists as a core function of EarthCube architecture. This capability must include mechanisms to not only locate and integrate available geoscience resources, but also engage individuals and projects, research products and publications, and enable efficient communication across many EarthCube stakeholders leading to long-term institutional alignment and trusted collaborations.

Meteorite zircon constraints on the bulk Lu-Hf isotope composition and early differentiation of the Earth.

PubMed

Iizuka, Tsuyoshi; Yamaguchi, Takao; Hibiya, Yuki; Amelin, Yuri

2015-04-28

Knowledge of planetary differentiation is crucial for understanding the chemical and thermal evolution of terrestrial planets. The (176)Lu-(176)Hf radioactive decay system has been widely used to constrain the timescales and mechanisms of silicate differentiation on Earth, but the data interpretation requires accurate estimation of Hf isotope evolution of the bulk Earth. Because both Lu and Hf are refractory lithophile elements, the isotope evolution can be potentially extrapolated from the present-day (176)Hf/(177)Hf and (176)Lu/(177)Hf in undifferentiated chondrite meteorites. However, these ratios in chondrites are highly variable due to the metamorphic redistribution of Lu and Hf, making it difficult to ascertain the correct reference values for the bulk Earth. In addition, it has been proposed that chondrites contain excess (176)Hf due to the accelerated decay of (176)Lu resulting from photoexcitation to a short-lived isomer. If so, the paradigm of a chondritic Earth would be invalid for the Lu-Hf system. Herein we report the first, to our knowledge, high-precision Lu-Hf isotope analysis of meteorite crystalline zircon, a mineral that is resistant to metamorphism and has low Lu/Hf. We use the meteorite zircon data to define the Solar System initial (176)Hf/(177)Hf (0.279781 ± 0.000018) and further to identify pristine chondrites that contain no excess (176)Hf and accurately represent the Lu-Hf system of the bulk Earth ((176)Hf/(177)Hf = 0.282793 ± 0.000011; (176)Lu/(177)Hf = 0.0338 ± 0.0001). Our results provide firm evidence that the most primitive Hf in terrestrial zircon reflects the development of a chemically enriched silicate reservoir on Earth as far back as 4.5 billion years ago.

Meteorite zircon constraints on the bulk Lu−Hf isotope composition and early differentiation of the Earth

PubMed Central

Iizuka, Tsuyoshi; Yamaguchi, Takao; Hibiya, Yuki; Amelin, Yuri

2015-01-01

Knowledge of planetary differentiation is crucial for understanding the chemical and thermal evolution of terrestrial planets. The 176Lu−176Hf radioactive decay system has been widely used to constrain the timescales and mechanisms of silicate differentiation on Earth, but the data interpretation requires accurate estimation of Hf isotope evolution of the bulk Earth. Because both Lu and Hf are refractory lithophile elements, the isotope evolution can be potentially extrapolated from the present-day 176Hf/177Hf and 176Lu/177Hf in undifferentiated chondrite meteorites. However, these ratios in chondrites are highly variable due to the metamorphic redistribution of Lu and Hf, making it difficult to ascertain the correct reference values for the bulk Earth. In addition, it has been proposed that chondrites contain excess 176Hf due to the accelerated decay of 176Lu resulting from photoexcitation to a short-lived isomer. If so, the paradigm of a chondritic Earth would be invalid for the Lu−Hf system. Herein we report the first, to our knowledge, high-precision Lu−Hf isotope analysis of meteorite crystalline zircon, a mineral that is resistant to metamorphism and has low Lu/Hf. We use the meteorite zircon data to define the Solar System initial 176Hf/177Hf (0.279781 ± 0.000018) and further to identify pristine chondrites that contain no excess 176Hf and accurately represent the Lu−Hf system of the bulk Earth (176Hf/177Hf = 0.282793 ± 0.000011; 176Lu/177Hf = 0.0338 ± 0.0001). Our results provide firm evidence that the most primitive Hf in terrestrial zircon reflects the development of a chemically enriched silicate reservoir on Earth as far back as 4.5 billion years ago. PMID:25870298

Story-telling, Earth-Sciences and Geoethics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bohle, Martin; Sibilla, Anna; Graells, Robert Casals i.

2015-04-01

People are engineers, even the artist. People like stories, even the engineers. Engineering shapes the intersections of humans and their environments including with the geosphere. Geoethics considers values upon which to base practices how to intersect the geosphere. Story-telling is a skilful human practice to describe perception of values in different contexts to influence their application. Traditional earth-centric narrations of rural communities have been lost in the global urbanisation process. These former-time narrations related to the "sacrum" - matters not possible to be explained with reasoning. Science and technology, industrialisation and global urbanisation require an other kind of earth-centric story-telling. Now at the fringe of the Anthropocene, humans can base their earth-centricity on knowledge and scientific thinking. We argue that modern story-telling about the functioning of Earth's systems and the impact of humankind's activities on these systems is needed, also in particular because citizens rarely can notice how the geosphere intersects with their daily dealings; putting weather and disasters aside. Modern earth-centric story-telling would offer citizens opportunities to develop informed position towards humankind's place within earth-systems. We argue that such "earth-science story-lines" should be part of the public discourse to engage citizens who have more or less "expert-knowledge". Understanding the functioning of the Earth is needed for economy and values suitable for an anthropophil society. Multi-faceted discussion of anthropogenic global change and geoengineering took off recently; emerging from discussions about weather and hazard mitigation. Going beyond that example; we illustrate opportunities for rich story-telling on intersections of humans' activities and the geosphere. These 'modern narrations' can weave science, demographics, linguistics and cultural histories into earth-centric stories around daily dealings of citizens. Such earth-science narrations could convene value statements on how humankind activities intersect the geosphere; and thus, they are narrations on geoethics.

Advancing User Supports with a Structured How-To Knowledge Base for Earth Science Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shen, Suhung; Acker, James G.; Lynnes, Christopher S.; Beaty, Tammy; Lighty, Luther; Kempler, Steven J.

2016-01-01

It is a challenge to access and process fast growing Earth science data from satellites and numerical models, which may be archived in very different data format and structures. NASA data centers, managed by the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), have developed a rich and diverse set of data services and tools with features intended to simplify finding, downloading, and working with these data. Although most data services and tools have user guides, many users still experience difficulties with accessing or reading data due to varying levels of familiarity with data services, tools, and/or formats. A type of structured online document, data recipe, were created in beginning 2013 by Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). A data recipe is the How-To document created by using the fixed template, containing step-by-step instructions with screenshots and examples of accessing and working with real data. The recipes has been found to be very helpful, especially to first-time-users of particular data services, tools, or data products. Online traffic to the data recipe pages is significant to some recipes. In 2014, the NASA Earth Science Data System Working Group (ESDSWG) for data recipes was established, aimed to initiate an EOSDIS-wide campaign for leveraging the distributed knowledge within EOSDIS and its user communities regarding their respective services and tools. The ESDSWG data recipe group started with inventory and analysis of existing EOSDIS-wide online help documents, and provided recommendations and guidelines and for writing and grouping data recipes. This presentation will overview activities of creating How-To documents at GES DISC and ESDSWG. We encourage feedback and contribution from users for improving the data How-To knowledge base.

Advancing User Supports with Structured How-To Knowledge Base for Earth Science Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, S.; Acker, J. G.; Lynnes, C.; Lighty, L.; Beaty, T.; Kempler, S.

2016-12-01

It is a challenge to access and process fast growing Earth science data from satellites and numerical models, which may be archived in very different data format and structures. NASA data centers, managed by the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), have developed a rich and diverse set of data services and tools with features intended to simplify finding, downloading, and working with these data. Although most data services and tools have user guides, many users still experience difficulties with accessing or reading data due to varying levels of familiarity with data services, tools, and/or formats. A type of structured online document, "data recipe", were created in beginning 2013 by Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). A data recipe is the "How-To" document created by using the fixed template, containing step-by-step instructions with screenshots and examples of accessing and working with real data. The recipes has been found to be very helpful, especially to first-time-users of particular data services, tools, or data products. Online traffic to the data recipe pages is significant to some recipes. In 2014, the NASA Earth Science Data System Working Group (ESDSWG) for data recipes was established, aimed to initiate an EOSDIS-wide campaign for leveraging the distributed knowledge within EOSDIS and its user communities regarding their respective services and tools. The ESDSWG data recipe group started with inventory and analysis of existing EOSDIS-wide online help documents, and provided recommendations and guidelines and for writing and grouping data recipes. This presentation will overview activities of creating How-To documents at GES DISC and ESDSWG. We encourage feedback and contribution from users for improving the data How-To knowledge base.

Science 9. DeSoto Parish Curriculum Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeSoto Parish School Board, Mansfield, LA.

This guide is designed to aid the teacher in planning and teaching a ninth-grade science course. It should provide students with a functional system of knowledge which is applicable to new situations and will serve as the basis for future decisions. Five units outlined are entitled: Introduction to Service; The Earth's Storehouse; The Earth's…

The Earth System CoG Collaboration Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeLuca, C.; Murphy, S.; Cinquini, L.; Treshansky, A.; Wallis, J. C.; Rood, R. B.; Overeem, I.

2013-12-01

The Earth System CoG supports collaborative Earth science research and product development in virtual organizations that span multiple projects and communities. It provides access to data, metadata, and visualization services along with tools that support open project governance, and it can be used to host individual projects or to profile projects hosted elsewhere. All projects on CoG are described using a project ontology - an organized common vocabulary - that exposes information needed for collaboration and decision-making. Projects can be linked into a network, and the underlying ontology enables consolidated views of information across the network. This access to information promotes the creation of active and knowledgeable project governance, at both individual and aggregate project levels. CoG is being used to support software development projects, model intercomparison projects, training classes, and scientific programs. Its services and ontology are customizable by project. This presentation will provide an overview of CoG, review examples of current use, and discuss how CoG can be used as knowledge and coordination hub for networks of projects in the Earth Sciences.

Economic impact of stimulated technological activity. Part 3: Case study, knowledge additions and earth links from space crew systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

A case study of knowledge contributions from the crew life support aspect of the manned space program is reported. The new information needed to be learned, the solutions developed, and the relation of new knowledge gained to earthly problems were investigated. Illustrations are given in the following categories: supplying atmosphere for spacecraft; providing carbon dioxide removal and recycling; providing contaminant control and removal; maintaining the body's thermal balance; protecting against the space hazards of decompression, radiation, and meteorites; minimizing fire and blast hazards; providing adequate light and conditions for adequate visual performance; providing mobility and work physiology; and providing adequate habitability.

NASA's Earth science flight program status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neeck, Steven P.; Volz, Stephen M.

2010-10-01

NASA's strategic goal to "advance scientific understanding of the changing Earth system to meet societal needs" continues the agency's legacy of expanding human knowledge of the Earth through space activities, as mandated by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. Over the past 50 years, NASA has been the world leader in developing space-based Earth observing systems and capabilities that have fundamentally changed our view of our planet and have defined Earth system science. The U.S. National Research Council report "Earth Observations from Space: The First 50 Years of Scientific Achievements" published in 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences articulates those key achievements and the evolution of the space observing capabilities, looking forward to growing potential to address Earth science questions and enable an abundance of practical applications. NASA's Earth science program is an end-to-end one that encompasses the development of observational techniques and the instrument technology needed to implement them. This includes laboratory testing and demonstration from surface, airborne, or space-based platforms; research to increase basic process knowledge; incorporation of results into complex computational models to more fully characterize the present state and future evolution of the Earth system; and development of partnerships with national and international organizations that can use the generated information in environmental forecasting and in policy, business, and management decisions. Currently, NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) has 14 operating Earth science space missions with 6 in development and 18 under study or in technology risk reduction. Two Tier 2 Decadal Survey climate-focused missions, Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days and Seasons (ASCENDS) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT), have been identified in conjunction with the U.S. Global Change Research Program and initiated for launch in the 2019-2020 timeframe. NASA will begin refurbishment of the SAGE III atmospheric chemistry instrument to be hosted by the International Space Station (ISS) as early as 2013 and will initiate a Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-on mission for launch in 2016.

Probable Disastrous Consequences of Collision Between Unknown Small (100 m) Asteroids with Known (Approximately 1 km) Near Earth Orbiting (NEO) Asteroids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smalley, Larry

2003-01-01

The long-term stability of the Solar System is not well understood. Ironically its stability is taken for granted even though our knowledge of all the constituents [comets, asteroids. (The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, Trojan Asteroids, Kuiper belt, Ort Cloud), planetoids, planets, moons, etc], and its long-term dynamics cannot be easily computed. At best one might say that the solar system is chaotic, but much of the time it seems to exists near a quasi-stationary state. An asteroid that passes near the Earth regularly returns with clock-like precision. Taking into account every known detail of its path through the solar system, its orbit is calculated forward thousands of years with no untoward calamity on the horizon. And then one day, this passive visitor slams into the Earth during a sunny afternoon picnic! Can this happen? Unfortunately, this is a real possibility in the ordinary history of the solar system. In fact our knowledge of the solar system in the small is sketchy, as will be pointed out. Events, which lie outside our awareness, can precipitate disasters that we may perceive when it's too late to launch effective counter measures. In this work, one such scenario is described and the direct consequences for the Earth are calculated.

Children's knowledge of the earth: a new methodological and statistical approach.

PubMed

Straatemeier, Marthe; van der Maas, Han L J; Jansen, Brenda R J

2008-08-01

In the field of children's knowledge of the earth, much debate has concerned the question of whether children's naive knowledge-that is, their knowledge before they acquire the standard scientific theory-is coherent (i.e., theory-like) or fragmented. We conducted two studies with large samples (N=328 and N=381) using a new paper-and-pencil test, denoted the EARTH (EArth Representation Test for cHildren), to discriminate between these two alternatives. We performed latent class analyses on the responses to the EARTH to test mental models associated with these alternatives. The naive mental models, as formulated by Vosniadou and Brewer, were not supported by the results. The results indicated that children's knowledge of the earth becomes more consistent as children grow older. These findings support the view that children's naive knowledge is fragmented.

Remote sensing: The application of space technology to the survey of the earth and its environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schertler, R. J.

1973-01-01

Research in the earth sciences and management of both natural and man-made resources has been hindered by the difficulty of obtaining accurate and timely information on regional and global scale. Space surveys with remote sensing instruments are simply another means of attempting to attain the total knowledge of the resources needed for sound planning, development, and conservation. The use of earth orbiting satellites will greatly expand the ability to collect this information. The collection and use of these data and imagery, however, are now an end in itself, but only the means to an end, that of achieving total resource knowledge. Satellite systems will provide a valuable supplement to existing aerial and ground based observation techniques.

[Habitability and biological life support systems for man].

PubMed

Gazenko, O G; Grigor'ev, A I; Meleshko, G I; Shepelev, E Ia

1990-01-01

This paper discusses general concepts and specific details of the habitability of space stations and planetary bases completely isolated from the Earth for long periods of time. It emphasizes inadequacy of the present-day knowledge about natural conditions that provide a biologically acceptable environment on the Earth as well as lack of information about life support systems as a source of consumables (oxygen, water, food) and a tool for waste management. The habitability of advanced space vehicles is closely related to closed bioregenerative systems used as life support systems.

Reusable Social Networking Capabilities for an Earth Science Collaboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynnes, C.; Da Silva, D.; Leptoukh, G. G.; Ramachandran, R.

2011-12-01

A vast untapped resource of data, tools, information and knowledge lies within the Earth science community. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to share the full spectrum of these entities, particularly their full context. As a result, most knowledge exchange is through person-to-person contact at meetings, email and journal articles, each of which can support only a limited level of detail. We propose the creation of an Earth Science Collaboratory (ESC): a framework that would enable sharing of data, tools, workflows, results and the contextual knowledge about these information entities. The Drupal platform is well positioned to provide the key social networking capabilities to the ESC. As a proof of concept of a rich collaboration mechanism, we have developed a Drupal-based mechanism for graphically annotating and commenting on results images from analysis workflows in the online Giovanni analysis system for remote sensing data. The annotations can be tagged and shared with others in the community. These capabilities are further supplemented by a Research Notebook capability reused from another online analysis system named Talkoot. The goal is a reusable set of modules that can integrate with variety of other applications either within Drupal web frameworks or at a machine level.

NASA's Applied Sciences for Water Resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doorn, Bradley; Toll, David; Engman, Ted

2011-01-01

The Earth Systems Division within NASA has the primary responsibility for the Earth Science Applied Science Program and the objective to accelerate the use of NASA science results in applications to help solve problems important to society and the economy. The primary goal of the Earth Science Applied Science Program is to improve future and current operational systems by infusing them with scientific knowledge of the Earth system gained through space-based observation, assimilation of new observations, and development and deployment of enabling technologies, systems, and capabilities. This paper discusses one of the major problems facing water resources managers, that of having timely and accurate data to drive their decision support tools. It then describes how NASA?s science and space based satellites may be used to overcome this problem. Opportunities for the water resources community to participate in NASA?s Water Resources Applications Program are described.

The need and potential for building a integrated knowledge-base of the Earth-Human system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobs, Clifford

2011-03-01

The pursuit of scientific understanding is increasingly based on interdisciplinary research. To understand more deeply the planet and its interactions requires a progressively more holistic approach, exploring knowledge coming from all scientific and engineering disciplines including but not limited to, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, geosciences, material sciences, mathematics, physics, cyberinfrastucture, and social sciences. Nowhere is such an approach more critical than in the study of global climate change in which one of the major challenges is the development of next-generation Earth System Models that include coupled and interactive representations of ecosystems, agricultural working lands and forests, urban environments, biogeochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, ocean and atmospheric currents, the water cycle, land ice, and human activities.

DigitalCrust – a 4D data system of material properties for transforming research on crustal fluid flow

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fan, Yin; Richard, Steve; Bristol, R. Sky; Peters, Shanan; Ingebritsen, Steven E.; Moosdorf, Nils; Packman, Aaron I.; Gleeson, Tom; Zazlavsky, Ilya; Peckham, Scott; Murdoch, Larry; Cardiff, Michael; Tarboton, David; Jones, Norm; Hooper, Richard; Arrigo, Jennifer; Gochis, David; Olson, John

2015-01-01

Fluid circulation in the Earth's crust plays an essential role in surface, near surface, and deep crustal processes. Flow pathways are driven by hydraulic gradients but controlled by material permeability, which varies over many orders of magnitude and changes over time. Although millions of measurements of crustal properties have been made, including geophysical imaging and borehole tests, this vast amount of data and information has not been integrated into a comprehensive knowledge system. A community data infrastructure is needed to improve data access, enable large-scale synthetic analyses, and support representations of the subsurface in Earth system models. Here, we describe the motivation, vision, challenges, and an action plan for a community-governed, four-dimensional data system of the Earth's crustal structure, composition, and material properties from the surface down to the brittle–ductile transition. Such a system must not only be sufficiently flexible to support inquiries in many different domains of Earth science, but it must also be focused on characterizing the physical crustal properties of permeability and porosity, which have not yet been synthesized at a large scale. The DigitalCrust is envisioned as an interactive virtual exploration laboratory where models can be calibrated with empirical data and alternative hypotheses can be tested at a range of spatial scales. It must also support a community process for compiling and harmonizing models into regional syntheses of crustal properties. Sustained peer review from multiple disciplines will allow constant refinement in the ability of the system to inform science questions and societal challenges and to function as a dynamic library of our knowledge of Earth's crust.

Data Recipes: Toward Creating How-To Knowledge Base for Earth Science Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shen, Suhung; Lynnes, Chris; Acker, James G.; Beaty, Tammy

2015-01-01

Both the diversity and volume of Earth science data from satellites and numerical models are growing dramatically, due to an increasing population of measured physical parameters, and also an increasing variety of spatial and temporal resolutions for many data products. To further complicate matters, Earth science data delivered to data archive centers are commonly found in different formats and structures. NASA data centers, managed by the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), have developed a rich and diverse set of data services and tools with features intended to simplify finding, downloading, and working with these data. Although most data services and tools have user guides, many users still experience difficulties with accessing or reading data due to varying levels of familiarity with data services, tools, and or formats. The data recipe project at Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) was initiated in late 2012 for enhancing user support. A data recipe is a How-To online explanatory document, with step-by-step instructions and examples of accessing and working with real data (http:disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.govrecipes). The current suite of recipes has been found to be very helpful, especially to first-time-users of particular data services, tools, or data products. Online traffic to the data recipe pages is significant, even though the data recipe topics are still limited. An Earth Science Data System Working Group (ESDSWG) for data recipes was established in the spring of 2014, aimed to initiate an EOSDIS-wide campaign for leveraging the distributed knowledge within EOSDIS and its user communities regarding their respective services and tools. The ESDSWG data recipe group is working on an inventory and analysis of existing data recipes and tutorials, and will provide guidelines and recommendation for writing and grouping data recipes, and for cross linking recipes to data products. This presentation gives an overview of the data recipe activites at GES DISC and ESDSWG. We are seeking requirements and input from a broader data user community to establish a strong knowledge base for Earth science data research and application implementations.

Machine actionable information about observed environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stocker, Markus; Nativi, Stefano; Pearlman, Jay

2017-04-01

Data, information, and knowledge are terms commonly used in earth and environmental sciences, as well as in informatics supporting these sciences. The Lindstrom et al. Framework for Ocean Observing highlights the "challenge of delivering ocean information for societal benefit" and suggests that a key framework concept is to promote the "transformation of observational data organized in [Essential Ocean Variables] into information." A flyer presenting the Integrated Carbon Observation System says "Knowledge through observations." Writing about Oceans 2.0, Ocean Networks Canada highlights that the system is able to mine "data streams to detect trends, classify content and extract features [...] thereby turning raw data into information and setting the stage to allow the information to be transformed into knowledge." At 2016 AGU Fall Meeting, Rebecca Moore presented the vision of monitoring a changing planet and "generating precise, actionable information and knowledge." Yet, what exactly are these entities in the context of earth sciences and environmental research infrastructures? Can they be defined? To which processes are they input and output? How are they represented and managed? Can we extend Moore's vision to machine actionable information and knowledge? Information Systems research has for long struggled with defining data, information, and knowledge. Literature on the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy underscores the challenge of defining these terms. Some scholars have even suggested that providing general definitions is beyond the scope of the discipline. This may be particularly true at the higher levels, where wisdom should be considered in the context of the societal environment and may not be quantifiable out of context. While reaching consensus is hard, to obtain a better understanding for what the terms mean, how they are applied, and to what processes they are relevant in the context of earth sciences and environmental research infrastructures is arguably worthwhile. This can be done in some situations through the examination of exemplars or use cases, particularly addressing processing for translation of data to knowledge. In this talk, we will not attempt to define what data, information, and knowledge are in the context of earth sciences and environmental research infrastructures. Rather, in the particular context of a concrete use case in aerosol science - namely for the study of atmospheric new particle formation events on concentration of polydisperse aerosol - we present how observational data on concentration evolve to but are different from information about events, and how these entities are input and output, respectively, to the process of interpretation. The presentation involves technologies that enable the formal representation and management of information. Information about new particle formation events is thus machine actionable.

An Intelligent Archive Testbed Incorporating Data Mining

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H.; Isaac, D.; Yang, W.; Bonnlander, B.; Danks, D.

2009-01-01

Many significant advances have occurred during the last two decades in remote sensing instrumentation, computation, storage, and communication technology. A series of Earth observing satellites have been launched by U.S. and international agencies and have been operating and collecting global data on a regular basis. These advances have created a data rich environment for scientific research and applications. NASA s Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been operational since August 1994 with support for pre-EOS data. Currently, EOSDIS supports all the EOS missions including Terra (1999), Aqua (2002), ICESat (2002) and Aura (2004). EOSDIS has been effectively capturing, processing and archiving several terabytes of standard data products each day. It has also been distributing these data products at a rate of several terabytes per day to a diverse and globally distributed user community (Ramapriyan et al. 2009). There are other NASA-sponsored data system activities including measurement-based systems such as the Ocean Data Processing System and the Precipitation Processing system, and several projects under the Research, Education and Applications Solutions Network (REASoN), Making Earth Science Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs), and the Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth-Sun System Science (ACCESS) programs. Together, these activities provide a rich set of resources constituting a value chain for users to obtain data at various levels ranging from raw radiances to interdisciplinary model outputs. The result has been a significant leap in our understanding of the Earth systems that all humans depend on for their enjoyment, livelihood, and survival. The trend in the community today is towards many distributed sets of providers of data and services. Despite this, visions for the future include users being able to locate, fuse and utilize data with location transparency and high degree of interoperability, and being able to convert data to information and usable knowledge in an efficient, convenient manner, aided significantly by automation (Ramapriyan et al. 2004; NASA 2005). We can look upon the distributed provider environment with capabilities to convert data to information and to knowledge as an Intelligent Archive in the Context of a Knowledge Building system (IA-KBS). Some of the key capabilities of an IA-KBS are: Virtual Product Generation, Significant Event Detection, Automated Data Quality Assessment, Large-Scale Data Mining, Dynamic Feedback Loop, and Data Discovery and Efficient Requesting (Ramapriyan et al. 2004).

Data and Model Integration Promoting Interdisciplinarity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koike, T.

2014-12-01

It is very difficult to reflect accumulated subsystem knowledge into holistic knowledge. Knowledge about a whole system can rarely be introduced into a targeted subsystem. In many cases, knowledge in one discipline is inapplicable to other disciplines. We are far from resolving cross-disciplinary issues. It is critically important to establish interdisciplinarity so that scientific knowledge can transcend disciplines. We need to share information and develop knowledge interlinkages by building models and exchanging tools. We need to tackle a large increase in the volume and diversity of data from observing the Earth. The volume of data stored has exponentially increased. Previously, almost all of the large-volume data came from satellites, but model outputs occupy the largest volume in general. To address the large diversity of data, we should develop an ontology system for technical and geographical terms in coupling with a metadata design according to international standards. In collaboration between Earth environment scientists and IT group, we should accelerate data archiving by including data loading, quality checking and metadata registration, and enrich data-searching capability. DIAS also enables us to perform integrated research and realize interdisciplinarity. For example, climate change should be addressed in collaboration between the climate models, integrated assessment models including energy, economy, agriculture, health, and the models of adaptation, vulnerability, and human settlement and infrastructure. These models identify water as central to these systems. If a water expert can develop an interrelated system including each component, the integrated crisis can be addressed by collaboration with various disciplines. To realize this purpose, we are developing a water-related data- and model-integration system called a water cycle integrator (WCI).

Discover Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Discover Earth is a NASA-funded project for teachers of grades 5-12 who want to expand their knowledge of the Earth system, and prepare to become master teachers who promote Earth system science in their own schools, counties, and throughout their state. Participants from the following states are invited to apply: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, DC. Teachers selected for the project participate in a two-week summer workshop conducted at the University of Maryland, College Park; develop classroom-ready materials during the workshop for broad dissemination; conduct a minimum of two peer training activities during the coming school year; and participate in other enrichment/education opportunities as available and desired. Discover Earth is a team effort that utilizes expertise from a range of contributors, and balances science content with hands-on classroom applications.

NASA's Current Earth Science Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charles, Leslie Bermann

1998-01-01

NASA's Earth science program is a scientific endeavor whose goal is to provide long-term understanding of the Earth as an integrated system of land, water, air and life. A highly developed scientific knowledge of the Earth system is necessary to understand how the environment affects humanity, and how humanity may be affecting the environment. The remote sensing technologies used to gather the global environmental data used in such research also have numerous practical applications. Current applications of remote sensing data demonstrate their practical benefits in areas such as the monitoring of crop conditions and yields, natural disasters and forest fires; hazardous waste clean up; and tracking of vector-borne diseases. The long-term availability of environmental data is essential for the continuity of important research and applications efforts. NASA's Earth observation program has undergone many changes in the recent past.

Engineering the earth system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keith, D. W.

2005-12-01

The post-war growth of the earth sciences has been fueled, in part, by a drive to quantify environmental insults in order to support arguments for their reduction, yet paradoxically the knowledge gained is grants us ever greater capability to deliberately engineer environmental processes on a planetary scale. Increased capability can arises though seemingly unconnected scientific advances. Improvements in numerical weather prediction such as the use of adjoint models in analysis/forecast systems, for example, means that weather modification can be accomplished with smaller control inputs. Purely technological constraints on our ability to engineer earth systems arise from our limited ability to measure and predict system responses and from limits on our ability to manage large engineering projects. Trends in all three constraints suggest a rapid growth in our ability to engineer the planet. What are the implications of our growing ability to geoengineer? Will we see a reemergence of proposals to engineer our way out of the climate problem? How can we avoid the moral hazard posed by the knowledge that geoengineering might provide a backstop to climate damages? I will speculate about these issues, and suggest some institutional factors that may provide a stronger constraint on the use of geoengineering than is provided by any purely technological limit.

Bound Motion of Bodies and Paticles in the Rotating Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pardy, Miroslav

2007-04-01

The Lagrange theory of particle motion in the noninertial systems is applied to the Foucault pendulum, isosceles triangle pendulum and the general triangle pendulum swinging on the rotating Earth. As an analogue, planet orbiting in the rotating galaxy is considered as the giant galactic gyroscope. The Lorentz equation and the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equations are generalized for the rotation system. The knowledge of these equations is inevitable for the construction of LHC where each orbital proton “feels” the Coriolis force caused by the rotation of the Earth.

Optical data communication for Earth observation satellite systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, J.; Loecherbach, E.

1991-10-01

The current development status of optical communication engineering in comparison to the conventional microwave systems and the different configurations of the optical data communication for Earth observation satellite systems are described. An outlook to future optical communication satellite systems is given. During the last decade Earth observation became more and more important for the extension of the knowledge about our planet and the human influence on nature. Today pictures taken by satellites are used, for example, to discover mineral resources or to predict harvest, crops, climate, and environment variations and their influence on the population. A new and up to date application for Earth observation satellites can be the verification of disarmament arrangements and the control of crises areas. To solve these tasks a system of Earth observing satellites with sensors tailored to the envisaged mission is necessary. Besides these low Earth orbiting satellites, a global Earth observation system consists of at least two data relay satellites. The communication between the satellites will be established via Inter-Satellite Links (ISL) and Inter-Orbit Links (IOL). On these links, bitrates up to 1 Gbit/s must be taken into account. Due to the increasing scarcity of suitable frequencies, higher carrier frequencies must probably be considered, and possible interference with terrestrial radio relay systems are two main problems for a realization in microwave technique. One important step to tackle these problems is the use of optical frequencies for IOL's and ISL's.

Knowledge Discovery in our World Information Society: Opportunities for the International Polar Year 2007-08

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berkman, P. A.

2005-12-01

The World Data Center system emerged in 1957-58 with the International Geophysical Year (which was renamed from the 3rd International Polar Year) to preserve and provide access to scientific data collected from observational programs throughout the Earth system. Fast forward a half century ... access to diverse digital information has become effectively infinite and instantaneous with nearly 20,000 petabytes of information produced and stored on print, optical and magnetic media each year; microprocessor speeds that have increased 5 orders of magnitude since 1972; existence of the Internet; increasing global capacity to collect and transmit information via satellites; availability of powerful search engines; and proliferation of data warehouses like the World Data Centers. The problem is that we already have reached the threshold in our world information society when accessing more information does not equate with generating more knowledge. In 2007-08, the International Council of Science and World Meteorological Organization will convene the next International Polar Year to accelerate our understanding of how the polar regions respond to, amplify and drive changes elsewhere in the Earth system (http://www.ipy.org). Beyond Earth system science, strategies and tools for integrating digital information to discover meaningful relationships among the disparate data would have societal benefits from boardrooms to classrooms. In the same sense that human-launched satellites became a strategic focus that justified national investments in the International Geophysical Year, developing the next generation of knowledge discovery tools is an opportunity for the International Polar Year 2007-08 and its affiliated programs to contribute in an area that is critical to the future of our global community. Knowledge is the common wealth of humanity. H.E. Mr. Adama Samassekou President, World Summit on the Information Society

Emphasizing Spectrum Management for Sustainable Development Research and Applications in Disaster Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ambrose, Stephen; Habib, Shahid

2007-01-01

NASA's spaceborne Earth and Heliospheric Observatories and airborne sensors provide a plethora of measurements. These measurements are used in science research to understand the climatology of our home planet and the solar fluxes and cycle of the only star in our solar system 'Sun' which is critical driver for the retention of life on Earth. Specifically, these measurements help us to understand the water and energy cycle, the carbon cycle, weather and climate, atmospheric chemistry, solar variability, and solid Earth and interior to feed into sophisticated mathematical models to analyze and predict the Earth's behavior as an integrated system. The main thrust of this research is on improving the prediction capability in the areas of weather, long term climate and solid Earth processes, and further help the humanity and future generations in terms of societal benefits in managing natural disasters, sustainability issues and many more. This work is further linked with our contributions in the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) Specifically, the data and knowledge resulting from the Earth observing systems and analytical models of the Earth can be made available for assimilation into decision support systems to serve society for disaster management. Through partnerships with national and international agencies and organizations, NASA's Science Mission Directorate's, Applied Sciences Program contributes to benchmarking practical uses of observations and predictions from Earth science remote sensing systems research. The objective is to establish innovative solutions using Earth observations and science information to provide decision support that can be adapted in applications of national and international priority. We along with the international community will continue this critical field of investigation by using our existing and future sensors from space, airborne and insitue environment. In our quest to expanding our knowledge, there will be a need for deploying additional sensors to obtain high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution measurements. These sensors operate in multiple spectral band ranging from UV, visible, infrared, microwave and radio frequency ranges. Of a particular concern is the microwave frequency bands which play a key role in land, ocean, moisture sensing. This is because of a growing commercial demand in the area of high speed broadband communication all over the world, the electronic manufacturers are looking into high frequency microwave spectral bands. This may present a risk to the remote sensing sensors because of additional sources of noise that can impair the highly sensitive passive remote sensing instruments.

Development of an intelligent interface for adding spatial objects to a knowledge-based geographic information system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, William J.; Goettsche, Craig

1989-01-01

Earth Scientists lack adequate tools for quantifying complex relationships between existing data layers and studying and modeling the dynamic interactions of these data layers. There is a need for an earth systems tool to manipulate multi-layered, heterogeneous data sets that are spatially indexed, such as sensor imagery and maps, easily and intelligently in a single system. The system can access and manipulate data from multiple sensor sources, maps, and from a learned object hierarchy using an advanced knowledge-based geographical information system. A prototype Knowledge-Based Geographic Information System (KBGIS) was recently constructed. Many of the system internals are well developed, but the system lacks an adequate user interface. A methodology is described for developing an intelligent user interface and extending KBGIS to interconnect with existing NASA systems, such as imagery from the Land Analysis System (LAS), atmospheric data in Common Data Format (CDF), and visualization of complex data with the National Space Science Data Center Graphics System. This would allow NASA to quickly explore the utility of such a system, given the ability to transfer data in and out of KBGIS easily. The use and maintenance of the object hierarchies as polymorphic data types brings, to data management, a while new set of problems and issues, few of which have been explored above the prototype level.

The Effects of Earth Science Programs on Student Knowledge and Interest in Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, A.

2016-12-01

Ariana Wilson, Chris Skinner, Chris Poulsen Abstract For many years, academic programs have been in place for the instruction of young students in the earth sciences before they undergo formal training in high school or college. However, there has been little formal assessment of the impacts of these programs on student knowledge of the earth sciences and their interest in continuing with earth science. On August 6th-12th 2016 I will attend the University of Michigan's annual Earth Camp, where I will 1) ascertain high school students' knowledge of earth science-specifically atmospheric structure and wind patterns- before and after Earth Camp, 2) record their opinions about earth science before and after Earth Camp, and 3) record how the students feel about how the camp was run and what could be improved. I will accomplish these things through the use of surveys asking the students questions about these subjects. I expect my results will show that earth science programs like Earth Camp deepen students' knowledge of and interest in earth science and encourage them to continue their study of earth science in the future. I hope these results will give guidance on how to conduct future learning programs and how to recruit more students to become earth scientists in the future.

Tsé na'alkaah: Weaving Native and Mainstream Earth and Environmental Science into Place-Based Teacher Professional Development on the Colorado Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Semken, S. C.; Godsey, H. S.; Tsosie, W. B., Jr.

2017-12-01

Place-based, culturally-integrated approaches to teaching geoscience and environmental science are aligned with traditional indigenous education, and illustrate the premise that leveraging the cultural capital of Native Americans and other underrepresented groups renders more inclusive and relevant teaching. Situating learning within local landscapes, environments, and communities; and meaningfully connecting mainstream science with Native science and knowledge of place enables students to construct new knowledge that is scaffolded by their own worldview and experiences, and helps lessen any sense of discontinuity that may arise from apparently disparate interpretations of Earth processes. We drew on this philosophy in implementing a multi-year program of summer professional-development workshops for K-12 teachers in the Colorado Plateau and Intermountain regions, many of whom work in schools that serve majority Native American student populations. Through collaboration of geoscientists, Diné (Navajo) cultural experts, and master teachers, we developed and implemented inquiry-rich field excursions in which learning about Earth-system features and processes on the Plateau utilized factual and conceptual knowledge from mainstream geoscience and Diné geoscience (tsé na'alkaah) alike, as well as on other forms of local place knowledge such as Diné toponymy and history. Participants used concepts such as the dynamic interactions of Earth (Nahasdzaan) and Sky (Yádilhil) systems and the natural order (nitsahakees, nahat'a, iina, siihasin) to interpret natural landscape features (e.g., desert landforms, Plateau stratigraphy, Laramide structures) as well as anthropogenic impacts (e.g., uranium extraction and its environmental and health effects) in the field. We will share specific examples of place-based, culturally integrated curriculum and assessment from this program.

The Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mora, P.; Muhlhaus, H.; Lister, G.; Dyskin, A.; Place, D.; Appelbe, B.; Nimmervoll, N.; Abramson, D.

2001-12-01

Numerical simulation of the physics and dynamics of the entire earth system offers an outstanding opportunity for advancing earth system science and technology but represents a major challenge due to the range of scales and physical processes involved, as well as the magnitude of the software engineering effort required. However, new simulation and computer technologies are bringing this objective within reach. Under a special competitive national funding scheme to establish new Major National Research Facilities (MNRF), the Australian government together with a consortium of Universities and research institutions have funded construction of the Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator (ACcESS). The Simulator or computational virtual earth will provide the research infrastructure to the Australian earth systems science community required for simulations of dynamical earth processes at scales ranging from microscopic to global. It will consist of thematic supercomputer infrastructure and an earth systems simulation software system. The Simulator models and software will be constructed over a five year period by a multi-disciplinary team of computational scientists, mathematicians, earth scientists, civil engineers and software engineers. The construction team will integrate numerical simulation models (3D discrete elements/lattice solid model, particle-in-cell large deformation finite-element method, stress reconstruction models, multi-scale continuum models etc) with geophysical, geological and tectonic models, through advanced software engineering and visualization technologies. When fully constructed, the Simulator aims to provide the software and hardware infrastructure needed to model solid earth phenomena including global scale dynamics and mineralisation processes, crustal scale processes including plate tectonics, mountain building, interacting fault system dynamics, and micro-scale processes that control the geological, physical and dynamic behaviour of earth systems. ACcESS represents a part of Australia's contribution to the APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Simulation (ACES) international initiative. Together with other national earth systems science initiatives including the Japanese Earth Simulator and US General Earthquake Model projects, ACcESS aims to provide a driver for scientific advancement and technological breakthroughs including: quantum leaps in understanding of earth evolution at global, crustal, regional and microscopic scales; new knowledge of the physics of crustal fault systems required to underpin the grand challenge of earthquake prediction; new understanding and predictive capabilities of geological processes such as tectonics and mineralisation.

Educating the Public about Deep-Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cronin, V. S.

2010-12-01

The nature of Earth’s interior is an active frontier of scientific research. Much of our current understanding of sub-crustal Earth is based on knowledge acquired in the last 2-3 decades, made possible by public funding and by dense seismic arrays, satellite remote sensing, increases in computer power that enable use of enhanced numerical techniques, improved theoretical and experimental knowledge of high PT mineral physics and chemistry, and a vigorous scientific community that has been trained to take advantage of these opportunities. An essential component of science is effective communication; therefore, providing for public education about science is a responsibility of the research community. Current public understanding of Earth’s interior is meager at best. In pre-college texts and in non-technical mass media, Earth's interior is typically visualized as an onion or baseball of concentric different-colored shells along whose upper surface "crustal" plates move like packages on conveyor belts of convecting mantle. Or the crust is thought to float on a molten mantle, as in the 19th century ideas of William Lowthian Green. Misconceptions about Earth that are brought to the undergraduate classroom must be confronted frankly and replaced by current understanding based on good science. Persistent ignorance has consequences. What do we want the public to know? First, the public should understand that knowledge of Earth's interior is important, not irrelevant. The public should know that deep-Earth processes result in Earth's dynamic magnetic field. Deep-Earth processes affect how radiation from the Sun reaches Earth, consequently affecting the atmosphere, the oceans, and the viability of life on Earth. The composition and differentiated structure of Earth's interior is a result of the early accretionary history of Earth and the Earth-Moon system. The public should also know that lithospheric tectonics, with all of its consequences (dynamic topography, volcanoes, earthquakes, resource concentrations, oceans, atmospheric composition and flow, possibly even life), is made possible by the specific characteristics of Earth's interior. Accepting that knowledge of Earth’s interior is important, the next task is to let the public know what we have learned about the deep Earth, and how we have developed that scientific knowledge. How do we incorporate uncertainty in this work? How do we test hypotheses? What are the current open questions about the deep Earth that we seek to address through ongoing or future scientific research? The cognitive distance between research experts and the public must be bridged -- an interpretive task that requires substantial expertise and collaboration. Reaching the ultimate audience (the general public) requires the education and active involvement of K-12+ teachers, education boards, textbook publishers and mass-media producers. Information must be packaged to suit each intended audience, at the appropriate cognitive level. The effectiveness of the education-and-outreach element of any research enterprise largely determines whether the processes and results of science are transferred successfully to the public consciousness.

Satellite Remote Sensing and the Hydroclimate: Two Specific Examples of Improved Knowledge and Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shepherd, M.; Santanello, J. A., Jr.

2017-12-01

When Explorer 1 launched nearly 60 years ago, it helped usher in a golden age of scientific understanding of arguably the most important planet in our solar system. From its inception NASA and its partners were charged with leveraging the vantagepoint of space to advance knowledge outside and within Earth's atmosphere. Earth is a particularly complex natural system that is increasingly modified by human activities. The hydrological or water cycle is a critical circuit in the Earth system. Its complexity requires novel observations and simulation capability to fully understand it and predict changes. This talk will introduce some of the unique satellite-based observations used for hydroclimate studies. Two specific examples will be presented. The first example explores a relatively new thread of research examining the impact of soil moisture on landfalling and other types of tropical systems. Recent literature suggests that tropical cyclones or large rain-producing systems like the one that caused catastrophic flooding in Louisiana (2016) derive moisture from a "brown ocean" of wet soils or wetlands. The second example summarizes a decade of research on how urbanization has altered the precipitation and land surface hydrology components of the water cycle. With both cases, a multitude of satellite or model-based datesets will be summarized (e.g., TRMM, GPM, SMAP, NLDAS).

Pointing Knowledge for SPARCLE and Space-Based Doppler Wind Lidars in General

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Emmitt, G. D.; Miller, T.; Spiers, G.

1999-01-01

The SPAce Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment (SPARCLE) will fly on a space shuttle to demonstrate the use of a coherent Doppler wind lidar to accurately measure global tropospheric winds. To achieve the LOS (Line of Sight) accuracy goal of approx. m/s, the lidar system must be able to account for the orbiter's velocity (approx. 7750 m/s) and the rotational component of the earth's surface motion (approx. 450 m/s). For SPARCLE this requires knowledge of the attitude (roll, pitch and yaw) of the laser beam axis within an accuracy of 80 microradians. (approx. 15 arcsec). Since SPARCLE can not use a dedicated star tracker from its earth-viewing orbiter bay location, a dedicated GPS/INS (Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System) will be attached to the lidar instrument rack. Since even the GPS/INS has unacceptable drifts in attitude information, the SPARCLE team has developed a way to periodically scan the instrument itself to obtain less than 10 microradian (2 arcsec) attitude knowledge accuracy that can then be used to correct the GPS/INS output on a 30 minute basis.

Autonomous aerial observations to extend and complement the Earth Observing System: a science-driven systems-oriented approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sandford, Stephen P.; Harrison, F. W.; Langford, John; Johnson, James W.; Qualls, Garry; Emmitt, David; Jones, W. Linwood; Shugart, Herman H., Jr.

2004-12-01

The current Earth observing capability depends primarily on spacecraft missions and ground-based networks to provide the critical on-going observations necessary for improved understanding of the Earth system. Aircraft missions play an important role in process studies but are limited to relatively short-duration flights. Suborbital observations have contributed to global environmental knowledge by providing in-depth, high-resolution observations that space-based and in-situ systems are challenged to provide; however, the limitations of aerial platforms - e.g., limited observing envelope, restrictions associated with crew safety and high cost of operations have restricted the suborbital program to a supporting role. For over a decade, it has been recognized that autonomous aerial observations could potentially be important. Advances in several technologies now enable autonomous aerial observation systems (AAOS) that can provide fundamentally new observational capability for Earth science and applications and thus lead scientists and engineers to rethink how suborbital assets can best contribute to Earth system science. Properly developed and integrated, these technologies will enable new Earth science and operational mission scenarios with long term persistence, higher-spatial and higher-temporal resolution at lower cost than space or ground based approaches. This paper presents the results of a science driven, systems oriented study of broad Earth science measurement needs. These needs identify aerial mission scenarios that complement and extend the current Earth Observing System. These aerial missions are analogous to space missions in their complexity and potential for providing significant data sets for Earth scientists. Mission classes are identified and presented based on science driven measurement needs in atmospheric, ocean and land studies. Also presented is a nominal concept of operations for an AAOS: an innovative set of suborbital assets that complements and augments current and planned space-based observing systems.

Nuclear Electric Propulsion for Outer Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barret, Chris

2003-01-01

Today we know of 66 moons in our very own Solar System, and many of these have atmospheres and oceans. In addition, the Hubble (optical) Space Telescope has helped us to discover a total of 100 extra-solar planets, i.e., planets going around other suns, including several solar systems. The Chandra (X-ray) Space Telescope has helped us to discover 33 Black Holes. There are some extremely fascinating things out there in our Universe to explore. In order to travel greater distances into our Universe, and to reach planetary bodies in our Solar System in much less time, new and innovative space propulsion systems must be developed. To this end NASA has created the Prometheus Program. When one considers space missions to the outer edges of our Solar System and far beyond, our Sun cannot be relied on to produce the required spacecraft (s/c) power. Solar energy diminishes as the square of the distance from the Sun. At Mars it is only 43% of that at Earth. At Jupiter, it falls off to only 3.6% of Earth's. By the time we get out to Pluto, solar energy is only .066% what it is on Earth. Therefore, beyond the orbit of Mars, it is not practical to depend on solar power for a s/c. However, the farther out we go the more power we need to heat the s/c and to transmit data back to Earth over the long distances. On Earth, knowledge is power. In the outer Solar System, power is knowledge. It is important that the public be made aware of the tremendous space benefits offered by Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) and the minimal risk it poses to our environment. This paper presents an overview of the reasons for NEP systems, along with their basic components including the reactor, power conversion units (both static and dynamic), electric thrusters, and the launch safety of the NEP system.

Climate Data Analytics Workflow Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, J.; Lee, S.; Pan, L.; Mattmann, C. A.; Lee, T. J.

2016-12-01

In this project we aim to pave a novel path to create a sustainable building block toward Earth science big data analytics and knowledge sharing. Closely studying how Earth scientists conduct data analytics research in their daily work, we have developed a provenance model to record their activities, and to develop a technology to automatically generate workflows for scientists from the provenance. On top of it, we have built the prototype of a data-centric provenance repository, and establish a PDSW (People, Data, Service, Workflow) knowledge network to support workflow recommendation. To ensure the scalability and performance of the expected recommendation system, we have leveraged the Apache OODT system technology. The community-approved, metrics-based performance evaluation web-service will allow a user to select a metric from the list of several community-approved metrics and to evaluate model performance using the metric as well as the reference dataset. This service will facilitate the use of reference datasets that are generated in support of the model-data intercomparison projects such as Obs4MIPs and Ana4MIPs. The data-centric repository infrastructure will allow us to catch richer provenance to further facilitate knowledge sharing and scientific collaboration in the Earth science community. This project is part of Apache incubator CMDA project.

A vision for, and progress towards EarthCube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobs, C.

2012-04-01

The National Science Foundation (NSF), a US government agency, seeks to transform the conduct of research in geosciences by supporting innovative approaches to community-created cyberinfrastructure that integrates knowledge management across the Geosciences. Within the NSF organization, the Geosciences Directorate (GEO) and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) are partnering to address the multifaceted challenges of modern, data-intensive science and education. NSF encourages the community to envision and create an environment where low adoption thresholds and new capabilities act together to greatly increase the productivity and capability of researchers and educators working at the frontiers of Earth system science. This initiative is EarthCube. NSF believes the geosciences community is well positioned to plan and prototype transformative approaches that use innovative technologies to integrate and make interoperable vast resources of heterogeneous data and knowledge within a knowledge management framework. This believe is founded on tsunami of technology development and application that has and continues to engulf science and investments geosciences has made in cyberinfrastructure (CI) to take advantage the technological developments. However, no master framework for geosciences was employed in the development of technology-enable capabilities required by various geosciences communities. It is time to develop an open, adaptable and sustainable framework (an "EarthCube") to enable transformative research and education of Earth system. This will involve, but limited to fostering common data models and data-focused methodologies; developing next generation search and data tools; and advancing application software to integrate data from various sources to expand the frontiers of knowledge. Also, NSF looks to the community to develop a robust and balanced paradigm to manage a collaborative effort and build community support. Such a paradigm must engage a diverse range of geosciences data collections and collectors, establish sustainable partnerships with other entities that collect data (e.g. other Federal and international agencies), the integrate simulations and observations, and foster symbiotic relationships with industry. Two realize this vision, NSF posted open letters to the community, had several WebEx session, established a social network website to stimulate community dialog (EarthCube.ning.com), held a Charrette with broad community participation, and is accepting expression of interests from the community for the early development efforts of all or part the EarthCube framework.

GeoBrain for Facilitating Earth Science Education in Higher-Education Institutes--Experience and Lessons-learned

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deng, M.; di, L.

2007-12-01

Data integration and analysis are the foundation for the scientific investigation in Earth science. In the past several decades, huge amounts of Earth science data have been collected mainly through remote sensing. Those data have become the treasure for Earth science research. Training students how to discover and use the huge volume of Earth science data in research become one of the most important trainings for making a student a qualified scientist. Being developed by a NASA funded project, the GeoBrain system has adopted and implemented the latest Web services and knowledge management technologies for providing innovative methods in publishing, accessing, visualizing, and analyzing geospatial data and in building/sharing geoscience knowledge. It provides a data-rich online learning and research environment enabled by wealthy data and information available at NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Students, faculty members, and researchers from institutes worldwide can easily access, analyze, and model with the huge amount of NASA EOS data just like they possess such vast resources locally at their desktops. Although still in development, the GeoBrain system has been operational since 2005. A number of education materials have been developed for facilitating the use of GeoBrain as a powerful education tool for Earth science education at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Thousands of online higher-education users worldwide have used GeoBrain services. A number of faculty members in multiple universities have been funded as GeoBrain education partners to explore the use of GeoBrain in the classroom teaching and student research. By summarizing and analyzing the feedbacks from the online users and the education partners, this presentation presents the user experiences on using GeoBrain in Earth science teaching and research. The feedbacks on classroom use of GeoBrain have demonstrated that GeoBrain is very useful for facilitating the transition of both undergraduate and graduate students from learners to investigators. They feedbacks have also shown the system can improve teaching effectiveness, refine student's learning habit, and inspire students" interests in pursuing Earth sciences as their career. The interaction with the education users of GeoBrain provides much needed guidance and lessens-learned for future development and promotion of GeoBrain.

A Collaborative Data Scientist Framework for both Primary and Secondary Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Branch, B. D.

2011-12-01

The earth science data educational pipeline may be dependent on K-20 outcomes. Thus, a challenge for earth science and space informatics education or generational knowledge transfer consideration may be a non-existing or cost prohibitive pedagogical earth science reality. Such may require a technological infrastructure, a validated assessment system, and collaboration among stakeholders of primary and secondary education. Moreover, the K-20 paradigms may engage separate science and technology preparation standards when fundamental informatics requires an integrated pedagogical approach. In simple terms, a collaborative earth science training program for a subset of disciplines may a pragmatics means for formal data scientist training that is sustainable as technology evolves and data-sharing policy becomes a norm of data literacy. As the Group Earth Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS) has a 10-work plan, educational stakeholders may find funding avenues if government can see earth science data training as a valuable job skill and societal need. This proposed framework suggested that ontological literacy, database management and storage management and data sharing capability are fundamental informatics concepts of this proposed framework where societal engagement is incited. Here all STEM disciplines could incite an integrated approach to mature such as learning metrics in their matriculation and assessment systems. The NSF's Earth Cube and Europe's WISE may represent best cased for such framework implementation.

NASA Biomedical Informatics Capabilities and Needs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson-Throop, Kathy A.

2009-01-01

To improve on-orbit clinical capabilities by developing and providing operational support for intelligent, robust, reliable, and secure, enterprise-wide and comprehensive health care and biomedical informatics systems with increasing levels of autonomy, for use on Earth, low Earth orbit & exploration class missions. Biomedical Informatics is an emerging discipline that has been defined as the study, invention, and implementation of structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding and management of medical information. The end objective of biomedical informatics is the coalescing of data, knowledge, and the tools necessary to apply that data and knowledge in the decision-making process, at the time and place that a decision needs to be made.

The John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baron, Jill S.; Goldhaber, Martin

2011-01-01

The Powell Center provides an environment for cross-disciplinary scientific collaboration. The Center expands U.S. Geological Survey earth system science synthesis research activities by fostering the innovation that results from accumulated knowledge, constructive errors, and the "information spillover" that emerges from collaborative settings. Working Groups at the Powell Center use existing data to produce new knowledge..

Citizen Science as a Tool for Scientific Research and Societal Benefit at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaminski, Amy

2018-01-01

NASA's strategic goals include advancing knowledge and opportunity in space and improving life on Earth. We support these goals through extensive programs in space and Earth science research accomplished via space-based missions and research funding. NASA's "system" is configured to conduct science using (1) in-house personnel and (2) grants, contracts, and agreements with external entities (academia, industry, international space agencies.

Mission Operations of Earth Observing-1 with Onboard Autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rabideau, Gregg; Tran, Daniel Q.; Chien, Steve; Cichy, Benjamin; Sherwood, Rob; Mandl, Dan; Frye, Stuart; Shulman, Seth; Szwaczkowski, Joseph; Boyer, Darrell;

The Development of Scientific Knowledge of the Earth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nobes, Gavin; Martin, Alan E.; Panagiotaki, Georgia

2005-01-01

Investigation of children's knowledge of the Earth can reveal much about the origins, content and structure of scientific knowledge, and the processes of conceptual change and development. Vosniadou and Brewer (1992, claim that children construct coherent mental models of a flat, flattened, or hollow Earth based on a framework theory and intuitive…

Mapping the Delivery of Societal Benefit through the International Arctic Observations Assessment Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lev, S. M.; Gallo, J.

2017-12-01

The international Arctic scientific community has identified the need for a sustained and integrated portfolio of pan-Arctic Earth-observing systems. In 2017, an international effort was undertaken to develop the first ever Value Tree framework for identifying common research and operational objectives that rely on Earth observation data derived from Earth-observing systems, sensors, surveys, networks, models, and databases to deliver societal benefits in the Arctic. A Value Tree Analysis is a common tool used to support decision making processes and is useful for defining concepts, identifying objectives, and creating a hierarchical framework of objectives. A multi-level societal benefit area value tree establishes the connection from societal benefits to the set of observation inputs that contribute to delivering those benefits. A Value Tree that relies on expert domain knowledge from Arctic and non-Arctic nations, international researchers, Indigenous knowledge holders, and other experts to develop a framework to serve as a logical and interdependent decision support tool will be presented. Value tree examples that map the contribution of Earth observations in the Arctic to achieving societal benefits will be presented in the context of the 2017 International Arctic Observations Assessment Framework. These case studies will highlight specific observing products and capability groups where investment is needed to contribute to the development of a sustained portfolio of Arctic observing systems.

Smarter Earth Science Data System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, Thomas

2013-01-01

The explosive growth in Earth observational data in the recent decade demands a better method of interoperability across heterogeneous systems. The Earth science data system community has mastered the art in storing large volume of observational data, but it is still unclear how this traditional method scale over time as we are entering the age of Big Data. Indexed search solutions such as Apache Solr (Smiley and Pugh, 2011) provides fast, scalable search via keyword or phases without any reasoning or inference. The modern search solutions such as Googles Knowledge Graph (Singhal, 2012) and Microsoft Bing, all utilize semantic reasoning to improve its accuracy in searches. The Earth science user community is demanding for an intelligent solution to help them finding the right data for their researches. The Ontological System for Context Artifacts and Resources (OSCAR) (Huang et al., 2012), was created in response to the DARPA Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) programs need for an intelligent context models management system to empower its terrain simulation subsystem. The core component of OSCAR is the Environmental Context Ontology (ECO) is built using the Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET) (Raskin and Pan, 2005). This paper presents the current data archival methodology within a NASA Earth science data centers and discuss using semantic web to improve the way we capture and serve data to our users.

Solar System Exploration, 1995-2000

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Squyres, S.; Varsi, G.; Veverka, J.; Soderblom, L.; Black, D.; Stern, A.; Stetson, D.; Brown, R. A.; Niehoff, J.; Squibb, G.

1994-01-01

Goals for planetary exploration during the next decade include: (1) determine how our solar system formed, and understand whether planetary systems are a common phenomenon through out the cosmos; (2) explore the diverse changes that planets have undergone throughout their history and that take place at present, including those that distinguish Earth as a planet; (3) understand how life might have formed on Earth, whether life began anywhere else in the solar system, and whether life (including intelligent beings) might be a common cosmic phenomenon; (4) discover and investigate natural phenomena that occur under conditions not realizable in laboratories; (5) discover and inventory resources in the solar system that could be used by human civilizations in the future; and (6) make the solar system a part of the human experience in the same way that Earth is, and hence lay the groundwork for human expansion into the solar system in the coming century. The plan for solar system exploration is motivated by these goals as well as the following principle: The solar system exploration program will conduct flight programs and supporting data analysis and scientific research commensurate with United States leadership in space exploration. These programs and research must be of the highest scientific merit, they must be responsive to public excitement regarding planetary exploration, and they must contribute to larger national goals in technology and education. The result will be new information, which is accessible to the public, creates new knowledge, and stimulates programs of education to increase the base of scientific knowledge in the general public.

Autonomous Agents and Intelligent Assistants for Exploration Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T.

2000-01-01

Human exploration of space will involve remote autonomous crew and systems in long missions. Data to earth will be delayed and limited. Earth control centers will not receive continuous real-time telemetry data, and there will be communication round trips of up to one hour. There will be reduced human monitoring on the planet and earth. When crews are present on the planet, they will be occupied with other activities, and system management will be a low priority task. Earth control centers will use multi-tasking "night shift" and on-call specialists. A new project at Johnson Space Center is developing software to support teamwork between distributed human and software agents in future interplanetary work environments. The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at Johnson Space Center (JSC) are combining laboratories and expertise to carry out this project, by establishing a testbed for hWl1an centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems. Intelligent autonomous systems for managing systems on planetary bases will commuicate their knowledge to support distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. Intelligent assistant agents will respond to events by developing briefings and responses according to instructions from human agents on earth and in space.

Design Guide for Earth System Science Education: Common Student Learning Objectives and Special Pedagogical Approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, D.

2006-12-01

As part of the NASA-supported undergraduate Earth System Science Education (ESSE) program, fifty-seven institutions have developed and implemented a wide range of Earth system science (ESS) courses, pedagogies, and evaluation tools. The Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation section of USRA's online ESSE Design Guide showcases these ESS learning environments. This Design Guide section also provides resources for faculty who wish to develop ESS courses. It addresses important course design issues including prior student knowledge and interests, student learning objectives, learning resources, pedagogical approaches, and assessments tied to student learning objectives. The ESSE Design Guide provides links to over 130 ESS course syllabi at introductory, senior, and graduate levels. ESS courses over the past 15 years exhibit common student learning objectives and unique pedagogical approaches. From analysis of ESS course syllabi, seven common student learning objectives emerged: 1) demonstrate systems thinking, 2) develop an ESS knowledge base, 3) apply ESS to the human dimension, 4) expand and apply analytical skills, 5) improve critical thinking skills, 6) build professional/career skills, and 7) acquire an enjoyment and appreciation for science. To meet these objectives, ESSE often requires different ways of teaching than in traditional scientific disciplines. This presentation will highlight some especially successful pedagogical approaches for creating positive and engaging ESS learning environments.

Children's Representations of the Earth: A Methodological Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Panagiotaki, Georgia; Nobes, Gavin; Banerjee, Robin

2006-01-01

Investigation of children's understanding of the earth can reveal much about the origins and development of scientific knowledge. Vosniadou and Brewer (1992) claim that children construct coherent, theory-like mental models of the earth. However, more recent research has indicated that children's knowledge of the earth is fragmented and…

Building Scalable Knowledge Graphs for Earth Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramachandran, Rahul; Maskey, Manil; Gatlin, Patrick; Zhang, Jia; Duan, Xiaoyi; Miller, J. J.; Bugbee, Kaylin; Christopher, Sundar; Freitag, Brian

2017-01-01

Knowledge Graphs link key entities in a specific domain with other entities via relationships. From these relationships, researchers can query knowledge graphs for probabilistic recommendations to infer new knowledge. Scientific papers are an untapped resource which knowledge graphs could leverage to accelerate research discovery. Goal: Develop an end-to-end (semi) automated methodology for constructing Knowledge Graphs for Earth Science.

Low-Thrust Transfers from Distant Retrograde Orbits to L2 Halo Orbits in the Earth-Moon System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parrish, Nathan L.; Parker, Jeffrey S.; Hughes, Steven P.; Heiligers, Jennette

2016-01-01

Enable future missions Any mission to a DRO or halo orbit could benefit from the capability to transfer between these orbits Chemical propulsion could be used for these transfers, but at high propellant cost Fill gaps in knowledge A variety of transfers using SEP or solar sails have been studied for the Earth-Moon system Most results in literature study a single transfer This is a step toward understanding the wide array of types of transfers available in an N-body force model.

Mission Operations of EO-1 with Onboard Autonomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tran, Daniel Q.

2006-01-01

Space mission operations are extremely labor and knowledge-intensive and are driven by the ground and flight systems. Inclusion of an autonomy capability can have dramatic effects on mission operations. We describe the prior, labor and knowledge intensive mission operations flow for the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft as well as the new autonomous operations as part of the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment.

Geospatial Standards and the Knowledge Generation Lifescycle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khalsa, Siri Jodha S.; Ramachandran, Rahul

2014-01-01

Standards play an essential role at each stage in the sequence of processes by which knowledge is generated from geoscience observations, simulations and analysis. This paper provides an introduction to the field of informatics and the knowledge generation lifecycle in the context of the geosciences. In addition we discuss how the newly formed Earth Science Informatics Technical Committee is helping to advance the application of standards and best practices to make data and data systems more usable and interoperable.

Application of Ontologies for Big Earth Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, T.; Chang, G.; Armstrong, E. M.; Boening, C.

2014-12-01

Connected data is smarter data! Earth Science research infrastructure must do more than just being able to support temporal, geospatial discovery of satellite data. As the Earth Science data archives continue to expand across NASA data centers, the research communities are demanding smarter data services. A successful research infrastructure must be able to present researchers the complete picture, that is, datasets with linked citations, related interdisciplinary data, imageries, current events, social media discussions, and scientific data tools that are relevant to the particular dataset. The popular Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET) ontologies is a collection of ontologies and concepts designed to improve discovery and application of Earth Science data. The SWEET ontologies collection was initially developed to capture the relationships between keywords in the NASA Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). Over the years this popular ontologies collection has expanded to cover over 200 ontologies and 6000 concepts to enable scalable classification of Earth system science concepts and Space science. This presentation discusses the semantic web technologies as the enabling technology for data-intensive science. We will discuss the application of the SWEET ontologies as a critical component in knowledge-driven research infrastructure for some of the recent projects, which include the DARPA Ontological System for Context Artifact and Resources (OSCAR), 2013 NASA ACCESS Virtual Quality Screening Service (VQSS), and the 2013 NASA Sea Level Change Portal (SLCP) projects. The presentation will also discuss the benefits in using semantic web technologies in developing research infrastructure for Big Earth Science Data in an attempt to "accommodate all domains and provide the necessary glue for information to be cross-linked, correlated, and discovered in a semantically rich manner." [1] [1] Savas Parastatidis: A platform for all that we know: creating a knowledge-driven research infrastructure. The Fourth Paradigm 2009: 165-172

Component-Level Electronic-Assembly Repair (CLEAR) System Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oeftering, Richard C.; Bradish, Martin A.; Juergens, Jeffrey R.; Lewis, Michael J.; Vrnak, Daniel R.

2011-01-01

This document captures the system architecture for a Component-Level Electronic-Assembly Repair (CLEAR) capability needed for electronics maintenance and repair of the Constellation Program (CxP). CLEAR is intended to improve flight system supportability and reduce the mass of spares required to maintain the electronics of human rated spacecraft on long duration missions. By necessity it allows the crew to make repairs that would otherwise be performed by Earth based repair depots. Because of practical knowledge and skill limitations of small spaceflight crews they must be augmented by Earth based support crews and automated repair equipment. This system architecture covers the complete system from ground-user to flight hardware and flight crew and defines an Earth segment and a Space segment. The Earth Segment involves database management, operational planning, and remote equipment programming and validation processes. The Space Segment involves the automated diagnostic, test and repair equipment required for a complete repair process. This document defines three major subsystems including, tele-operations that links the flight hardware to ground support, highly reconfigurable diagnostics and test instruments, and a CLEAR Repair Apparatus that automates the physical repair process.

BILLIARDS: Baseline Instrumented Lithology Lander, Inspector and Asteroid Redirection Demonstration System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marcus, Matthew; Sloane, Joshua; Ortiz, Oliver; Barbee, Brent

2015-01-01

BILLIARDS Baseline Instrumented Lithology Lander, Inspector, and Asteroid Redirection Demonstration System Proposed demonstration mission for Billiard-Ball concept Select asteroid pair with natural close approach to minimize cost and complexity Primary Objectives Rendezvous with a small (10m), near Earth (alpha) asteroid Maneuver the alpha asteroid to a collision with a 100m (beta) asteroid Produce a detectable deflection or disruption of the beta asteroid Secondary objectives Contribute knowledge of asteroid composition and characteristics Contribute knowledge of small-body formation Opportunity for international collaboration

Weather, knowledge base and life-style

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bohle, Martin

2015-04-01

Why to main-stream curiosity for earth-science topics, thus to appraise these topics as of public interest? Namely, to influence practices how humankind's activities intersect the geosphere. How to main-stream that curiosity for earth-science topics? Namely, by weaving diverse concerns into common threads drawing on a wide range of perspectives: be it beauty or particularity of ordinary or special phenomena, evaluating hazards for or from mundane environments, or connecting the scholarly investigation with concerns of citizens at large; applying for threading traditional or modern media, arts or story-telling. Three examples: First "weather"; weather is a topic of primordial interest for most people: weather impacts on humans lives, be it for settlement, for food, for mobility, for hunting, for fishing, or for battle. It is the single earth-science topic that went "prime-time" since in the early 1950-ties the broadcasting of weather forecasts started and meteorologists present their work to the public, daily. Second "knowledge base"; earth-sciences are a relevant for modern societies' economy and value setting: earth-sciences provide insights into the evolution of live-bearing planets, the functioning of Earth's systems and the impact of humankind's activities on biogeochemical systems on Earth. These insights bear on production of goods, living conditions and individual well-being. Third "life-style"; citizen's urban culture prejudice their experiential connections: earth-sciences related phenomena are witnessed rarely, even most weather phenomena. In the past, traditional rural communities mediated their rich experiences through earth-centric story-telling. In course of the global urbanisation process this culture has given place to society-centric story-telling. Only recently anthropogenic global change triggered discussions on geoengineering, hazard mitigation, demographics, which interwoven with arts, linguistics and cultural histories offer a rich narrative of humankind's intersections with the geosphere. To gain public's curiosity for earth-science topics, thus to gain attention of various social groups that all have access to a high density of information, digestible rich messages are needed: earth-science story-telling has to weaves earth-science topics into culturally rich narrations of multiple forms offering a wide range of perspectives to which people can connect.

Polar Experiment Network for Geospace Upper-atmosphere Investigations (PENGUIn): A Vision for Global Polar Studies and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weatherwax, A. T.; Lanzerotti, L. J.; Rosenberg, T. J.; Detrick, D. L.; Clauer, C. R.; Ridley, A.; Mende, S. B.; Frey, H. U.; Ostgaard, N.; Sterling, R. W.; Inan, U. S.; Engebretson, M. J.; Petit, N.; Labelle, J.; Lynch, K.; Lessard, M.; Maclennan, C. G.; Doolittle, J. H.; Fukunishi, H.

2003-12-01

The several decades since the advent of space flight have witnessed the ever growing importance and relevance of the Earth's space environment for understanding the functioning of Earth within the solar system and for understanding the effects of the Sun's influence on technological systems deployed on Earth and in space. Achieving a comprehensive understanding of Earth's geospace environment requires knowledge of the ionosphere and magnetosphere in both polar regions. Outlined in this talk is a broad, multi-national plan to investigate in depth, from Antarctica and nominally conjugate regions in the Arctic, the electrodynamic system that comprises the space environment of Planet Earth. Specifics include (a) the phased development of a new and comprehensive upper atmosphere geophysical measurement program based upon distributed instruments operating in an extreme polar environments; (b) real time data collection via satellites; (c) a methodology to build synergistic data sets from a global distribution of southern and northern hemisphere instrument arrays; and (d) an integration with all levels of education including high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral.

Determination of crustal motions using satellite laser ranging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

Satellite laser ranging has matured over the last decade into one of the essential space geodesy techniques. It has demonstrated centimeter site positioning and millimeter per year velocity determinations in a frame tied dynamically to the mass center of the solid Earth hydrosphere atmosphere system. Such a coordinate system is a requirement for studying long term eustatic sea level rise and other global change phenomena. Earth orientation parameters determined with the coordinate system have been produced in near real time operationally since 1983, at a relatively modest cost. The SLR ranging to Lageos has also provided a rich spectrum of results based upon the analysis of Lageos orbital dynamics. These include significant improvements in the knowledge of the mean and variable components of the Earth's gravity field and the Earth's gravitational parameter. The ability to measure the time variations of the Earth's gravity field has opened as exciting area of study in relating global processes, including meteorologically derived mass transport through changes in the satellite dynamics. New confirmation of general relativity was obtained using the Lageos SLR data.

ESSEA K-4 Online Course: Polar Connections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blaney, L.; Myers, R. J.; Schwerin, T.

2007-12-01

The Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) is a National Science Foundation-supported program implemented by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) to improve the quality of geoscience instruction for pre-service, middle, and high school teachers. ESSEA increases teachers' access to quality materials, standards-based instructional methods and content knowledge. Started in 2000 and based on a trio of online courses (for elementary, middle, and high school teachers), the courses have been used by 40 faculty at 20 institutions educating over 1,700 teachers in Earth system science. Program evaluation of original course participants indicated that the courses had significant impact on teachers Earth system content knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning. Seventeen of the original participating institutions have continued to use the courses and many have developed new programs that incorporate the courses in Earth science education opportunities for teachers. Today the ESSEA program lists nearly 40 colleges and universities as participants. The original K-4 course and modules have been revised to include topics and resources focusing on the International Polar Year. The new K-4 Land, Living Things, Water and Air modules contain inquiry-based investigations exploring our polar regions. Each module lists a set of essential questions that guide teachers and their students as they build content knowledge. The course structure requires teachers to work individually and in teams to build content knowledge and pedagogical understanding of how their students learn. This group investigation approach and a "Teacher as Researcher" theme promote reflection and collaboration to develop criteria for effective concept building. By exploring the characteristics of polar landscapes, atmosphere, and polar life, teachers and their students will develop new understandings about the interactions and dependencies of the Earth spheres and our polar regions. Changes in climate, air, water, and land quality and animal and plant populations make the news everyday. The K-4 course will help teachers inform rather than frighten their students as they learn more about the characteristics and importance of our polar regions. One goal of IPY 2007-2008 is to increase the awareness, understanding and interest of school-age children in polar conditions and research. The inclusion of polar topics in the K-4 course contributes to the achievement of that goal.

A global change data base using Thematic Mapper data - Earth Monitoring Educational System (EMES)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

D'Antoni, Hector L.; Peterson, David L.

1992-01-01

Some of the main directions in creating an education program in earth system science aimed at combining top science and technology with high academic performance are presented. The creation of an Earth Monitoring Educational System (EMES) integrated with the research interests of the NASA Ames Research Center and one or more universities is proposed. Based on the integration of a global network of cooperators to build a global data base for assessments of global change, EMES would promote degrees at all levels in global ecology at associated universities and colleges, and extracurricular courses for multilevel audiences. EMES objectives are to: train specialists; establish a tradition of solving regional problems concerning global change in a systemic manner, using remote sensing technology as the monitoring tool; and transfer knowledge on global change to the national and world communities. South America is proposed as the pilot continent for the project.

Re-Examining the Way We Teach: The Earth System Science Education Alliance Online Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Botti, J. A.; Myers, R. J.

2003-12-01

Science education reform has skyrocketed over the last decade thanks in large part to the technology of the Internet, opening up dynamic new online communities of learners. It has allowed educators worldwide to share thoughts about Earth system science and reexamine the way science is taught. The Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) is one positive offshoot of this reform effort. This developing partnership among universities, colleges, and science education organizations is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the Center for Educational TechnologiesTM at Wheeling Jesuit University. ESSEA's mission is to improve Earth system science education. ESSEA has developed three Earth system science courses for K-12 teachers. These online courses guide teachers into collaborative, student-centered science education experiences. Not only do these courses support teachers' professional development, they also help teachers implement Earth systems science content and age-appropriate pedagogical methods into their classrooms. The ESSEA semester-long courses are open to elementary, middle school, and high school educators. After three weeks of introductory content, teachers develop content and pedagogical and technological knowledge in four three-week learning cycles. The elementary school course focuses on basic Earth system interactions between land, life, air, and water. The middle school course stresses the effects of real-world events-volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rainforest destruction-on Earth's lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, using "jigsaw" to study the interactions between events, spheres, and positive and negative feedback loops. The high school course uses problem-based learning to examine critical areas of global change, such as coral reef degradation, ozone depletion, and climate change. This ESSEA presentation provides examples of learning environments from each of the three courses.

Recent Advances in Atmospheric, Solar-Terrestrial Physics and Space Weather From a North-South network of scientists [2006-2016] PART A: TUTORIAL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amory-Mazaudier, C.; Menvielle, M.; Curto, J-J.; Le Huy, M.

2017-12-01

This paper reviews scientific advances achieved by a North-South network between 2006 and 2016. These scientific advances concern Solar Terrestrial Physics, Atmospheric Physics and Space Weather. In this part A, we introduce knowledge on the Sun-Earth system. We consider the physical process of the dynamo which is present in the Sun, in the core of the Earth and also in the regions between the Sun and the Earth, the solar wind-magnetosphere and the ionosphere. Equations of plasma physics and Maxwell's equations will be recalled. In the Sun-Earth system there are permanent dynamos (Sun, Earth's core, solar wind - magnetosphere, neutral wind - ionosphere) and non-permanent dynamos that are activated during magnetic storms in the magnetosphere and in the ionosphere. All these dynamos have associated electric currents that affect the variations of the Earth's magnetic field which are easily measurable. That is why a part of the tutorial is also devoted to the magnetic indices which are indicators of the electric currents in the Sun-Earth system. In order to understand some results of the part B, we present some characteristics of the Equatorial region and of the electrodynamics coupling the Auroral and Equatorial regions.

A prototype Knowledge-Based System to Aid Space System Restoration Management.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-12-01

Systems. ......... 122 Appendix B: Computation of Weights With AHP . . .. 132 Appendix C: ART Code .. ............... 138 Appendix D: Test Outputs...45 5.1 Earth Coverage With Geosynchronous Satellites 49 5.2 Space System Configurations ... ........... . 50 5.3 AHP Hierarchy...67 5.4 AHP Hierarchy With Weights .... ............ 68 6.1 TALK Schema Structure ..... .............. 75 6.2 ART Code for TALK Satellite C

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2015-01-01

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes nearly 150 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies. Remote Sensing; Earth Science Informatics, Data Systems; Data Services; Metadata

Space-Based Remote Sensing of the Earth: A Report to the Congress

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

The commercialization of the LANDSAT Satellites, remote sensing research and development as applied to the Earth and its atmosphere as studied by NASA and NOAA is presented. Major gaps in the knowledge of the Earth and its atmosphere are identified and a series of space based measurement objectives are derived. The near-term space observations programs of the United States and other countries are detailed. The start is presented of the planning process to develop an integrated national program for research and development in Earth remote sensing for the remainder of this century and the many existing and proposed satellite and sensor systems that the program may include are described.

Laboratory Earth: Connecting Everything to Everything Else Online for Pre-college Educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gosselin, D.; Bonnstetter, R.; Yendra, S.; Slater, T.

2007-12-01

The Laboratory Earth professional development series, which has been funded by NASA, consists of three, three- credit hour, graduate level, distance-delivered, online courses designed for K- 8 (and above) educators. Currently, we have delivered two module-based courses, Laboratory Earth I: Earth and its Systems and Laboratory Earth II: Earth's Natural Resource Systems. A third course tentatively titled, Laboratory Earth: Earth's Changing Environments, is under development. Our objectives are to deliver a high quality professional development experience, improve participant's ability to understand and apply Earth system science concepts in their classroom, and to increase teacher's sense of belonging to a community. Each course consists of four modules that engage students using multiple strategies to meet a variety of learning styles. To document learning, content questions are used to focus the student on the concepts they will be learning throughout the course. These questions are also used to assess the progress the student has made toward learning the concepts from the beginning to the end of the course. Analysis of the responses to the content questions from Lab Earth I demonstrates significant knowledge gains from the beginning to the end of the course. Preliminary data also suggests that the extent of learning is higher in the 8-week version than it is in the 16-week version of the course. An implicit goal of the courses is to help participants focus on learning, not grades. Unfortunately, grades have to be issued. Our grading strategy has evolved to a system that uses the ability of students to master course content along with active participation and the on-time, quality completion of the grading elements in the course. Course content mastery can be demonstrated in a variety of ways and it is up to the student to choose the method that they would like to use. Methods include writing essays, creating presentations, preparing an oral journal, and developing concept maps. If tasks that a student submits are not complete, they are asked to revisit the assignment. The goal is for the student to be intrinsically motivated to learn the material and reduce the need for grades as a motivator and distract from their learning. We want everyone to work until they have the required concept knowledge and understanding. The combined results from STEBI-A (teacher efficacy for teaching science scale), LEO, (scale to assess teacher's sense of community within the course), and BES (Beliefs About Earth Science to assess the degree to which teachers enjoy teaching science) demonstrate statistically significant growth in teachers' sense of cohesion of the course and the value they place on teaching Earth science. The Laboratory Earth series is a key component of an initiative to create a collaborative online, distance delivered, masters degree program at UNL.

Economic impact of stimulated technological activity: Bibliography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

This bibliography is divided into three parts and covers: (1) overall economic impact of technological progress and its measurement; (2) technological progress and commercialization of communications satellites; and (3) knowledge additions and earth links from space crew systems.

Integrating Scientific Content with Context to Connect Educators with the Complexities and Consequences of Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Low, R.; Gosselin, D. C.; Oglesby, R. J.; Larson-Miller, C.; Thomas, J.; Mawalagedara, R.

2011-12-01

Over the past three years the Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network has designed professional development opportunities for K-12 and extension educators that integrates scientific content into the context of helping educators connect society with the complexities and consequences of climate change. Our professional development approach uses learner-, knowledge-, assessment-, and community-centered strategies to achieve our long-term goal: collaboration of scientists, educators and learners to foster civic literacy about climate change. Two NASA-funded projects, Global Climate Change Literacy for Educators (GCCE, 2009-2012), and the Educators Climatologists Learning Community (ECLC, 2011-2013), have provided the mechanism to provide teachers with scientifically sound and pedagogically relevant educational materials to improve climate and Earth systems literacy among educators. The primary product of the GCCE program is a 16-week, online, distance-delivered, asynchronous course entitled, Laboratory Earth: Human Dimensions of Climate Change. This course consists of four, four-week modules that integrate climate literacy, Earth Systems concepts, and pedagogy focused on active learning processes, building community, action research, and students' sense of place to promote action at the local level to address the challenges of climate change. Overall, the Community of Inquiry Survey (COI) indicated the course was effective in teaching content, developing a community of learners, and engaging students in experiences designed to develop content knowledge. A pre- and post- course Wilcoxan Signed Ranks Test indicated there was a statistically significant increase in participant's beliefs about their personal science teaching efficacy. Qualitative data from concept maps and content mastery assignments support a positive impact on teachers' content knowledge and classroom practice. Service Learning units seemed tohelp teachers connect course learning to their classroom teaching. In addition, qualitative data indicate that teachers' students found service learning to be highly motivational components to learning. The ECLC project, to be initiated in the fall 2011, will build on our GCCE experiences to create a sustainable virtual learning community of educators and scientists. Climate-change issues will serve as a context in which collaborative scientist-educator-teams will develop discrete, locally oriented research projects to facilitate development of confident, knowledgeable citizen-scientists within their classrooms.

Calbuco’s plume over Chile

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-04-29

The natural color image below, acquired on April 25 by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite, shows Calbuco’s plume rising above the cloud deck over Chile. Read more here: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=85791&eocn... Credit: NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Using EarthLabs to Enhance Earth Science Curriculum in Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chegwidden, D. M.; Ellins, K. K.; Haddad, N.; Ledley, T. S.

2012-12-01

As an educator in Texas, a state that values and supports an Earth Science curriculum, I find it essential to educate my students who are our future voting citizens and tax payers. It is important to equip them with tools to understand and solve the challenges of solving of climate change. As informed citizens, students can help to educate others in the community with basic knowledge of weather and climate. They can also help to dispose of the many misconceptions that surround the climate change, which is perceived as a controversial topic. As a participant in a NSF-sponsored Texas Earth and Space (TXESS) Revolution teacher professional development program, I was selected to participate in a curriculum development project led by TERC to develop and test education resources for the EarthLabs climate literacy collection. I am involved in the multiple phases of the project, including reviewing labs that comprise the Climate, Weather and Biosphere module during the development phase, pilot teaching the module with my students, participating in research, and delivering professional development to other Texas teachers to expose them to the content found in the module and to encourage them to incorporate it into their teaching. The Climate, Weather and the Biosphere module emphasizes different forms of evidence and requires that learners apply different inquiry-based approaches to build the knowledge they need to develop as climate literate citizens. My involvement with the EarthLabs project has strengthened my overall knowledge and confidence to teach about Earth's climate system and climate change. In addition, the project has produced vigorous classroom discussion among my students as well as encouraged me to collaborate with other educators through our delivery of professional development to other teachers. In my poster, I will share my experiences, describe the impact the curriculum has made on my students, and report on challenges and valuable lessons gained by being an active participant in the EarthLabs curriculum review, implementation and professional development process.

Development of online instructional resources for Earth system science education: An example of current practice from China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Shaochun; Xu, Shijin; Lu, Xiancai

2009-06-01

Educators around the world are striving to make science more accessible and relevant to students. Online instructional resources have become an integral component of tertiary science education and will continue to grow in influence and importance over the coming decades. A case study in the iterative improvement of the online instructional resources provided for first-year undergraduates taking " Introductory Earth System Science" at Nanjing University in China is presented in this paper. Online instructional resources are used to conduct a student-centered learning model in the domain of Earth system science, resulting in a sustainable online instructional framework for students and instructors. The purpose of our practice is to make Earth system science education more accessible and exciting to students, changing instruction from a largely textbook-based teacher-centered approach to a more interactive and student-centered approach, and promoting the integration of knowledge and development of deep understanding by students. Evaluation on learning performance and learning satisfaction is conducted to identify helpful components and perception based on students' learning activities. The feedbacks indicate that the use of online instructional resources has positive impacts on mitigating Earth system science education challenges, and has the potential to promote deep learning.

Energy Budget: Earth's Most Important and Least Appreciated Planetary Attribute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chambers, Lin; Bethea, Katie

2013-01-01

The energy budget involves more than one kind of energy. People can sense this energy in different ways, depending on what type of energy it is. We see visible light using our eyes. We feel infrared energy using our skin (such as around a campfire). We know some species of animals can see ultraviolet light and portions of the infrared spectrum. NASA satellites use instruments that can "see" different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to observe various processes in the Earth system, including the energy budget. The Sun is a very hot ball of plasma emitting large amounts of energy. By the time it reaches Earth, this energy amounts to about 340 Watts for every square meter of Earth on average. That's almost 6 60-Watt light bulbs for every square meter of Earth! With all of that energy shining down on the Earth, how does our planet maintain a comfortable balance that allows a complex ecosystem, including humans, to thrive? The key thing to remember is the Sun - hot though it is - is a tiny part of Earth's environment. Earth's energy budget is a critical but little understood aspect of our planetary home. NASA is actively studying this important Earth system feature, and sharing data and knowledge about it with the education community.

Understanding USGS user needs and Earth observing data use for decision making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Z.

2016-12-01

US Geological Survey (USGS) initiated the Requirements, Capabilities and Analysis for Earth Observations (RCA-EO) project in the Land Remote Sensing (LRS) program, collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to jointly develop the supporting information infrastructure - The Earth Observation Requirements Evaluation Systems (EORES). RCA-EO enables us to collect information on current data products and projects across the USGS and evaluate the impacts of Earth observation data from all sources, including spaceborne, airborne, and ground-based platforms. EORES allows users to query, filter, and analyze usage and impacts of Earth observation data at different organizational level within the bureau. We engaged over 500 subject matter experts and evaluated more than 1000 different Earth observing data sources and products. RCA-EO provides a comprehensive way to evaluate impacts of Earth observing data on USGS mission areas and programs through the survey of 345 key USGS products and services. We paid special attention to user feedback about Earth observing data to inform decision making on improving user satisfaction. We believe the approach and philosophy of RCA-EO can be applied in much broader scope to derive comprehensive knowledge of Earth observing systems impacts and usage and inform data products development and remote sensing technology innovation.

Incorporating Geoethics in Introductory Earth System Science Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmitt, J.

2014-12-01

The integrative nature of Earth System Science courses provides extensive opportunities to introduce students to geoethical inquiry focused on globally significant societal issues. Geoscience education has traditionally lagged in its efforts to increase student awareness of the significance of geologic knowledge to understanding and responsibly confronting causes and possible solutions for emergent, newly emerging, and future problems of anthropogenic cause and consequence. Developing an understanding of the human impact on the earth system requires early (lower division) and for geoscience majors, repeated (upper division) curricular emphasis on the interactions of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere across space and through time. Capturing the interest of university students in globally relevant earth system issues and their ethical dimensions while first learning about the earth system is an important initial step in bringing geoethical deliberation and awareness to the next generation of geoscientists. Development of a new introductory Earth System Science course replacing a traditional introductory Physical Geology course at Montana State University has involved abandonment of concept-based content organization in favor of a place-based approach incorporating examination of the complex interactions of earth system components and emergent issues and dilemmas deriving from the unique component interactions that characterize each locale. Thirteen different place-based week-long modules (using web- and classroom-based instruction) were developed to ensure cumulative broad coverage across the earth geographically and earth system components conceptually. Each place-based instructional module contains content of societal relevance requiring synthesis, critical evaluation, and reflection by students. Examples include making linkages between deforestation driven by economics and increased seismicity in Haiti, agriculture and development of marine dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, glacier melting and alpine ecotone migration due to global warming in Glacier National Park, USA, and destruction of Caribbean mangrove forests and its negative effects on coral reef biodiversity.

Integrating Intelligent Systems Domain Knowledge Into the Earth Science Curricula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Güereque, M.; Pennington, D. D.; Pierce, S. A.

2017-12-01

High-volume heterogeneous datasets are becoming ubiquitous, migrating to center stage over the last ten years and transcending the boundaries of computationally intensive disciplines into the mainstream, becoming a fundamental part of every science discipline. Despite the fact that large datasets are now pervasive across industries and academic disciplines, the array of skills is generally absent from earth science programs. This has left the bulk of the student population without access to curricula that systematically teach appropriate intelligent-systems skills, creating a void for skill sets that should be universal given their need and marketability. While some guidance regarding appropriate computational thinking and pedagogy is appearing, there exist few examples where these have been specifically designed and tested within the earth science domain. Furthermore, best practices from learning science have not yet been widely tested for developing intelligent systems-thinking skills. This research developed and tested evidence based computational skill modules that target this deficit with the intention of informing the earth science community as it continues to incorporate intelligent systems techniques and reasoning into its research and classrooms.

Advancing Capabilities for Understanding the Earth System Through Intelligent Systems, the NSF Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gil, Y.; Zanzerkia, E. E.; Munoz-Avila, H.

2015-12-01

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) and Directorate for Computer and Information Science (CISE) acknowledge the significant scientific challenges required to understand the fundamental processes of the Earth system, within the atmospheric and geospace, Earth, ocean and polar sciences, and across those boundaries. A broad view of the opportunities and directions for GEO are described in the report "Dynamic Earth: GEO imperative and Frontiers 2015-2020." Many of the aspects of geosciences research, highlighted both in this document and other community grand challenges, pose novel problems for researchers in intelligent systems. Geosciences research will require solutions for data-intensive science, advanced computational capabilities, and transformative concepts for visualizing, using, analyzing and understanding geo phenomena and data. Opportunities for the scientific community to engage in addressing these challenges are available and being developed through NSF's portfolio of investments and activities. The NSF-wide initiative, Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21), looks to accelerate research and education through new capabilities in data, computation, software and other aspects of cyberinfrastructure. EarthCube, a joint program between GEO and the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Division, aims to create a well-connected and facile environment to share data and knowledge in an open, transparent, and inclusive manner, thus accelerating our ability to understand and predict the Earth system. EarthCube's mission opens an opportunity for collaborative research on novel information systems enhancing and supporting geosciences research efforts. NSF encourages true, collaborative partnerships between scientists in computer sciences and the geosciences to meet these challenges.

Linking Earth Observations and Models to Societal Information Needs: The Case of Coastal Flooding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buzzanga, B. A.; Plag, H. P.

2016-12-01

Coastal flooding is expected to increase in many areas due to sea level rise (SLR). Many societal applications such as emergency planning and designing public services depend on information on how the flooding spectrum may change as a result of SLR. To identify the societal information needs a conceptual model is needed that identifies the key stakeholders, applications, and information and observation needs. In the context of the development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), which is implemented by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the Socio-Economic and Environmental Information Needs Knowledge Base (SEE-IN KB) is developed as part of the GEOSS Knowledge Base. A core function of the SEE-IN KB is to facilitate the linkage of societal information needs to observations, models, information and knowledge. To achieve this, the SEE-IN KB collects information on objects such as user types, observational requirements, societal goals, models, and datasets. Comprehensive information concerning the interconnections between instances of these objects is used to capture the connectivity and to establish a conceptual model as a network of networks. The captured connectivity can be used in searches to allow users to discover products and services for their information needs, and providers to search for users and applications benefiting from their products. It also allows to answer "What if?" questions and supports knowledge creation. We have used the SEE-IN KB to develop a conceptual model capturing the stakeholders in coastal flooding and their information needs, and to link these elements to objects. We show how the knowledge base enables the transition of scientific data to useable information by connecting individuals such as city managers to flood maps. Within the knowledge base, these same users can request information that improves their ability to make specific planning decisions. These needs are linked to entities within research institutions that have the capabilities to meet them. Further, current research such as that investigating precipitation-induced flooding under different SLR scenarios is linked to the users who benefit from the knowledge, effectively creating a bi-directional channel between science and society that increases knowledge and improves foresight.

Multi-Disciplinary Knowledge Synthesis for Human Health Assessment on Earth and in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christakos, G.

We discuss methodological developments in multi-disciplinary knowledge synthesis (KS) of human health assessment. A theoretical KS framework can provide the rational means for the assimilation of various information bases (general, site-specific etc.) that are relevant to the life system of interest. KS-based techniques produce a realistic representation of the system, provide a rigorous assessment of the uncertainty sources, and generate informative health state predictions across space-time. The underlying epistemic cognition methodology is based on teleologic criteria and stochastic logic principles. The mathematics of KS involves a powerful and versatile spatiotemporal random field model that accounts rigorously for the uncertainty features of the life system and imposes no restriction on the shape of the probability distributions or the form of the predictors. KS theory is instrumental in understanding natural heterogeneities, assessing crucial human exposure correlations and laws of physical change, and explaining toxicokinetic mechanisms and dependencies in a spatiotemporal life system domain. It is hoped that a better understanding of KS fundamentals would generate multi-disciplinary models that are useful for the maintenance of human health on Earth and in Space.

The Acquisition of Scientific Knowledge: The Influence of Methods of Questioning and Analysis on the Interpretation of Children's Conceptions of the Earth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frede, Valerie; Nobes, Gavin; Frappart, Soren; Panagiotaki, Georgia; Troadec, Bertrand; Martin, Alan

2011-01-01

Studies of children's knowledge of the Earth have led to very different conclusions: some appear to show that children construct their own, non-scientific "theories" (mental models) of the flat, hollow or dual Earth. Others indicate that many young children have some understanding of the spherical (scientific) Earth, and that their…

Monthly Variations of Low-Energy Ballistic Transfers to Lunar Halo Orbits

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parker, Jeffrey S.

2010-01-01

The characteristics of low-energy transfers between the Earth and Moon vary from one month to the next largely due to the Earth's and Moon's non-circular, non-coplanar orbits in the solar system. This paper characterizes those monthly variations as it explores the trade space of low-energy lunar transfers across many months. Mission designers may use knowledge of these variations to swiftly design desirable low-energy lunar transfers in any given month.

From Data to Knowledge in Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dobinson, Elaine R.; Jacob, Joseph C.; Yunck, Thomas P.

2004-01-01

This paper examines three NASA science data archive systems from the Earth, planetary, and astronomy domains, and discusses the various efforts underway to provide their science communities with not only better access to their holdings, but also with the services they need to interpret the data and understand their physical meaning. The paper identifies problems common to all three domains and suggests ways that common standards, technologies, and even implementations be leveraged to benefit each other.

SERVIR: Environmental Decision Making in the Americas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lapenta, William; Irwin, Dan

2008-01-01

SERVIR is a regional visualization and monitoring system for Mesoamerica that integrates satellite and other geospatial data for improved scientific knowledge and decision making by managers, researchers, students, and the general public. SERVIR addresses the nine societal benefit areas of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). This talk will provide an overview of products and services available through SERVIR.

Large Scale Data Mining to Improve Usability of Data: An Intelligent Archive Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram; Isaac, David; Yang, Wenli; Morse, Steve

2005-01-01

Research in certain scientific disciplines - including Earth science, particle physics, and astrophysics - continually faces the challenge that the volume of data needed to perform valid scientific research can at times overwhelm even a sizable research community. The desire to improve utilization of this data gave rise to the Intelligent Archives project, which seeks to make data archives active participants in a knowledge building system capable of discovering events or patterns that represent new information or knowledge. Data mining can automatically discover patterns and events, but it is generally viewed as unsuited for large-scale use in disciplines like Earth science that routinely involve very high data volumes. Dozens of research projects have shown promising uses of data mining in Earth science, but all of these are based on experiments with data subsets of a few gigabytes or less, rather than the terabytes or petabytes typically encountered in operational systems. To bridge this gap, the Intelligent Archives project is establishing a testbed with the goal of demonstrating the use of data mining techniques in an operationally-relevant environment. This paper discusses the goals of the testbed and the design choices surrounding critical issues that arose during testbed implementation.

Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun with Earth to Scale

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. The image above includes an image of Earth to show the size of the CME compared to the size of Earth. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

High-End Climate Science: Development of Modeling and Related Computing Capabilities

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-12-01

toward strengthening research on key scientific issues. The Program has supported research that has led to substantial increases in knowledge , improved...provides overall direction and executive oversight of the USGCRP. Within this framework, agencies manage and coordinate Federally supported scientific...critical for the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Such models can be used to look backward to test the consistency of our knowledge of Earth system

The IS-GEO RCN: Fostering Collaborations for Intelligent Systems Research to Support Geosciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gil, Y.; Pierce, S. A.

2016-12-01

Geoscience problems are complex and often involve data that changes across space and time. Frequently geoscience knowledge and understanding provides valuable information and insight for problems related to energy, water, climate, mineral resources, and our understanding of how the Earth evolves through time. Simultaneously, many grand challenges in the geosciences cannot be addressed without the aid of computational support and innovations. Intelligent and Information Systems (IS) research includes a broad range of computational methods and topics such as knowledge representation, information integration, machine learning, robotics, adaptive sensors, and intelligent interfaces. IS research has a very important role to play in accelerating the speed of scientific discovery in geosciences and thus in solving challenges in geosciences. Many aspects of geosciences (GEO) research pose novel open problems for intelligent systems researchers. To develop intelligent systems with sound knowledge of theory and practice, it is important that GEO and IS experts collaborate. The EarthCube Research Coordination Network for Intelligent Systems for Geosciences (IS-GEO RCN) represents an emerging community of interdisciplinary researchers producing fundamental new capabilities for understanding Earth systems. Furthermore, the educational component aims to identify new approaches to teaching students in this new interdisciplinary area, seeking to raise a new generation of scientists that are better able to apply IS methods and tools to geoscience challenges of the future. By providing avenues for IS and GEO researchers to work together, the IS-GEO RCN will serve as both a point of contact, as well as an avenue for educational outreach across the disciplines for the nascent community of research and practice. The initial efforts are focused on connecting the communities in ways that help researchers understand opportunities and challenges that can benefit from IS-GEO collaborations. The IS-GEO RCN will jumpstart interdisciplinary research collaborations in this emerging new area so that progress across both disciplines can be accelerated.

Space Studies of the Earth-Moon System, Planets, and Small Bodies of the Solar System (B) Past, Present and Future of Small Body Science and Exploration (B0.4)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abell, Paul; Mazanek, Dan; Reeves, Dan; Chodas, Paul; Gates, Michele; Johnson, Lindley; Ticker, Ronald

2016-01-01

To achieve its long-term goal of sending humans to Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to proceed in a series of incrementally more complex human space flight missions. Today, human flight experience extends only to Low- Earth Orbit (LEO), and should problems arise during a mission, the crew can return to Earth in a matter of minutes to hours. The next logical step for human space flight is to gain flight experience in the vicinity of the Moon. These cis-lunar missions provide a "proving ground" for the testing of systems and operations while still accommodating an emergency return path to the Earth that would last only several days. Cis-lunar mission experience will be essential for more ambitious human missions beyond the Earth-Moon system, which will require weeks, months, or even years of transit time. In addition, NASA has been given a Grand Challenge to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them. Obtaining knowledge of asteroid physical properties combined with performing technology demonstrations for planetary defense provide much needed information to address the issue of future asteroid impacts on Earth. Hence the combined objectives of human exploration and planetary defense give a rationale for the Asteroid Re-direct Mission (ARM).

Adoption of Geospatial Systems towards evolving Sustainable Himalayan Mountain Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murthy, M. S. R.; Bajracharya, B.; Pradhan, S.; Shestra, B.; Bajracharya, R.; Shakya, K.; Wesselmann, S.; Ali, M.; Bajracharya, S.; Pradhan, S.

2014-11-01

Natural resources dependence of mountain communities, rapid social and developmental changes, disaster proneness and climate change are conceived as the critical factors regulating sustainable Himalayan mountain development. The Himalayan region posed by typical geographic settings, diverse physical and cultural diversity present a formidable challenge to collect and manage data, information and understands varied socio-ecological settings. Recent advances in earth observation, near real-time data, in-situ measurements and in combination of information and communication technology have transformed the way we collect, process, and generate information and how we use such information for societal benefits. Glacier dynamics, land cover changes, disaster risk reduction systems, food security and ecosystem conservation are a few thematic areas where geospatial information and knowledge have significantly contributed to informed decision making systems over the region. The emergence and adoption of near-real time systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), board-scale citizen science (crowd-sourcing), mobile services and mapping, and cloud computing have paved the way towards developing automated environmental monitoring systems, enhanced scientific understanding of geophysical and biophysical processes, coupled management of socio-ecological systems and community based adaptation models tailored to mountain specific environment. There are differentiated capacities among the ICIMOD regional member countries with regard to utilization of earth observation and geospatial technologies. The region can greatly benefit from a coordinated and collaborative approach to capture the opportunities offered by earth observation and geospatial technologies. The regional level data sharing, knowledge exchange, and Himalayan GEO supporting geospatial platforms, spatial data infrastructure, unique region specific satellite systems to address trans-boundary challenges would go a long way in evolving sustainable Himalayan livelihoods.

An expert system prototype for aiding in the development of software functional requirements for NASA Goddard's command management system: A case study and lessons learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liebowitz, Jay

1986-01-01

At NASA Goddard, the role of the command management system (CMS) is to transform general requests for spacecraft opeerations into detailed operational plans to be uplinked to the spacecraft. The CMS is part of the NASA Data System which entails the downlink of science and engineering data from NASA near-earth satellites to the user, and the uplink of command and control data to the spacecraft. Presently, it takes one to three years, with meetings once or twice a week, to determine functional requirements for CMS software design. As an alternative approach to the present technique of developing CMS software functional requirements, an expert system prototype was developed to aid in this function. Specifically, the knowledge base was formulated through interactions with domain experts, and was then linked to an existing expert system application generator called 'Knowledge Engineering System (Version 1.3).' Knowledge base development focused on four major steps: (1) develop the problem-oriented attribute hierachy; (2) determine the knowledge management approach; (3) encode the knowledge base; and (4) validate, test, certify, and evaluate the knowledge base and the expert system prototype as a whole. Backcasting was accomplished for validating and testing the expert system prototype. Knowledge refinement, evaluation, and implementation procedures of the expert system prototype were then transacted.

Super earth interiors and validity of Birch's Law for ultra-high pressure metals and ionic solids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ware, Lucas Andrew

2015-01-01

Super Earths, recently detected by the Kepler Mission, expand the ensemble of known terrestrial planets beyond our Solar System's limited group. Birch's Law and velocity-density systematics have been crucial in constraining our knowledge of the composition of Earth's mantle and core. Recently published static diamond anvil cell experimental measurements of sound velocities in iron, a key deep element in most super Earth models, are inconsistent with each other with regard to the validity of Birch's Law. We examine the range of validity of Birch's Law for several metallic elements, including iron, and ionic solids shocked with a two-stage light gas gun into the ultra-high pressure, temperature fluid state and make comparisons to the recent static data.

The Concise Knowledge Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clerke, Agnes Mary; Fowler, Alfred; Ellard Gore, John

2011-01-01

Preface; Section I. History Agnes M. Clerke: 1. From Hipparchus to Laplace; 2. A century of progress; Section II. Geometrical Astronomy and Astronomical Instruments A. Fowler: 1. The Earth and its rotation; 2. The Earth's revolution round the Sun; 3. How the positions of the heavenly bodies are defined; 4. The Earth's orbit; 5. Mean solar time; 6. The movements of the Moon; 7. Movements of planets, satellites, and comets; 8. Eclipses and occultations; 9. How to find our situation on the Earth; 10. The exact size and shape of the earth; 11. The distances and dimensions of the heavenly bodies; 12. The masses of celestial bodies; 13. Gravitational effects of Sun and moon upon the Earth; 14. Instrumental measurement of angles and time; 15. Telescopes; 16. Instruments of precision; 17. Astrophysical instruments; Section III. The Solar System Agnes M. Clerke: 1. The solar system as a whole; 2. The Sun; 3. The Sun's surroundings; 4. The interior planets; 5. The Earth and Moon; 6. The planet Mars; 7. The asteroids; 8. The planet Jupiter; 9. The Saturnian system; 10. Uranus and Neptune; 11. Famous comets; 12. Nature and origin of comets; 13. Meteorites and shooting stars; Section IV. The Sidereal Heavens J.E. Gore: 1. The stars and constellations; 2. Double, multiple, and coloured stars; 3. The distances and motions of the stars; 4. Binary stars; 5. Variable and temporary stars; 6. Clusters and nebulae; 7. The construction of the heavens; Index.

The Multispectral Imaging Science Working Group. Volume 2: Working group reports

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cox, S. C. (Editor)

1982-01-01

Summaries of the various multispectral imaging science working groups are presented. Current knowledge of the spectral and spatial characteristics of the Earth's surface is outlined and the present and future capabilities of multispectral imaging systems are discussed.

Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ride, Sally

2008-01-01

Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM), an education activity, allows middle school students to program a digital camera on board the International Space Station to photograph a variety of geographical targets for study in the classroom. Photos are made available on the web for viewing and study by participating schools around the world. Educators use the images for projects involving Earth Science, geography, physics, and social science.

Energy Transfer in the Earth-Sun System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lui, A. T. Y.; Kamide, Y.

2007-02-01

Conference on Earth-Sun System Exploration: Energy Transfer; Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA, 16-20 January 2006; The goal of this conference, which was supported by several agencies and organizations, was to provide a forum for physicists engaged in the Earth-Sun system as well as in laboratory experiments to discuss and exchange knowledge and ideas on physical processes involving energy transfer. The motivation of the conference stemmed from the following realization: Space assets form an important fabric of our society, performing functions such as television broadcasting, cell- phone communication, navigation, and remote monitoring of tropospheric weather. There is increasing awareness of how much our daily activities can be adversely affected by space disturbances stretching all the way back to the Sun. In some of these energetic phenomena, energy in various forms can propagate long distances from the solar surface to the interplanetary medium and eventually to the Earth's immediate space environment, namely, its magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere. In addition, transformation of energy can take place in these space disturbances, allowing charged-particle energy to be transformed to electromagnetic energy or vice versa. In- depth understanding of energy transformation and transmission in the Earth-Sun system will foster the identification of physical processes responsible for space disturbances and the prediction of their occurrences and effects. Participants came from 15 countries.

Extreme Events and Disaster Risk Reduction - a Future Earth KAN initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frank, Dorothea; Reichstein, Markus

2017-04-01

The topic of Extreme Events in the context of global environmental change is both a scientifically challenging and exciting topic, and of very high societal relevance. The Future Earth Cluster initiative E3S organized in 2016 a cross-community/co-design workshop on Extreme Events and Environments from Climate to Society (http://www.e3s-future-earth.eu/index.php/ConferencesEvents/ConferencesAmpEvents). Based on the results, co-design research strategies and established network of the workshop, and previous activities, E3S is thriving to establish the basis for a longer-term research effort under the umbrella of Future Earth. These led to an initiative for a Future Earth Knowledge Action Network on Extreme Events and Disaster Risk Reduction. Example initial key question in this context include: What are meaningful indices to describe and quantify impact-relevant (e.g. climate) extremes? Which system properties yield resistance and resilience to extreme conditions? What are the key interactions between global urbanization processes, extreme events, and social and infrastructure vulnerability and resilience? The long-term goal of this KAN is to contribute to enhancing the resistance, resilience, and adaptive capacity of socio-ecological systems across spatial, temporal and institutional scales, in particular in the light of hazards affected by ongoing environmental change (e.g. climate change, global urbanization and land use/land cover change). This can be achieved by enhanced understanding, prediction, improved and open data and knowledge bases for detection and early warning decision making, and by new insights on natural and societal conditions and governance for resilience and adaptive capacity.

NASA's Astro-Venture Engages Exceptional Students in Earth System Science Using Inquiry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oguinn, C.

2003-12-01

Astro-Venture is an educational, interactive, multimedia Web environment highlighting NASA careers and astrobiology research in the areas of Astronomy, Geology, Biology and Atmospheric Sciences. Students in grades 5-8 role-play NASA careers, as they search for and design a planet with the necessary characteristics for human habitation. Astro-Venture uses online multimedia activities and off-line inquiry explorations to engage students in guided inquiry aligned with the 5 E inquiry model. This model has proven to be effective with exceptional students. Students are presented with the intellectual confrontation of how to design a planet and star system that would be able to meet their biological survival needs. This provides a purpose for the online and off-line explorations used throughout the site. Students first explore "what" conditions are necessary to support human habitability by engaging in multimedia training modules, which allow them to change astronomical, atmospheric, geological and biological aspects of the Earth and our star system and to view the effects of these changes on Earth. By focusing on Earth, students draw on their prior knowledge, which helps them to connect their new knowledge to their existing schema. Cause and effect relationships of Earth provide a concrete model from which students can observe patterns and generalize abstract results to an imagined planet. From these observations, students draw conclusions about what aspects allowed Earth to remain habitable. Once students have generalized needed conditions of "what" we need for a habitable planet, they conduct further research in off-line, standards-based classroom activities that also follow the inquiry model and help students to understand "why" we need these conditions. These lessons focus on standards-based concepts such as states of matter and the structure and movement of the Earth's interior. These lessons follow the inquiry structure commonly referred to as the five E's as follows: Engage: Draws on students' prior knowledge, builds on previous lesson concepts, introduces the purpose of the lesson and the scientific question which is the problem or intellectual confrontation they will explore. Explore: Students form hypotheses and conduct an exploration that will help them to collect data and evidence to answer the scientific question. Explain: Students reflect on the explore activity by recording their results and conclusions. They participate in guided discussions or activities that help to guide their understanding of the concepts. Extend/Apply: Students demonstrate their understanding of the concept and/or apply it to another situation. Evaluate: Students are evaluated on their understanding of the concept often using rubrics. After students have mastered the "whats" and "whys," they engage in multimedia mission modules that simulate "how" scientists might search for a planet and star system that meets these requirements using the inquiry process. Students are first asked to hypothesize the likelihood of finding a star system that meets these requirements. They then simulate the methods scientists might use to collect data on various stars and planets to deduce whether the star system meets the requirements for habitability or not. After collecting and analyzing this data, students are asked to draw conclusions in comparing their results to their initial hypothesis. Students apply all that they've learned to design a planet that meets the requirements for human habitability in all areas. Through this process, they learn that Earth works as a system in meeting our needs.

Towards Global Transdisciplinary Research: Lessons Learned from the Belmont Forum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paillard, S. J.; Uhle, M. E.; van Jaarsveld, A. S.; Monfray, P.

2014-12-01

The Belmont Forum was initiated in 2009 by a sub group of the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research. The Belmont Challenge embodies the Forum's central goal: to deliver knowledge needed for societies to take action to mitigate and adapt to detrimental environmental change. This is fostered through collaboration among scientists across the globe and by stressing the importance of co-production of knowledge associated with coupled natural and social systems. The Belmont Challenge was clearly aligned with other collective thinking processes within the research community and key knowledge users from intergovernmental bodies. Convergence of these efforts gave rise to the S&T Alliance for Global Sustainability and its initiative - Future Earth. Collaborative Research Actions, consisting primarily of multilateral research calls to address topics relevant to Future Earth, have been the main tool developed to address the Belmont Challenge and some early lessons emerged. First, obstacles faced by the Belmont Forum are similar to those met by scientists collaborating across traditional boundaries. Building shared languages and interests between various disciplines and across global cultures, remains difficult; this results in a persistent underestimation of the transformation required to move knowledge creation towards a truly global inter- and transdisciplinary science. Second, the diversity of organizations, cultures and practices within the Belmont Forum is the main source of its creativity and its challenges. While some convergence is needed to build coherent strategies and work efficiently together, diversity is necessary to design actions suitable for all partners regardless of their national research system and science-policy priorities. Finding the right trade-offs is a learning process that Future Earth is also facing; thus both initiatives are not only linked through funding relations but also through strongly intertwined learning curves.

Attitude Accuracy Study for the Earth Observing System (EOS) AM-1 Spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lesikar, James D., II; Garrick, Joseph C.

1996-01-01

Earth Observing System (EOS) spacecraft will take measurements of the Earth's clouds, oceans, atmosphere, land, and radiation balance. These EOS spacecraft are part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mission to Planet Earth, and consist of several series of satellites, with each series specializing in a particular class of observations. This paper focuses on the EOS AM-1 spacecraft, which is the first of three satellites constituting the EOS AM series (morning equatorial crossing) and the initial spacecraft of the EOS program. EOS AM-1 has a stringent onboard attitude knowledge requirement, of 36/41/44 arc seconds (3 sigma) in yaw/roll/pitch, respectively. During normal mission operations, attitude is determined onboard using an extended Kalman sequential filter via measurements from two charge coupled device (CCD) star trackers, one Fine Sun Sensor, and an Inertial Rate Unit. The attitude determination error analysis system (ADEAS) was used to model the spacecraft and mission profile, and in a worst case scenario with only one star tracker in operation, the attitude uncertainty was 9.7/ll.5/12.2 arc seconds (3 sigma) in yaw/roll/pitch. The quoted result assumed the spacecraft was in nominal attitude, using only the 1-rotation per orbit motion of the spacecraft about the pitch axis for calibration of the gyro biases. Deviations from the nominal attitude would show greater attitude uncertainties, unless calibration maneuvers which roll and/or yaw the spacecraft have been performed. This permits computation of the gyro misalignments, and the attitude knowledge requirement would remain satisfied.

Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) IPY Modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blaney, L. S.; Myers, R. J.; Schwerin, T.

2008-12-01

The Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) is a National Science Foundation-supported program implemented by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) to improve the quality of geoscience instruction for pre-service, middle, and high school teachers. ESSEA increases teachers' access to quality materials, standards-based instructional methods and content knowledge. With additional support from NASA, the ESSEA program is being enhanced to reflect emphasis on the International Polar Year. From 1999-2005 the ESSEA program was based on a trio of online courses (for elementary, middle, and high school teachers), the courses have been used by 40 faculty at 20 institutions educating over 1,700 teachers in Earth system science. Program evaluation of original course participants indicated that the courses had significant impact on teachers Earth system content knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning. Seventeen of the original participating institutions have continued to use the courses and many have developed new programs that incorporate the courses in Earth science education opportunities for teachers. Today the ESSEA program lists nearly 40 colleges and universities as participants. With NASA support, the K-4 course and modules have been revised to include topics and resources focusing on the International Polar Year. Additional modules examining the changes in black carbon, ice sheets and permafrost have been added for middle and high school levels. The new modules incorporate geoscience data and analysis tools into classroom instruction. By exploring IPY related topics and data, participating teachers and their students will develop new understandings about the interactions and dependencies of the Earth spheres and our polar regions. Changes in climate, air, water, and land quality and animal and plant populations make the news everyday. The ESSEA IPY modules will help teachers inform rather than frighten their students as they learn more about the characteristics and importance of our polar regions. One goal of IPY 2007-2008 is to increase the awareness, understanding and interest of school-age children in polar conditions and research. The inclusion of polar topics in the ESSEA courses and modules contributes to the achievement of that goal.

Children's Knowledge of the Earth: A New Methodological and Statistical Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Straatemeier, Marthe; van der Maas, Han L. J.; Jansen, Brenda R. J.

2008-01-01

In the field of children's knowledge of the earth, much debate has concerned the question of whether children's naive knowledge--that is, their knowledge before they acquire the standard scientific theory--is coherent (i.e., theory-like) or fragmented. We conducted two studies with large samples (N = 328 and N = 381) using a new paper-and-pencil…

CEOS SEO and GISS Meeting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Killough, Brian; Stover, Shelley

2008-01-01

The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) provides a brief to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) regarding the CEOS Systems Engineering Office (SEO) and current work on climate requirements and analysis. A "system framework" is provided for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). SEO climate-related tasks are outlined including the assessment of essential climate variable (ECV) parameters, use of the "systems framework" to determine relevant informational products and science models and the performance of assessments and gap analyses of measurements and missions for each ECV. Climate requirements, including instruments and missions, measurements, knowledge and models, and decision makers, are also outlined. These requirements would establish traceability from instruments to products and services allowing for benefit evaluation of instruments and measurements. Additionally, traceable climate requirements would provide a better understanding of global climate models.

PHAROS: Shedding Light on the Near-Earth Asteroid Apophis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sharma, Jonathan; Lafleur, Jarret; Barron, Kreston; Townley, Jonathan; Shah, Nilesh; Apa, Jillian

2007-01-01

The Pharos mission to asteroid Apophis provides the first major opportunity to enhance orbital state and scientific knowledge of the most threatening Earth-crossing asteroid that has ever been tracked. Pharos aims to accomplish concrete and feasible orbit determination and scientific objectives while achieving balance among mission cost, nsk,and schedule. Similar to its ancient Egyptian namesake, Pharos acts as a beacon shedding light not only on the physical characteristics of Apophis, but also on its state as it travels through the solar system.

Effective geoscience pedagogy at the undergraduate level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warden, Kelsey

This investigation used constructivist pedagogical methods within the framework of an introductory level undergraduate geoscience course to gauge both the changes in attitude and cognition of students. Pedagogy was modified in the laboratory setting, but maintained in the lecture setting and homework. Curriculum was also maintained in the lecture, but was changed in the laboratory to emphasize the large concepts and systems stressed in Earth Science Literacy Principles. Student understanding of these concepts and systems was strengthened by factual knowledge, but recall and memorization were not the goal of the laboratory instruction. The overall goal of the study was to build student understanding more effectively than in previous semesters such that the students would become Earth Science literate adults. We hypothesized that a healthy comprehension of the connections between the human population and Earth's systems would lead to improved cognition and attitude toward Earth Science. This was tested using pre- and post-testing of attitudes via an anonymous survey on the first and last days of the laboratory, student responses to the end-of-course evaluations, and student performance on early-semester and late-semester content testing. The results support the hypotheses.

A Strategy for an Enterprise-Wide Data Management Capability at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fuhrman, D.

2000-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally Research and Development Center (FFRDC) operated by the California Institute of Technology that is engaged in the quest for knowledge about the solar system, the universe, and the Earth.

Overview of past, ongoing and future efforts of the integrated modeling of global change for Northern Eurasia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monier, Erwan; Kicklighter, David; Sokolov, Andrei; Zhuang, Qianlai; Melillo, Jerry; Reilly, John

2016-04-01

Northern Eurasia is both a major player in the global carbon budget (it includes roughly 70% of the Earth's boreal forest and more than two-thirds of the Earth's permafrost) and a region that has experienced dramatic climate change (increase in temperature, growing season length, floods and droughts) over the past century. Northern Eurasia has also undergone significant land-use change, both driven by human activity (including deforestation, expansion of agricultural lands and urbanization) and natural disturbances (such as wildfires and insect outbreaks). These large environmental and socioeconomic impacts have major implications for the carbon cycle in the region. Northern Eurasia is made up of a diverse set of ecosystems that range from tundra to forests, with significant areas of croplands and pastures as well as deserts, with major urban areas. As such, it represents a complex system with substantial challenges for the modeling community. In this presentation, we provide an overview of past, ongoing and possible future efforts of the integrated modeling of global change for Northern Eurasia. We review the variety of existing modeling approaches to investigate specific components of Earth system dynamics in the region. While there are a limited number of studies that try to integrate various aspects of the Earth system (through scale, teleconnections or processes), we point out that there are few systematic analyses of the various feedbacks within the Earth system (between components, regions or scale). As a result, there is a lack of knowledge of the relative importance of such feedbacks, and it is unclear how policy relevant current studies are that fail to account for these feedbacks. We review the role of Earth system models, and their advantages/limitations compared to detailed single component models. We further introduce the human activity system (global trade, economic models, demographic model and so on), the need for coupled human/earth system models and Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), a suite of models that couple human activity models to Earth System Models. Finally, we conclude the presentation with examples of emerging issues that require a representation of the coupled human/earth system models.

Modeling global change impacts on Northern Eurasia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kicklighter, D. W.; Monier, E.; Sokolov, A. P.; Zhuang, Q.; Melillo, J. M.; Reilly, J. M.

2016-12-01

Northern Eurasia is a major player in the global carbon budget and includes roughly 70% of the Earth's boreal forest and more than two-thirds of the Earth's permafrost. The region has experienced dramatic climate change (increase in temperature, growing season length, floods and droughts), natural disturbances (wildfires and insect outbreaks), and land-use change (timber harvest, urbanization, expansion and abandonment of agricultural lands) over the past century. These large environmental and socioeconomic impacts have major implications for the carbon cycle in the region. Northern Eurasia is made up of a diverse set of ecosystems that range from deserts to forests, with significant areas of croplands, pastures, and urban areas. As such, it represents a complex system with substantial challenges for the modeling community. We provide an overview of past, ongoing and possible future efforts of the integrated modeling of global change for Northern Eurasia. First, we review the variety of existing modeling approaches to investigate specific components of Earth system dynamics in the region. While there are a limited number of studies that try to integrate various aspects of the Earth system through scale, teleconnections or processes, there are few systematic analyses of the various feedbacks among components within the Earth system. As a result, there is a lack of knowledge of the relative importance of such feedbacks, and it is unclear how relevant current studies, which do not account for these feedbacks, may be for policymaking. Next, we review the role of Earth system models, and their advantages/limitations compared to detailed single component models. We further introduce human activity models (e.g., global trade, economic models, demographic models), and the need for Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), a suite of models that couple human activity models to Earth System Models. Finally, we examine emerging issues that require a representation of the coupled human/earth system models to address.

The Earth Observation Data for Habitat Monitoring (EODHaM) system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucas, Richard; Blonda, Palma; Bunting, Peter; Jones, Gwawr; Inglada, Jordi; Arias, Marcela; Kosmidou, Vasiliki; Petrou, Zisis I.; Manakos, Ioannis; Adamo, Maria; Charnock, Rebecca; Tarantino, Cristina; Mücher, Caspar A.; Jongman, Rob H. G.; Kramer, Henk; Arvor, Damien; Honrado, Joāo Pradinho; Mairota, Paola

2015-05-01

To support decisions relating to the use and conservation of protected areas and surrounds, the EU-funded BIOdiversity multi-SOurce monitoring System: from Space TO Species (BIO_SOS) project has developed the Earth Observation Data for HAbitat Monitoring (EODHaM) system for consistent mapping and monitoring of biodiversity. The EODHaM approach has adopted the Food and Agriculture Organization Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) taxonomy and translates mapped classes to General Habitat Categories (GHCs) from which Annex I habitats (EU Habitats Directive) can be defined. The EODHaM system uses a combination of pixel and object-based procedures. The 1st and 2nd stages use earth observation (EO) data alone with expert knowledge to generate classes according to the LCCS taxonomy (Levels 1 to 3 and beyond). The 3rd stage translates the final LCCS classes into GHCs from which Annex I habitat type maps are derived. An additional module quantifies changes in the LCCS classes and their components, indices derived from earth observation, object sizes and dimensions and the translated habitat maps (i.e., GHCs or Annex I). Examples are provided of the application of EODHaM system elements to protected sites and their surrounds in Italy, Wales (UK), the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and India.

Mi-STAR Unit Challenges serve as a model for integrating earth science and systems thinking in a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) aligned curriculum.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gochis, E. E.; Tubman, S.; Matthys, T.; Bluth, G.; Oppliger, D.; Danhoff, B.; Huntoon, J. E.

2017-12-01

Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform (Mi-STAR) is developing an NGSS-aligned middle school curriculum and associated teacher professional learning program in which science is taught and learned as an integrated body of knowledge that can be applied to address societal issues. With the generous support of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Mi-STAR has released several pilot-tested units through the Mi-STAR curriculum portal at mi-star.mtu.edu. Each of these units focuses on an ongoing `Unit Challenge' investigation that integrates STEM content across disciplinary boundaries, stimulates interest, and engages students in using scientific practices to address 21st century challenges. Each Mi-STAR unit is connected to a Unifying NGSS Crosscutting Concept (CCC) that allows students to recognize the concepts that are related to the phenomena or problems under investigation. In the 6th grade, students begin with an exploration of the CCC Systems and System Models. Through repeated applications across units, students refine their understanding of what a system is and how to model a complex Earth system. An example 6th grade unit entitled "Water on the Move: The Water Cycle," provides an example of how Mi-STAR approaches the use of Unifying CCCs and Unit Challenges to enhance middle school students' understanding of the interconnections of Earth system processes and human activities. Throughout the unit, students use a series of hands-on explorations and simulations to explore the hydrologic cycle and how human activity can alter Earth systems. Students develop new knowledge through repeated interactions with the Unit Challenge, which requires development of system models and construction of evidence-based arguments related to flooding problems in a local community. Students have the opportunity to make predictions about how proposed land-use management practices (e.g. development of a skate-park, rain garden, soccer field, etc.) can alter the earth-system processes. Students present their findings and recommendations in a public forum format. Student-learning outcomes are measured using a combination of formative and summative assessments that address students' proficiency with science and engineering content and practices in conjunction with the unit's Unifying CCC.

STARPAHC - Operational findings. [Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Advanced Health Care

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Belasco, N.; Pool, S. L.

1976-01-01

Delivery of quality health care to passengers of extended-mission spacecraft and to remote populations on earth (a major national problem) requires extending the knowledge and skills of the physician many kilometers distant from his physical location. The STARPAHC telemedicine system accomplishes this by using physician's assistants complemented with space technology in communications, data handling, and systems engineering. It is presently in operation and undergoing a 2-year evaluation on the Papago Indian Reservation, Arizona. Results have established its feasibility as a solution for remote area health care on earth, while providing information useful to the planners of advanced manned spacecraft missions.

Tether-Based Investigation of the Ionosphere and Lower Thermosphere Concept Definition Study Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, L. (Editor); Herrmann, M. (Editor)

1997-01-01

Understanding the plasma and atmosphere around the Earth in the lower altitude regions of the mesosphere, lower thermosphere, and ionosphere is important in the global electric system. An upper atmosphere tether has been proposed to NASA that would collect much-needed data to further our knowledge of the regions. The mission is proposed as a shuttle experiment that would lower a tethered probe into certain regions of Earth's atmosphere, collecting data over a 6-day period. This report is a summary of the results of a concept definition study to design engineering system that will achieve the scientific objectives of this mission.

Emblem - NASA Skylab (SL) Program

NASA Image and Video Library

1973-04-25

S73-23952 (May 1973) --- This is the official emblem for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Skylab Program. The emblem depicts the United States Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit with the sun in the background. Skylab will evaluate systems and techniques designed to gather information on Earth resources and environmental problems. Solar telescopes will increase man's knowledge of our sun and the multitude of solar influences on Earth environment. Medical experiments will increase knowledge of man himself and his relationship to his earthly environment and adaptability to spaceflight. Additionally, Skylab will experiment with industrial processes which may be enhanced by the unique weightless, vacuum environment of orbital spaceflight. The 100-ton laboratory complex Skylab space station is composed of the Command/Service Module (CSM), Orbital Workshop (OW), Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), Multiple Docking Adapter (MDA), and Airlock Module (AM). The NASA insignia design for Skylab is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the form of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which we do not anticipate, it will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA

Near-Earth Asteroids: Destinations for Human Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barbee, Brent W.

2014-01-01

The Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS) is a system that monitors the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population to identify NEAs whose orbital characteristics may make them potential destinations for future round-trip human space flight missions. To accomplish this monitoring, Brent Barbee (GSFC) developed and automated a system that applies specialized trajectory processing to the orbits of newly discovered NEAs, and those for which we have updated orbit knowledge, obtained from the JPL Small Bodies Database (SBDB). This automated process executes daily and the results are distributed to the general public and the astronomy community. This aids in prioritizing telescope radar time allocations for obtaining crucial follow-up observations of highly accessible NEAs during the critical, because it is often fleeting, time period surrounding the time at which the NEAs are initially discovered.

Gas/Liquid Separator Being Developed for Microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoffmann, Monica I.

2002-01-01

The examination and research of how liquids and gases behave in very low gravity will improve our understanding of the behavior of fluids on Earth. The knowledge of multiphase fluid behavior is applicable to many industries on Earth, including the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, and nuclear industries, just to name a few. In addition, this valuable knowledge applies very well to the engineering and design of microgravity materials processing and of life-support systems for extended space flight. Professors Ashok Sangani of Syracuse University and Donald Koch of Cornell University are principal investigators in the Microgravity Fluid Physics Program, which is managed and sponsored by the NASA Glenn Research Center. Their flight experiment entitled "Microgravity Observations of Bubble Interactions" (MOBI) is planned for operation in the Fluids and Combustion Facility aboard the International Space Station.

From Soup to Nuts: How Terra has enabled the growth of NASA Earth science communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, K.; Carlowicz, M. J.; Allen, J.; Voiland, A.; Przyborski, P.

2014-12-01

The birth of NASA's Earth Observatory website in 1999 closely mirrored the launch of Terra and over the years its growth has paralleled that of the Earth Observing System (EOS) program. With the launch of Terra, NASA gained an extraordinary platform that not only promised new science capabilities but gave us the data and imagery for telling the stories behind the science. The Earth Observatory Group was founded to communicate these stories to the public. We will present how we have used the capabilities of all the Terra instruments over the past 15 years to expand the public's knowledge of NASA Earth science. The ever-increasing quantity and quality of Terra data, combined with technological improvements to data availability and services has allowed the Earth Observatory and, as a result, the greater science-aware media, to greatly expand the visibility of NASA data and imagery. We will offer thoughts on best practices in using these multi-faceted instruments for public communication and we will share how we have worked with Terra science teams and affiliated systems to see the potential stories in their data and the value of providing the data in a timely fashion. Terra has allowed us to tell the stories of our Earth today like never before.

Looking at Earth observation impacts with fresh eyes: a Landsat example

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Zhuoting; Snyder, Greg; Quirk, Bruce; Stensaas, Greg; Vadnais, Carolyn; Babcock, Michael; Dale, Erin; Doucette, Peter

2016-05-01

The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated the Requirements, Capabilities and Analysis for Earth Observations (RCA-EO) activity in the Land Remote Sensing (LRS) program to provide a structured approach to collect, store, maintain, and analyze user requirements and Earth observing system capabilities information. RCA-EO enables the collection of information on current key Earth observation products, services, and projects, and to evaluate them at different organizational levels within an agency, in terms of how reliant they are on Earth observation data from all sources, including spaceborne, airborne, and ground-based platforms. Within the USGS, RCA-EO has engaged over 500 subject matter experts in this assessment, and evaluated the impacts of more than 1000 different Earth observing data sources on 345 key USGS products and services. This paper summarizes Landsat impacts at various levels of the organizational structure of the USGS and highlights the feedback of the subject matter experts regarding Landsat data and Landsat-derived products. This feedback is expected to inform future Landsat mission decision making. The RCA-EO approach can be applied in a much broader scope to derive comprehensive knowledge of Earth observing system usage and impacts, to inform product and service development and remote sensing technology innovation beyond the USGS.

The Sun to the Earth - and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

The sun is the source of energy for life on earth and is the strongest modulator of the human physical environment. In fact, the Sun's influence extends throughout the solar system, both through photons, which provide heat, light, and ionization, and through the continuous outflow of a magnetized, supersonic ionized gas known as the solar wind. While the accomplishments of the past decade have answered important questions about the physics of the Sun, the interplanetary medium, and the space environments of Earth and other solar system bodies, they have also highlighted other questions, some of which are long-standing and fundamental. The Sun to the Earth--and Beyond organizes these questions in terms of five challenges that are expected to be the focus of scientific investigations in solar and space physics during the coming decade and beyond. While the accomplishments of the past decades have answered important questions about the physics of the Sun, the interplanetary medium, and the space environments of Earth and other solar system bodies, they have also highlighted other questions, some of which are long-standing and fundamental. This report organizes these questions in terms of five challenges that are expected to be the focus of scientific investigations in solar and space physics during the coming decade and beyond: Challenge 1: Understanding the structure and dynamics of the Sun's interior, the generation of solar magnetic fields, the origin of the solar cycle, the causes of solar activity, and the structure and dynamics of the corona. Challenge 2: Understanding heliospheric structure, the distribution of magnetic fields and matter throughout the solar system, and the interaction of the solar atmosphere with the local interstellar medium. Challenge 3: Understanding the space environments of Earth and other solar system bodies and their dynamical response to external and internal influences. Challenge 4: Understanding the basic physical principles manifest in processes observed in solar and space plasmas. Challenge 5: Developing a near-real-time predictive capability for understanding and quantifying the impact on human activities of dynamical processes at the Sun, in the interplanetary medium, and in Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. This report summarizes the state of knowledge about the total heliospheric system, poses key scientific questions for further research, and presents an integrated research strategy, with prioritized initiatives, for the next decade. The recommended strategy embraces both basic research programs and targeted basic research activities that will enhance knowledge and prediction of space weather effects on Earth. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding the Sun, the heliosphere, and planetary magnetospheres and ionospheres as astrophysical objects and as laboratories for the investigation of fundamental plasma physics phenomena.

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2017-01-01

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.

Earth Science Informatics - Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, H. K.

2017-01-01

Over the last 10-15 years, significant advances have been made in information management, there are an increasing number of individuals entering the field of information management as it applies to Geoscience and Remote Sensing data, and the field of informatics has come to its own. Informatics is the science and technology of applying computers and computational methods to the systematic analysis, management, interchange, and representation of science data, information, and knowledge. Informatics also includes the use of computers and computational methods to support decision making and applications. Earth Science Informatics (ESI, a.k.a. geoinformatics) is the application of informatics in the Earth science domain. ESI is a rapidly developing discipline integrating computer science, information science, and Earth science. Major national and international research and infrastructure projects in ESI have been carried out or are on-going. Notable among these are: the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), the European Commissions INSPIRE, the U.S. NSDI and Geospatial One-Stop, the NASA EOSDIS, and the NSF DataONE, EarthCube and Cyberinfrastructure for Geoinformatics. More than 18 departments and agencies in the U.S. federal government have been active in Earth science informatics. All major space agencies in the world, have been involved in ESI research and application activities. In the United States, the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), whose membership includes over 180 organizations (government, academic and commercial) dedicated to managing, delivering and applying Earth science data, has been working on many ESI topics since 1998. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)s Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has been actively coordinating the ESI activities among the space agencies.The talk will present an overview of current efforts in ESI, the role members of IEEE GRSS play, and discuss recent developments in data preservation and provenance.

The Suess-Urey mission (return of solar matter to Earth).

PubMed

Rapp, D; Naderi, F; Neugebauer, M; Sevilla, D; Sweetnam, D; Burnett, D; Wiens, R; Smith, N; Clark, B; McComas, D; Stansbery, E

1996-01-01

The Suess-Urey (S-U) mission has been proposed as a NASA Discovery mission to return samples of matter from the Sun to the Earth for isotopic and chemical analyses in terrestrial laboratories to provide a major improvement in our knowledge of the average chemical and isotopic composition of the solar system. The S-U spacecraft and sample return capsule will be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 Sun-Earth libration point for two years to collect solar wind ions which implant into large passive collectors made of ultra-pure materials. Constant Spacecraft-Sun-Earth geometries enable simple spin stabilized attitude control, simple passive thermal control, and a fixed medium gain antenna. Low data requirements and the safety of a Sun-pointed spinner, result in extremely low mission operations costs.

Earth Science Data Analytics: Bridging Tools and Techniques with the Co-Analysis of Large, Heterogeneous Datasets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kempler, Steve; Mathews, Tiffany

2016-01-01

The continuum of ever-evolving data management systems affords great opportunities to the enhancement of knowledge and facilitation of science research. To take advantage of these opportunities, it is essential to understand and develop methods that enable data relationships to be examined and the information to be manipulated. This presentation describes the efforts of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation Earth Science Data Analytics (ESDA) Cluster to understand, define, and facilitate the implementation of ESDA to advance science research. As a result of the void of Earth science data analytics publication material, the cluster has defined ESDA along with 10 goals to set the framework for a common understanding of tools and techniques that are available and still needed to support ESDA.

Intelligent Systems: Terrestrial Observation and Prediction Using Remote Sensing Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coughlan, Joseph C.

2005-01-01

NASA has made science and technology investments to better utilize its large space-borne remote sensing data holdings of the Earth. With the launch of Terra, NASA created a data-rich environment where the challenge is to fully utilize the data collected from EOS however, despite unprecedented amounts of observed data, there is a need for increasing the frequency, resolution, and diversity of observations. Current terrestrial models that use remote sensing data were constructed in a relatively data and compute limited era and do not take full advantage of on-line learning methods and assimilation techniques that can exploit these data. NASA has invested in visualization, data mining and knowledge discovery methods which have facilitated data exploitation, but these methods are insufficient for improving Earth science models that have extensive background knowledge nor do these methods refine understanding of complex processes. Investing in interdisciplinary teams that include computational scientists can lead to new models and systems for online operation and analysis of data that can autonomously improve in prediction skill over time.

Quantitative Modeling of Earth Surface Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelletier, Jon D.

This textbook describes some of the most effective and straightforward quantitative techniques for modeling Earth surface processes. By emphasizing a core set of equations and solution techniques, the book presents state-of-the-art models currently employed in Earth surface process research, as well as a set of simple but practical research tools. Detailed case studies demonstrate application of the methods to a wide variety of processes including hillslope, fluvial, aeolian, glacial, tectonic, and climatic systems. Exercises at the end of each chapter begin with simple calculations and then progress to more sophisticated problems that require computer programming. All the necessary computer codes are available online at www.cambridge.org/9780521855976. Assuming some knowledge of calculus and basic programming experience, this quantitative textbook is designed for advanced geomorphology courses and as a reference book for professional researchers in Earth and planetary science looking for a quantitative approach to Earth surface processes.

NASA's EPIC View of 2017 Eclipse Across America

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-08-22

From a million miles out in space, NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) captured natural color images of the moon’s shadow crossing over North America on Aug. 21, 2017. EPIC is aboard NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), where it photographs the full sunlit side of Earth every day, giving it a unique view of total solar eclipses. EPIC normally takes about 20 to 22 images of Earth per day, so this animation appears to speed up the progression of the eclipse. To see the images of Earth every day, go to: epic.gsfc.nasa.gov NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

In search of meta-knowledge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lopez, Antonio M., Jr.

1993-01-01

Development of an Intelligent Information System (IIS) involves application of numerous artificial intelligence (AI) paradigms and advanced technologies. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is interested in an IIS that can automatically collect, classify, store and retrieve data, as well as develop, manipulate and restructure knowledge regarding the data and its application (Campbell et al., 1987, p.3). This interest stems in part from a NASA initiative in support of the interagency Global Change Research program. NASA's space data problems are so large and varied that scientific researchers will find it almost impossible to access the most suitable information from a software system if meta-information (metadata and meta-knowledge) is not embedded in that system. Even if more, faster, larger hardware is used, new innovative software systems will be required to organize, link, maintain, and properly archive the Earth Observing System (EOS) data that is to be stored and distributed by the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) (Dozier, 1990). Although efforts are being made to specify the metadata that will be used in EOSDIS, meta-knowledge specification issues are not clear. With the expectation that EOSDIS might evolve into an IIS, this paper presents certain ideas on the concept of meta-knowledge and demonstrates how meta-knowledge might be represented in a pixel classification problem.

The Unifying Principle of Coordinated Measurements in Geospace Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lotko, William

2017-04-01

Space scientists recognize geospace as a coupled dynamical system extending from the Earth's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere, through interplanetary space to the Sun. The weather in geospace describes variability in the electromagnetic fields, particle radiation, plasmas, and gases permeating it, usually in response to solar disturbances. Severe space weather poses a significant threat to human activities in space and to modern technological systems deployed both in space and at Earth. The challenge of characterizing and predicting space weather requires widely distributed, coordinated observations. Partnerships among government agencies, international consortia, and the private sector are developing creative solutions to address this challenge. This brief commentary highlights some of the coordinated measurements and data systems that are unifying knowledge of the geospace environment.

Hyperspectral Feature Detection Onboard the Earth Observing One Spacecraft using Superpixel Segmentation and Endmember Extraction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, David R.; Bornstein, Benjamin; Bue, Brian D.; Tran, Daniel Q.; Chien, Steve A.; Castano, Rebecca

2012-01-01

We present a demonstration of onboard hyperspectral image processing with the potential to reduce mission downlink requirements. The system detects spectral endmembers and then uses them to map units of surface material. This summarizes the content of the scene, reveals spectral anomalies warranting fast response, and reduces data volume by two orders of magnitude. We have integrated this system into the Autonomous Science craft Experiment for operational use onboard the Earth Observing One (EO-1) Spacecraft. The system does not require prior knowledge about spectra of interest. We report on a series of trial overflights in which identical spacecraft commands are effective for autonomous spectral discovery and mapping for varied target features, scenes and imaging conditions.

C3: A Collaborative Web Framework for NASA Earth Exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foughty, E.; Fattarsi, C.; Hardoyo, C.; Kluck, D.; Wang, L.; Matthews, B.; Das, K.; Srivastava, A.; Votava, P.; Nemani, R. R.

2010-12-01

The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) is a new collaboration platform for the Earth science community that provides a mechanism for scientific collaboration and knowledge sharing. NEX combines NASA advanced supercomputing resources, Earth system modeling, workflow management, NASA remote sensing data archives, and a collaborative communication platform to deliver a complete work environment in which users can explore and analyze large datasets, run modeling codes, collaborate on new or existing projects, and quickly share results among the Earth science communities. NEX is designed primarily for use by the NASA Earth science community to address scientific grand challenges. The NEX web portal component provides an on-line collaborative environment for sharing of Eearth science models, data, analysis tools and scientific results by researchers. In addition, the NEX portal also serves as a knowledge network that allows researchers to connect and collaborate based on the research they are involved in, specific geographic area of interest, field of study, etc. Features of the NEX web portal include: Member profiles, resource sharing (data sets, algorithms, models, publications), communication tools (commenting, messaging, social tagging), project tools (wikis, blogs) and more. The NEX web portal is built on the proven technologies and policies of DASHlink.arc.nasa.gov, (one of NASA's first science social media websites). The core component of the web portal is a C3 framework, which was built using Django and which is being deployed as a common framework for a number of collaborative sites throughout NASA.

Pedotransfer Functions in Earth System Science: Challenges and Perspectives: PTFs in Earth system science perspective

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Van Looy, Kris; Bouma, Johan; Herbst, Michael

Soil, through its various functions, plays a vital role in the Earth's ecosystems and provides multiple ecosystem services to humanity. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are simple to complex knowledge rules that relate available soil information to soil properties and variables that are needed to parameterize soil processes. Here in this article, we review the existing PTFs and document the new generation of PTFs developed in the different disciplines of Earth system science. To meet the methodological challenges for a successful application in Earth system modeling, we emphasize that PTF development has to go hand in hand with suitable extrapolation and upscalingmore » techniques such that the PTFs correctly represent the spatial heterogeneity of soils. PTFs should encompass the variability of the estimated soil property or process, in such a way that the estimation of parameters allows for validation and can also confidently provide for extrapolation and upscaling purposes capturing the spatial variation in soils. Most actively pursued recent developments are related to parameterizations of solute transport, heat exchange, soil respiration, and organic carbon content, root density, and vegetation water uptake. Further challenges are to be addressed in parameterization of soil erosivity and land use change impacts at multiple scales. We argue that a comprehensive set of PTFs can be applied throughout a wide range of disciplines of Earth system science, with emphasis on land surface models. Novel sensing techniques provide a true breakthrough for this, yet further improvements are necessary for methods to deal with uncertainty and to validate applications at global scale.« less

Pedotransfer Functions in Earth System Science: Challenges and Perspectives: PTFs in Earth system science perspective

DOE PAGES

Van Looy, Kris; Bouma, Johan; Herbst, Michael; ...

2017-12-28

Soil, through its various functions, plays a vital role in the Earth's ecosystems and provides multiple ecosystem services to humanity. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are simple to complex knowledge rules that relate available soil information to soil properties and variables that are needed to parameterize soil processes. Here in this article, we review the existing PTFs and document the new generation of PTFs developed in the different disciplines of Earth system science. To meet the methodological challenges for a successful application in Earth system modeling, we emphasize that PTF development has to go hand in hand with suitable extrapolation and upscalingmore » techniques such that the PTFs correctly represent the spatial heterogeneity of soils. PTFs should encompass the variability of the estimated soil property or process, in such a way that the estimation of parameters allows for validation and can also confidently provide for extrapolation and upscaling purposes capturing the spatial variation in soils. Most actively pursued recent developments are related to parameterizations of solute transport, heat exchange, soil respiration, and organic carbon content, root density, and vegetation water uptake. Further challenges are to be addressed in parameterization of soil erosivity and land use change impacts at multiple scales. We argue that a comprehensive set of PTFs can be applied throughout a wide range of disciplines of Earth system science, with emphasis on land surface models. Novel sensing techniques provide a true breakthrough for this, yet further improvements are necessary for methods to deal with uncertainty and to validate applications at global scale.« less

Assessment of an On-Line Earth System Science Course for Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shuster, R. D.; Grandgenett, N.

2009-12-01

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) has been offering on-line Earth System Science coursework to in-service teachers in Nebraska since 2002 through the Earth Systems Science Education Alliance (ESSEA). The goal of this course is to increase teacher content knowledge in Earth Science, introduce them to Earth System Science, and have them experience cooperative learning. We have offered three different ESSEA courses, with nearly 200 students having taken ESSEA courses at UNO for graduate credit. This effort represents a close collaboration between faculty and students from the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Education, with periodic assistance of the local schools. In a follow-up study related to ESSEA coursework, UNO examined the perceptions of teachers who have taken the course and the potential benefits of the ESSEA courses for their own educational settings. The study was descriptive in design and included an online survey and a focus group. The results of these assessments indicated that the teachers felt very positive about what they learned in these courses, and in particular, how they could incorporate cooperative learning, inquiry based activities, and Earth System Science interconnections in their own classrooms. Problems identified by the teachers included a perceived lack of time to be able to integrate the learned material into their science curriculua and a lack of computer and/or technological resources in their educational settings. In addition, this Fall, we will conduct two teacher case studies, where we will interview two teachers, visit their classrooms, acquire work samples and talk with students. All of the results of our survey and focus group will be presented.

Future Secretariat: an innovation research coordination and governance structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojima, D. S.; Johan, R.; Cramer, W.; Fukushi, K.; Allard, S.

2014-12-01

Future Earth, an emerging global sustainability research program, will be managed by a novel, internationally distributed secretariat spanning the globe and providing a platform for co-design, co-production, and co-delivery of knowledge to support research on the earth system, global development and transformation toward sustainability. The Future Earth secretariat has an innovative structure consisting of five global hubs functioning as a single entity; these hubs are located in Canada, Japan, France, Sweden, and the United States. The secretariat's reach is extended through a set of regional hubs covering Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, with the potential to expand to additional areas. This secretariat will operate under the auspices of the Future Earth Governing Council The Future Earth Secretariat will support and enable the implementation of knowledge-sharing between research and stakeholder communities to enable society to cope with and to alter global environmental trends, and to transition society toward sustainability. The secretariat will provide coordination support to over 25 global environmental core projects and committees; coordinate scientific work across the whole Future Earth agenda; develop and implement innovative mechanisms for bottom-up inputs, synthesis and integration. Future Earth, as a research program, aims to support global transformations toward sustainability through partnerships among scientific and stakeholder communities worldwide. It brings together existing international environmental research core projects associated with DIVERSITAS, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the International Human Dimensions Programme, and the World Climate Research Programme—to support coordinated, interdisciplinary research that can be used by decision makers seeking to reduce their impact and provide more sustainable products and services. USGCRP partners with Future Earth through scientific participation in and annual funding for its constituent programs.

Overview of the Earth System Science Education Alliance Online Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Botti, J. A.

2001-12-01

Science education reform has skyrocketed over the last decade in large part thanks to technology-and one technology in particular, the Internet. The World Wide Web has opened up dynamic new online communities of learners. It has allowed educators from around the world to share thoughts about Earth system science and reexamine the way science is taught. A positive offshoot of this reform effort is the Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA). This partnership among universities, colleges, and science education organizations is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the Center for Educational TechnologiesTM at Wheeling Jesuit University. ESSEA's mission is to improve Earth system science education. ESSEA has developed three Earth system science courses for K-12 teachers. These online courses guide teachers into collaborative, student-centered science education experiences. Not only do these courses support teachers' professional development, they also help teachers implement Earth systems science content and age-appropriate pedagogical methods into their classrooms. The ESSEA courses are open to elementary, middle school, and high school teachers. Each course lasts one semester. The courses begin with three weeks of introductory content. Then teachers develop content and pedagogical and technological knowledge in four three-week learning cycles. The elementary school course focuses on basic Earth system interactions between land, life, air, and water. In week A of each learning cycle, teachers do earth system activities with their students. In week B teachers investigate aspects of the Earth system -- for instance, the reason rocks change to soil, the relationship between rock weathering and soil nutrients, and the consequent development of biomes. In week C teachers develop classroom activities and share them online with other course participants. The middle school course stresses the effects of real-world events -- volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rainforest destruction -- on Earth's lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. Teachers team during week A of each cycle to research the effect of each event on individual spheres. In week B groups "jigsaw" to study the interactions between events, spheres, and positive and negative feedback loops. In week C teachers develop classroom activities. The high school course uses problem-based learning to examine critical areas of global change, such as coral reef degradation, ozone depletion, and climate change. The ESSEA presentation provides examples of learning environments from each of the three courses.

Overview of the Earth System Science Education Alliance Online Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Botti, J.; Myers, R.

2002-12-01

Science education reform has skyrocketed over the last decade in large part thanks to technology-and one technology in particular, the Internet. The World Wide Web has opened up dynamic new online communities of learners. It has allowed educators from around the world to share thoughts about Earth system science and reexamine the way science is taught. A positive offshoot of this reform effort is the Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA). This partnership among universities, colleges, and science education organizations is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the Center for Educational Technologiestm at Wheeling Jesuit University. ESSEA's mission is to improve Earth system science education. ESSEA has developed three Earth system science courses for K-12 teachers. These online courses guide teachers into collaborative, student-centered science education experiences. Not only do these courses support teachers' professional development, they also help teachers implement Earth systems science content and age-appropriate pedagogical methods into their classrooms. The ESSEA courses are open to elementary, middle school, and high school teachers. Each course lasts one semester. The courses begin with three weeks of introductory content. Then teachers develop content and pedagogical and technological knowledge in four three-week learning cycles. The elementary school course focuses on basic Earth system interactions between land, life, air, and water. In week A of each learning cycle, teachers do earth system activities with their students. In week B teachers investigate aspects of the Earth system-for instance, the reason rocks change to soil, the relationship between rock weathering and soil nutrients, and the consequent development of biomes. In week C teachers develop classroom activities and share them online with other course participants. The middle school course stresses the effects of real-world events-volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rainforest destruction-on Earth's lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. Teachers team during week A of each cycle to research the effect of each event on individual spheres. In week B groups "jigsaw" to study the interactions between events, spheres, and positive and negative feedback loops. In week C teachers develop classroom activities. The high school course uses problem-based learning to examine critical areas of global change, such as coral reef degradation, ozone depletion, and climate change. The ESSEA presentation provides examples of learning environments from each of the three courses.

Geoinformatics: Transforming data to knowledge for geosciences

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sinha, A.K.; Malik, Z.; Rezgui, A.; Barnes, C.G.; Lin, K.; Heiken, G.; Thomas, W.A.; Gundersen, L.C.; Raskin, R.; Jackson, I.; Fox, P.; McGuinness, D.; Seber, D.; Zimmerman, H.

2010-01-01

An integrative view of Earth as a system, based on multidisciplinary data, has become one of the most compelling reasons for research and education in the geosciences. It is now necessary to establish a modern infrastructure that can support the transformation of data to knowledge. Such an information infrastructure for geosciences is contained within the emerging science of geoinformatics, which seeks to promote the utilizetion and integration of complex, multidisciplinary data in seeking solutions to geosciencebased societal challenges.

Design and Demonstration of a Miniature Lidar System for Rover Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, Benjamin

2011-01-01

Public awareness of harmful human environmental effects such as global warming has increased greatly in recent years and researchers have increased their efforts in gaining more knowledge about the Earth's atmosphere. Natural and man-made processes pose threats to the environment and human life, so knowledge of all atmospheric processes is necessary. Ozone and aerosols are important factors in many atmospheric processes and active remote sensing techniques provide a way to analyze their quantity and distribution. A compact ground-based lidar system for a robotic platform meant for atmospheric aerosol measurements was designed, tested, and evaluated. The system will eventually be deployed for ozone and aerosol measurements in Mars and lunar missions to improve our knowledge and understanding of atmospheres on Mars and the Moon. Atmospheric testing was performed to test the operability of the receiver system to acquire the lidar return signal from clouds and aerosols.

Tamara Shapiro Ledley Receives 2013 Excellence in Geophysical Education Award: Citation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reiff, Patricia

2014-01-01

It gives me great pleasure to cite Tamara Shapiro Ledley for the AGU Excellence in Geophysical Education Award "for her outstanding sustained leadership in Earth systems and climate change education." Tamara has shown an ongoing commitment to bridging the scientific and educational communities to make geophysical science knowledge and data accessible and usable to teachers and students and by extension to all citizens. She works extensively with both the scientific and educational communities. She began her educational work in 1990 as the leader for weather and climate in my Teacher Research program at Rice University. She continued as the lead for atmospheric sciences in our projects Earth Today and Museums Teaching Planet Earth, which introduced her to the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP Federation). She has served many roles at ESIP, including creating the Standing Committee for Education and serving as vice president. ESIP recognized her many accomplishments with its President's Award in 2012. At TERC her education and outreach efforts have blossomed. She was the lead author of the "Earth as a System" investigation of the GLOBE Teacher's Guide. She was a member of the original Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Data Access Working Group in 2001, where the idea for a cookbook-like resource to facilitate the use of Earth science data by teachers and students resulted in her leading the development of the "Earth Exploration Toolbook" (EET), which allows teachers to easily access and use real scientific data in the classroom. Her efforts were recognized with the EET being awarded Science Magazine's Science Prize for Online Research in Education in 2011.

Knowledge-based imaging-sensor fusion system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Westrom, George

1989-01-01

An imaging system which applies knowledge-based technology to supervise and control both sensor hardware and computation in the imaging system is described. It includes the development of an imaging system breadboard which brings together into one system work that we and others have pursued for LaRC for several years. The goal is to combine Digital Signal Processing (DSP) with Knowledge-Based Processing and also include Neural Net processing. The system is considered a smart camera. Imagine that there is a microgravity experiment on-board Space Station Freedom with a high frame rate, high resolution camera. All the data cannot possibly be acquired from a laboratory on Earth. In fact, only a small fraction of the data will be received. Again, imagine being responsible for some experiments on Mars with the Mars Rover: the data rate is a few kilobits per second for data from several sensors and instruments. Would it not be preferable to have a smart system which would have some human knowledge and yet follow some instructions and attempt to make the best use of the limited bandwidth for transmission. The system concept, current status of the breadboard system and some recent experiments at the Mars-like Amboy Lava Fields in California are discussed.

Literary Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garrison, Megan R.

2000-01-01

Explains the use of literacy in science education. Uses "Silent Spring", a book on environmental issues, to encourage students to think about the role of water in balancing the earth's system and possible actions against environmental concerns. Creates an environment for students to discuss their knowledge on the use of the pesticide…

STS-75 crew insignia

NASA Image and Video Library

1997-10-01

STS075-S-001 (September 1995) --- The STS-75 crew patch depicts the space shuttle Columbia and the Tethered Satellite connected by a 21-kilometer electronically conducting tether. The orbiter/satellite system is passing through Earth?s magnetic field which, like an electronic generator, will produce thousands of volts of electricity. Columbia is carrying the United States Microgravity pallet to conduct microgravity research in material science and thermodynamics. The tether is crossing Earth?s terminator signifying the dawn of a new era for space tether applications and in mankind?s knowledge of Earth?s ionosphere, material science, and thermodynamics. The patch was designed for the STS-75 crew members by Mike Sanni. The NASA insignia design for space shuttle flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA

EarthCube Cyberinfrastructure: The Importance of and Need for International Strategic Partnerships to Enhance Interconnectivity and Interoperability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramamurthy, M. K.; Lehnert, K.; Zanzerkia, E. E.

2017-12-01

The United States National Science Foundation's EarthCube program is a community-driven activity aimed at transforming the conduct of geosciences research and education by creating a well-connected cyberinfrastructure for sharing and integrating data and knowledge across all geoscience disciplines in an open, transparent, and inclusive manner and to accelerate our ability to understand and predict the Earth system. After five years of community engagement, governance, and development activities, EarthCube is now transitioning into an implementation phase. In the first phase of implementing the EarthCube architecture, the project leadership has identified the following architectural components as the top three priorities, focused on technologies, interfaces and interoperability elements that will address: a) Resource Discovery; b) Resource Registry; and c) Resource Distribution and Access. Simultaneously, EarthCube is exploring international partnerships to leverage synergies with other e-infrastructure programs and projects in Europe, Australia, and other regions and discuss potential partnerships and mutually beneficial collaborations to increase interoperability of systems for advancing EarthCube's goals in an efficient and effective manner. In this session, we will present the progress of EarthCube on a number of fronts and engage geoscientists and data scientists in the future steps toward the development of EarthCube for advancing research and discovery in the geosciences. The talk will underscore the importance of strategic partnerships with other like eScience projects and programs across the globe.

The Impact of a Summer Institute on Inservice Early Childhood Teachers' Knowledge of Earth and Space Science Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sackes, Mesut; Trundle, Kathy Cabe; Krissek, Lawrence A.

2011-01-01

This study investigated inservice PreK to Grade two teachers' knowledge of some earth and space science concepts before and after a short-term teacher institute. A one-group pre-test-post-test design was used in the current study. Earth science concepts targeted during the professional development included properties of rocks and soils, and the…

The NASA Microgravity Fluid Physics Program: Knowledge for Use on Earth and Future Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kohl, Fred J.; Singh, Bhim S.; Alexander, J. Iwan; Shaw, Nancy J.; Hill, Myron E.; Gati, Frank G.

2002-01-01

Building on over four decades of research and technology development related to the behavior of fluids in low gravity environments, the current NASA Microgravity Fluid Physics Program continues the quest for knowledge to further understand and design better fluids systems for use on earth and in space. The purpose of the Fluid Physics Program is to support the goals of NASA's Biological and Physical Research Enterprise which seeks to exploit the space environment to conduct research and to develop commercial opportunities, while building the vital knowledge base needed to enable efficient and effective systems for protecting and sustaining humans during extended space flights. There are currently five major research areas in the Microgravity Fluid Physics Program: complex fluids, multiphase flows and phase change, interfacial phenomena, biofluid mechanics, and dynamics and instabilities. Numerous investigations into these areas are being conducted in both ground-based laboratories and facilities and in the flight experiments program. Most of the future NASA-sponsored fluid physics and transport phenomena studies will be carried out on the International Space Station in the Fluids Integrated Rack, in the Microgravity Science Glovebox, in EXPRESS racks, and in other facilities provided by international partners. This paper will present an overview of the near- and long-term visions for NASA's Microgravity Fluid Physics Research Program and brief descriptions of hardware systems planned to achieve this research.

ENERGY-NET (Energy, Environment and Society Learning Network): Enhancing opportunities for learning using an Earth systems science framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elliott, E. M.; Bain, D. J.; Divers, M. T.; Crowley, K. J.; Povis, K.; Scardina, A.; Steiner, M.

2012-12-01

We describe a newly funded collaborative NSF initiative, ENERGY-NET (Energy, Environment and Society Learning Network), that brings together the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) with the Learning Science and Geoscience research strengths at the University of Pittsburgh. ENERGY-NET aims to create rich opportunities for participatory learning and public education in the arena of energy, the environment, and society using an Earth systems science framework. We build upon a long-established teen docent program at CMNH and to form Geoscience Squads comprised of underserved teens. Together, the ENERGY-NET team, including museum staff, experts in informal learning sciences, and geoscientists spanning career stage (undergraduates, graduate students, faculty) provides inquiry-based learning experiences guided by Earth systems science principles. Together, the team works with Geoscience Squads to design "Exploration Stations" for use with CMNH visitors that employ an Earth systems science framework to explore the intersecting lenses of energy, the environment, and society. The goals of ENERGY-NET are to: 1) Develop a rich set of experiential learning activities to enhance public knowledge about the complex dynamics between Energy, Environment, and Society for demonstration at CMNH; 2) Expand diversity in the geosciences workforce by mentoring underrepresented teens, providing authentic learning experiences in earth systems science and life skills, and providing networking opportunities with geoscientists; and 3) Institutionalize ENERGY-NET collaborations among geosciences expert, learning researchers, and museum staff to yield long-term improvements in public geoscience education and geoscience workforce recruiting.

Opportunity to Participate in ESSE 21: The 2003 Call for Participation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruzek, M.; Johnson, D. R.

2003-12-01

Earth System Science Education for the 21st Century (ESSE 21), sponsored by NASA through the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), is a collaborative undergraduate/graduate education program offering small grants to colleges and universities to engage a diverse interdisciplinary community of faculty and scientists in the development of courses, curricula and degree programs and sharing of learning resources focused on the fundamental understanding and application of Earth system principles for the classroom and laboratory. Through an expanded focus including partnerships with minority institutions, ESSE 21 is further developing broadly based courses, educational resources, electronic learning materials and degree programs that extend Earth system science concepts in both undergraduate and graduate classrooms and laboratories. These resources emphasizing the fundamentals of Earth system science advance the nation's broader agenda for improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics competency. The thrust to establish Earth system and global change science within the classrooms of colleges and universities is critical to laying and extending the foundation for knowledge-based decision making in the 21st century by both scientists and society in an effort to achieve sustainability. ESSE 21 released a Call for Participation (CFP) in the Fall of 2002 soliciting proposals from undergraduate institutions to create and adopt undergraduate and graduate level Earth system science content in courses, curricula and degree programs. In February 2003, twelve college and university teams were competitively selected through the CFP as the Year 1 and Year 2 Program participants. Eight of the participating teams are from minority institutions. The goal for all is to effect systemic change through developing Earth system science learning materials, courses, curricula, degree tracks or programs, and departments that are self-sustaining in the coming decades. ESSE 21 offers an expanded infrastructure for an interactive community of educators and researchers including minority participants that develops interdisciplinary Earth system science content. Emphasis is on the utilization of NASA resources involving global change data, models, visualizations and electronic media and networks. The ultimate aim of ESSE 21 is to expand and accelerate the nation's realization of sound, scientific interdisciplinary educational resources for informed learning and decision-making by all from the perspective of sustainability of the Earth as a system. The next Call for Participation will be released in late 2003.

How to use the Sun-Earth Lagrange points for fundamental physics and navigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tartaglia, A.; Lorenzini, E. C.; Lucchesi, D.; Pucacco, G.; Ruggiero, M. L.; Valko, P.

2018-01-01

We illustrate the proposal, nicknamed LAGRANGE, to use spacecraft, located at the Sun-Earth Lagrange points, as a physical reference frame. Performing time of flight measurements of electromagnetic signals traveling on closed paths between the points, we show that it would be possible: (a) to refine gravitational time delay knowledge due both to the Sun and the Earth; (b) to detect the gravito-magnetic frame dragging of the Sun, so deducing information about the interior of the star; (c) to check the possible existence of a galactic gravitomagnetic field, which would imply a revision of the properties of a dark matter halo; (d) to set up a relativistic positioning and navigation system at the scale of the inner solar system. The paper presents estimated values for the relevant quantities and discusses the feasibility of the project analyzing the behavior of the space devices close to the Lagrange points.

Earthlike planets: Surfaces of Mercury, Venus, earth, moon, Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murray, B.; Malin, M. C.; Greeley, R.

1981-01-01

The surfaces of the earth and the other terrestrial planets of the inner solar system are reviewed in light of the results of recent planetary explorations. Past and current views of the origin of the earth, moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars are discussed, and the surface features characteristic of the moon, Mercury, Mars and Venus are outlined. Mechanisms for the modification of planetary surfaces by external factors and from within the planet are examined, including surface cycles, meteoritic impact, gravity, wind, plate tectonics, volcanism and crustal deformation. The origin and evolution of the moon are discussed on the basis of the Apollo results, and current knowledge of Mercury and Mars is examined in detail. Finally, the middle periods in the history of the terrestrial planets are compared, and future prospects for the exploration of the inner planets as well as other rocky bodies in the solar system are discussed.

The Effect of Verbal and Visuo-Spatial Abilities on the Development of Knowledge of the Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kikas, Eve

2006-09-01

Difficulties in students’ understanding of the spherical model of the Earth have been shown in previous studies. One of the reasons for these difficulties lies in beliefs and preliminary knowledge that hinder the interpretation of the scientific knowledge, the other reason may lie in the low level of verbal and visuo-spatial abilities. The study aims to investigate the effect of verbal and visuo-spatial abilities, but also that of preliminary knowledge on the later development of the knowledge of the Earth in school. 176 schoolchildren (96 boys and 80 girls) from five schools were tested; the mean age of the children during the first interview was seven years and eight months. All students were interviewed twice in grades 1 and 2, before and after they had learnt the topic in school. Factual, scientific and synthetic knowledge was assessed. The facilitative effect of visuo-spatial and verbal abilities and preliminary factual and scientific knowledge on students’ knowledge of astronomy after having learnt the topic in school was shown. In contrast, the hindering effect of synthetic knowledge was not found.

Knowledge systems for sustainable development

PubMed Central

Cash, David W.; Clark, William C.; Alcock, Frank; Dickson, Nancy M.; Eckley, Noelle; Guston, David H.; Jäger, Jill; Mitchell, Ronald B.

2003-01-01

The challenge of meeting human development needs while protecting the earth's life support systems confronts scientists, technologists, policy makers, and communities from local to global levels. Many believe that science and technology (S&T) must play a more central role in sustainable development, yet little systematic scholarship exists on how to create institutions that effectively harness S&T for sustainability. This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce. Effective systems apply a variety of institutional mechanisms that facilitate communication, translation and mediation across boundaries. PMID:12777623

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Small valley glacier exiting the Devon Island Ice Cap in Canada. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Alex Gardner, Clark University NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Clouds Over Sea Ice

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-01

Low-lying clouds over sea ice on the Bellingshausen Sea. Credit: NASA / Maria-Jose Vinas NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Summit camp on top of the Austfonna Ice Cap in Svalbard (Norwegian Arctic). To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Thorben Dunse, University of Oslo NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Ellsworth Range

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Ice on the Ellsworth Range in Antarctica as seen from the IceBridge DC-8 on Oct. 22, 2012. NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Edge of Ice Shelf

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Edge of an ice shelf in Adelaide Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: NASA / Maria-Jose Vinas NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Sunlight off the ice

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Sunlight reflecting off of ice in the Bellingshausen Sea on Oct. 19, 2012. Credit: NASA / George Hale NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

The effect of EarthPulse on learning of declarative knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKinney, Heather E.

The purpose of this double-blind, bio-medical research study was to investigate the effect of EarthPulse, a brainwave entrainment and pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) device, on learning of declarative knowledge. Currently, PEMF research explores physiological and psychological effects but a gap exists in the potential effects of PEMF on learning. The study explored whether a relationship existed between receiving a thirty minute EarthPulse treatment on the "Entrain Up" setting and learning of declarative knowledge; whether the relationship remained over time; whether EarthPulse had an effect on sleep; and whether EarthPulse had an effect on attrition. Ninety-eight, randomly assigned, undergraduate students participated in this double-blind, experimental design study, of which 87 remained after attrition. After receiving a thirty minute EarthPulse or placebo treatment, experimental and control groups read identical passages and completed identical instruments to test learning and retention of declarative knowledge. Participants completed the same test in two intervals: an immediate (learning) and delayed (retention) posttest. Assumptions for normality and reliability were met. One-way ANOVA revealed no statistically significant effects on learning or retention at the 0.05 level. However, Chi square analysis revealed those who received the EarthPulse treatment were significantly less likely to fall asleep than those who received the control treatment (p=0.022) and very closely approached significance for attrition (p=0.051).

CSTI Earth-to-orbit propulsion research and technology program overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gentz, Steven J.

1993-01-01

NASA supports a vigorous Earth-to-orbit (ETO) research and technology program as part of its Civil Space Technology Initiative. The purpose of this program is to provide an up-to-date technology base to support future space transportation needs for a new generation of lower cost, operationally efficient, long-lived and highly reliable ETO propulsion systems by enhancing the knowledge, understanding and design methodology applicable to advanced oxygen/hydrogen and oxygen/hydrocarbon ETO propulsion systems. Program areas of interest include analytical models, advanced component technology, instrumentation, and validation/verification testing. Organizationally, the program is divided between technology acquisition and technology verification as follows: (1) technology acquisition; and (2) technology verification.

The Effect of Verbal and Visuo-Spatial Abilities on the Development of Knowledge of the Earth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kikas, Eve

2006-01-01

Difficulties in students' understanding of the spherical model of the Earth have been shown in previous studies. One of the reasons for these difficulties lies in beliefs and preliminary knowledge that hinder the interpretation of the scientific knowledge, the other reason may lie in the low level of verbal and visuo-spatial abilities. The study…

Strengthening Scientific Literacy on Polar Regions through Education, Outreach and Communication (EOC)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shabudin, Ahmad Firdaus Ahmad; Rahim, Rashidah Abdul; Ng, Theam Foo

2016-01-01

In the 21st century, mankind must acknowledge the roles of Polar Regions in global sustainability, especially its interrelationship with Earth's climate system. Notably, dissemination of science knowledge and awareness that arises through education, outreach, and effective communication are key instruments that can help towards environmental…

Measuring Student Engagement, Knowledge, and Perceptions of Climate Change in an Introductory Environmental Geology Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeal, Karen S.; Spry, Jacob M.; Mitra, Ritayan; Tipton, Jamie L.

2014-01-01

This research examines a semester-long introductory environmental geology course, which emphasized climate science using an Earth systems approach and employed a multipronged teaching strategy comprising lecture, movie viewing, class dialogues, and journaling. Evidence of student engagement during various pedagogical approaches (e.g., movie…

IMG_4301

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-14

NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

SDO Sees Spring Eclipse April, 3

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA image captured April 3, 2011 Twice a year, SDO enters an eclipse season where the spacecraft slips behind Earth for up to 72 minutes a day. Unlike the crisp shadow one sees on the sun during a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow has a variegated edge due to its atmosphere, which blocks the sun light to different degrees depending on its density. Also, light from brighter spots on the sun may make it through, which is why some solar features extend low into Earth's shadow. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

SDO Sees Spring Eclipse, April 2

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA image captured April 2, 2011 Twice a year, SDO enters an eclipse season where the spacecraft slips behind Earth for up to 72 minutes a day. Unlike the crisp shadow one sees on the sun during a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow has a variegated edge due to its atmosphere, which blocks the sun light to different degrees depending on its density. Also, light from brighter spots on the sun may make it through, which is why some solar features extend low into Earth's shadow. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

SDO Sees Spring Eclipse, April 1

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA image captured April 1, 2011 Twice a year, SDO enters an eclipse season where the spacecraft slips behind Earth for up to 72 minutes a day. Unlike the crisp shadow one sees on the sun during a lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow has a variegated edge due to its atmosphere, which blocks the sun light to different degrees depending on its density. Also, light from brighter spots on the sun may make it through, which is why some solar features extend low into Earth's shadow. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Land-Atmosphere Interactions in Cold Environments (LATICE): The role of Atmosphere - Biosphere - Cryosphere - Hydrosphere interactions in a changing climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burkhart, J. F.; Tallaksen, L. M.; Stordal, F.; Berntsen, T.; Westermann, S.; Kristjansson, J. E.; Etzelmuller, B.; Hagen, J. O.; Schuler, T.; Hamran, S. E.; Lande, T. S.; Bryn, A.

2015-12-01

Climate change is impacting the high latitudes more rapidly and significantly than any other region of the Earth because of feedback processes between the atmosphere and the underlying surface. A warmer climate has already led to thawing of permafrost, reducing snow cover and a longer growing season; changes, which in turn influence the atmospheric circulation and the hydrological cycle. Still, many studies rely on one-way coupling between the atmosphere and the land surface, thereby neglecting important interactions and feedbacks. The observation, understanding and prediction of such processes from local to regional and global scales, represent a major scientific challenge that requires multidisciplinary scientific effort. The successful integration of earth observations (remote and in-situ data) and model development requires a harmonized research effort between earth system scientists, modelers and the developers of technologies and sensors. LATICE, which is recognized as a priority research area by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Oslo, aims to advance the knowledge base concerning land atmosphere interactions and their role in controlling climate variability and climate change at high northern latitudes. The consortium consists of an interdisciplinary team of experts from the atmospheric and terrestrial (hydrosphere, cryosphere and biosphere) research groups, together with key expertise on earth observations and novel sensor technologies. LATICE addresses critical knowledge gaps in the current climate assessment capacity through: Improving parameterizations of processes in earth system models controlling the interactions and feedbacks between the land (snow, ice, permafrost, soil and vegetation) and the atmosphere at high latitudes, including the boreal, alpine and artic zone. Assessing the influence of climate and land cover changes on water and energy fluxes. Integrating remote earth observations with in-situ data and suitable models to allow studies of finer-scale processes governing land-atmosphere interactions. Addressing observational challenges through the development of novel observational products and networks.

The Adaptability of Life on Earth and the Diversity of Planetary Habitats.

PubMed

Schulze-Makuch, Dirk; Airo, Alessandro; Schirmack, Janosch

2017-01-01

The evolutionary adaptability of life to extreme environments is astounding given that all life on Earth is based on the same fundamental biochemistry. The range of some physicochemical parameters on Earth exceeds the ability of life to adapt, but stays within the limits of life for other parameters. Certain environmental conditions such as low water availability in hyperarid deserts on Earth seem to be close to the limit of biological activity. A much wider range of environmental parameters is observed on planetary bodies within our Solar System such as Mars or Titan, and presumably even larger outside of our Solar System. Here we review the adaptability of life as we know it, especially regarding temperature, pressure, and water activity. We use then this knowledge to outline the range of possible habitable environments for alien planets and moons and distinguish between a variety of planetary environment types. Some of these types are present in our Solar System, others are hypothetical. Our schematic categorization of alien habitats is limited to life as we know it, particularly regarding to the use of solvent (water) and energy source (light and chemical compounds).

The Adaptability of Life on Earth and the Diversity of Planetary Habitats

PubMed Central

Schulze-Makuch, Dirk; Airo, Alessandro; Schirmack, Janosch

2017-01-01

The evolutionary adaptability of life to extreme environments is astounding given that all life on Earth is based on the same fundamental biochemistry. The range of some physicochemical parameters on Earth exceeds the ability of life to adapt, but stays within the limits of life for other parameters. Certain environmental conditions such as low water availability in hyperarid deserts on Earth seem to be close to the limit of biological activity. A much wider range of environmental parameters is observed on planetary bodies within our Solar System such as Mars or Titan, and presumably even larger outside of our Solar System. Here we review the adaptability of life as we know it, especially regarding temperature, pressure, and water activity. We use then this knowledge to outline the range of possible habitable environments for alien planets and moons and distinguish between a variety of planetary environment types. Some of these types are present in our Solar System, others are hypothetical. Our schematic categorization of alien habitats is limited to life as we know it, particularly regarding to the use of solvent (water) and energy source (light and chemical compounds). PMID:29085352

DECADE web portal: toward the integration of MaGa, EarthChem and VOTW data systems to further the knowledge on Earth degassing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardellini, Carlo; Frigeri, Alessandro; Lehnert, Kerstin; Ash, Jason; McCormick, Brendan; Chiodini, Giovanni; Fischer, Tobias; Cottrell, Elizabeth

2015-04-01

The release of volatiles from the Earth's interior takes place in both volcanic and non-volcanic areas of the planet. The comprehension of such complex process and the improvement of the current estimates of global carbon emissions, will greatly benefit from the integration of geochemical, petrological and volcanological data. At present, major online data repositories relevant to studies of degassing are not linked and interoperable. In the framework of the Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), we are developing interoperability between three data systems that will make their data accessible via the DECADE portal: (1) the Smithsonian Institutionian's Global Volcanism Program database (VOTW) of volcanic activity data, (2) EarthChem databases for geochemical and geochronological data of rocks and melt inclusions, and (3) the MaGa database (Mapping Gas emissions) which contains compositional and flux data of gases released at volcanic and non-volcanic degassing sites. The DECADE web portal will create a powerful search engine of these databases from a single entry point and will return comprehensive multi-component datasets. A user will be able, for example, to obtain data relating to compositions of emitted gases, compositions and age of the erupted products and coincident activity, of a specific volcano. This level of capability requires a complete synergy between the databases, including availability of standard-based web services (WMS, WFS) at all data systems. Data and metadata can thus be extracted from each system without interfering with each database's local schema or being replicated to achieve integration at the DECADE web portal. The DECADE portal will enable new synoptic perspectives on the Earth degassing process allowing to explore Earth degassing related datasets over previously unexplored spatial or temporal ranges.

A Governance Roadmap and Framework for EarthCube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Governance Steering Committee, EarthCube

2013-04-01

EarthCube is a process and an outcome, established to transform the conduct of research through the development of community-guided cyberinfrastructure for the Geosciences as the prototype for potential deployment across all domain sciences. EarthCube aims to create a knowledge management system and infrastructure that integrates all Earth system and human dimensions data in an open transparent, and inclusive manner. EarthCube requires broad community participation in concept, framework, and implementation and must not be hindered by rigid preconceptions. We discovered widely varying interpretations, expectations, and assumptions about governance among EarthCube participants. Our definition of governance refers to the processes, structure and organizational elements that determine, within an organization or system of organizations, how power is exercised, how stakeholders have their say, how decisions are made, and how decision makers are held accountable. We have learned, from historic infrastructure case studies, background research on governance and from community feedback during this roadmap process, that other types of large-scale, complex infrastructures, including the Internet, have no central control, administration, or management. No national infrastructure that we examined is governed by a single entity, let alone a single governance archetype. Thus we feel the roadmap process must accommodate a governance system or system of systems that may have a single governing entity, particularly at the start, but can evolve into a collective of governing bodies as warranted, in order to be successful. A fast-track process during Spring, 2012 culminated in a Governance Roadmap delivered to an NSF-sponsored charrette in June with an aggressive timetable to define and implement a governance structure to enable the elements of EarthCube to become operational expeditiously. Our goal is to help ensure the realization of this infrastructure sooner, more efficiently, and more effectively, by providing a community endorsed Governance Framework, released in September of 2012. The Framework, and corresponding community outreach, maximizes engagement of the broader EarthCube community, which in turn minimizes the risks that the community will not adopt EarthCube in its development and final states. The target stakeholder community includes academia, government, and the private-sector, both nationally and internationally. http://earthcube.ning.com/group/governance

Knowledge Acquisition and Management for the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Votava, P.; Michaelis, A.; Nemani, R. R.

2013-12-01

NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) is a data, computing and knowledge collaboratory that houses NASA satellite, climate and ancillary data where a focused community can come together to share modeling and analysis codes, scientific results, knowledge and expertise on a centralized platform with access to large supercomputing resources. As more and more projects are being executed on NEX, we are increasingly focusing on capturing the knowledge of the NEX users and provide mechanisms for sharing it with the community in order to facilitate reuse and accelerate research. There are many possible knowledge contributions to NEX, it can be a wiki entry on the NEX portal contributed by a developer, information extracted from a publication in an automated way, or a workflow captured during code execution on the supercomputing platform. The goal of the NEX knowledge platform is to capture and organize this information and make it easily accessible to the NEX community and beyond. The knowledge acquisition process consists of three main faucets - data and metadata, workflows and processes, and web-based information. Once the knowledge is acquired, it is processed in a number of ways ranging from custom metadata parsers to entity extraction using natural language processing techniques. The processed information is linked with existing taxonomies and aligned with internal ontology (which heavily reuses number of external ontologies). This forms a knowledge graph that can then be used to improve users' search query results as well as provide additional analytics capabilities to the NEX system. Such a knowledge graph will be an important building block in creating a dynamic knowledge base for the NEX community where knowledge is both generated and easily shared.

Semantically-enabled Knowledge Discovery in the Deep Carbon Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, H.; Chen, Y.; Ma, X.; Erickson, J. S.; West, P.; Fox, P. A.

2013-12-01

The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is a decadal effort aimed at transforming scientific and public understanding of carbon in the complex deep earth system from the perspectives of Deep Energy, Deep Life, Extreme Physics and Chemistry, and Reservoirs and Fluxes. Over the course of the decade DCO scientific activities will generate a massive volume of data across a variety of disciplines, presenting significant challenges in terms of data integration, management, analysis and visualization, and ultimately limiting the ability of scientists across disciplines to make insights and unlock new knowledge. The DCO Data Science Team (DCO-DS) is applying Semantic Web methodologies to construct a knowledge representation focused on the DCO Earth science disciplines, and use it together with other technologies (e.g. natural language processing and data mining) to create a more expressive representation of the distributed corpus of DCO artifacts including datasets, metadata, instruments, sensors, platforms, deployments, researchers, organizations, funding agencies, grants and various awards. The embodiment of this knowledge representation is the DCO Data Science Infrastructure, in which unique entities within the DCO domain and the relations between them are recognized and explicitly identified. The DCO-DS Infrastructure will serve as a platform for more efficient and reliable searching, discovery, access, and publication of information and knowledge for the DCO scientific community and beyond.

A Hybrid Neuro-Fuzzy Model For Integrating Large Earth-Science Datasets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porwal, A.; Carranza, J.; Hale, M.

2004-12-01

A GIS-based hybrid neuro-fuzzy approach to integration of large earth-science datasets for mineral prospectivity mapping is described. It implements a Takagi-Sugeno type fuzzy inference system in the framework of a four-layered feed-forward adaptive neural network. Each unique combination of the datasets is considered a feature vector whose components are derived by knowledge-based ordinal encoding of the constituent datasets. A subset of feature vectors with a known output target vector (i.e., unique conditions known to be associated with either a mineralized or a barren location) is used for the training of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. Training involves iterative adjustment of parameters of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system using a hybrid learning procedure for mapping each training vector to its output target vector with minimum sum of squared error. The trained adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is used to process all feature vectors. The output for each feature vector is a value that indicates the extent to which a feature vector belongs to the mineralized class or the barren class. These values are used to generate a prospectivity map. The procedure is demonstrated by an application to regional-scale base metal prospectivity mapping in a study area located in the Aravalli metallogenic province (western India). A comparison of the hybrid neuro-fuzzy approach with pure knowledge-driven fuzzy and pure data-driven neural network approaches indicates that the former offers a superior method for integrating large earth-science datasets for predictive spatial mathematical modelling.

Spaceborne observations of a changing Earth - Contribution from ESÁ s operating and approved satellite missions.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johannessen, J. A.

2009-04-01

The overall vision for ESÁs Earth Observation activities is to play a central role in developing the global capability to understand planet Earth, predict changes, and mitigate negative effects of global change on its populations. Since Earth observation from space first became possible more than forty years ago, it has become central to monitoring and understanding how the dynamics of the Earth System work. The greatest progress has been in meteorology, where space-based observations have become indispensable, but it is now also progressively penetrating many of the fields making up Earth sciences. Exploiting Earth observation from space presents major multidisciplinary challenges to the researches working in the Earth sciences, to the technologists who build the state-of-the-art sensors, and to the scientists interpreting measurements made of processes occurring on or within the Earth's surface and in its atmosphere. The scientific community has shown considerable imagination in rising to these challenges, and in exploiting the latest technological developments to measure from space the complex processes and interactions that occur in the Earth System. In parallel, there has been significant progress in developing computer models that represent the many processes that make up the Earth System, and the interactions and feedback between them. Success in developing this holistic view is inextricably linked to the data provided by Earth Observation systems. Satellites provide the fundamental, consistent, regular and global measurements needed to drive, parameterise, test and improve those Earth System models. These developments, together with changes in society's awareness of the need for information on a changing world, have repetitively supported the decisions on how ESA can best focus its resources, and those of the European community that it serves, in order to address critical issues in Earth System science. Moreover, it is a fact that many operational, managerial and regulatory activities (i.e. weather forecasting, deforestation, flooding, etc.) essential to the safe exploitation of global resources, conservation of sustainable ecosystems, and the compliance with numerous international treaties and conventions, depend absolutely on continuity of satellite missions to maximise socio-economic and environmental benefits. This presentation will highlight some of the multidisciplinary Earth science achievements and operational applications using ESA satellite missions. It will also address some of the key scientific challenges and need for operational monitoring services in the years to come. It capitalizes on the knowledge and awareness outlined in "The Changing Earth - New scientific challenges for ESÁs Living Planet Programme" issued in 2006 together with updated views and approved plans expressed during ESÁs Earth Sciences Advisory Committee (ESAC) meetings and agreed at the recent User Consultation meeting in January 2009.

Satellite Emission Range Inferred Earth Survey (SERIES) project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buennagel, L. A.; Macdoran, P. F.; Neilan, R. E.; Spitzmesser, D. J.; Young, L. E.

1984-01-01

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed by the Department of Defense primarily for navigation use by the United States Armed Forces. The system will consist of a constellation of 18 operational Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR) satellites by the late 1980's. During the last four years, the Satellite Emission Range Inferred Earth Surveying (SERIES) team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a novel receiver which is the heart of the SERIES geodetic system designed to use signals broadcast from the GPS. This receiver does not require knowledge of the exact code sequence being transmitted. In addition, when two SERIES receivers are used differentially to determine a baseline, few cm accuracies can be obtained. The initial engineering test phase has been completed for the SERIES Project. Baseline lengths, ranging from 150 meters to 171 kilometers, have been measured with 0.3 cm to 7 cm accuracies. This technology, which is sponsored by the NASA Geodynamics Program, has been developed at JPL to meet the challenge for high precision, cost-effective geodesy, and to complement the mobile Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) system for Earth surveying.

Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) algorithm theoretical basis document. Volume 1; Overviews (subsystem 0)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wielicki, Bruce A. (Principal Investigator); Barkstrom, Bruce R. (Principal Investigator); Baum, Bryan A.; Cess, Robert D.; Charlock, Thomas P.; Coakley, James A.; Green, Richard N.; Lee, Robert B., III; Minnis, Patrick; Smith, G. Louis

1995-01-01

The theoretical bases for the Release 1 algorithms that will be used to process satellite data for investigation of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) are described. The architecture for software implementation of the methodologies is outlined. Volume 1 provides both summarized and detailed overviews of the CERES Release 1 data analysis system. CERES will produce global top-of-the-atmosphere shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere, at the surface, and within the atmosphere by using the combination of a large variety of measurements and models. The CERES processing system includes radiance observations from CERES scanning radiometers, cloud properties derived from coincident satellite imaging radiometers, temperature and humidity fields from meteorological analysis models, and high-temporal-resolution geostationary satellite radiances to account for unobserved times. CERES will provide a continuation of the ERBE record and the lowest error climatology of consistent cloud properties and radiation fields. CERES will also substantially improve our knowledge of the Earth's surface radiation budget.

Reaching Beyond the Geoscience Stigma: Strategies for Success

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messina, P.; Metzger, E. P.

2004-12-01

The geosciences have traditionally been viewed with less "academic prestige" than other science curricula. Among the effects of this perception are depressed K-16 enrollments; state standards' relegation of Earth and space science concepts to earlier grades; Earth Science assignments to lower-performing students, and sometimes even to under-qualified teachers: all of which simply confirm the misconceptions. Restructuring pre-college science curricula so that Earth Science is placed as a capstone course is one way to enhance student understanding of the geosciences. Research demonstrates that reversing the traditional science course sequence (by offering Physics in the ninth grade) improves student success in subsequent science courses. The "Physics First" movement continues to gain momentum offering a possible niche for the Earth and space sciences beyond middle school. It is also critical to bridge the information gap for those with little or no prior exposure to the Earth sciences, particularly K-12 educators. An Earth systems course developed at San José State University is aligned to our state's standards; it is approved to satisfy geoscience subject matter competency by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, making it a popular offering for pre- and in-service teachers. Expanding our audience beyond the Bay Area, the Earth Systems Science Education Alliance courses infuse real-world and hands-on learning in a cohesive online curriculum. Through these courses teachers gain knowledge, share effective pedagogies, and build geography-independent communities.

NASA'S Water Resources Element Within the Applied Sciences Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Toll, David; Doorn, Bradley; Engman, Edwin

2011-01-01

The NASA Earth Systems Division has the primary responsibility for the Applied Science Program and the objective to accelerate the use of NASA science results in applications to help solve problems important to society and the economy. The primary goal of the NASA Applied Science Program is to improve future and current operational systems by infusing them with scientific knowledge of the Earth system gained through space-based observation, assimilation of new observations, and development and deployment of enabling technologies, systems, and capabilities. This paper discusses major problems facing water resources managers, including having timely and accurate data to drive their decision support tools. It then describes how NASA's science and space based satellites may be used to overcome this problem. Opportunities for the water resources community to participate in NASA's Water Resources Applications Program are described.

Remote sensing in the coming decade: the vision and the reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gail, William B.

2006-08-01

Investment in understanding the Earth pays off twice. It enables pursuit of scientific questions that rank among the most interesting and profound of our time. It also serves society's practical need for increased prosperity and security. Over the last half-century, we have built a sophisticated network of satellites, aircraft, and ground-based remote sensing systems to provide the raw information from which we derive Earth knowledge. This network has served us well in the development of science and the provision of operational services. In the next decade, the demand for such information will grow dramatically. New remote sensing capabilities will emerge. Rapid evolution of Internet geospatial and location-based services will make communication and sharing of Earth knowledge much easier. Governments, businesses, and consumers will all benefit. But this exciting future is threatened from many directions. Risks range from technology and market uncertainties in the private sector to budget cuts and project setbacks in the public sector. The coming decade will see a dramatic confrontation between the vision of what needs to be accomplished in Earth remote sensing and the reality of our resources and commitment. The outcome will have long-term implications for both the remote sensing community and society as a whole.

A Governance Roadmap and Framework for EarthCube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allison, M. L.

2012-12-01

EarthCube is a process and an outcome, established to transform the conduct of research through the development of community-guided cyberinfrastructure for the Geosciences as the prototype for potential deployment across all domain sciences. EarthCube aims to create a knowledge management system and infrastructure that integrates all Earth system and human dimensions data in an open transparent, and inclusive manner. EarthCube requires broad community participation in concept, framework, and implementation and must not be hindered by rigid preconceptions. We discovered widely varying interpretations, expectations, and assumptions about governance among EarthCube participants. Our definition of governance refers to the processes, structure and organizational elements that determine, within an organization or system of organizations, how power is exercised, how stakeholders have their say, how decisions are made, and how decision makers are held accountable. We have learned, from historic infrastructure case studies, background research on governance and from community feedback during this roadmap process, that other types of large-scale, complex infrastructures, including the Internet, have no central control, administration, or management. No national infrastructure that we examined is governed by a single entity, let alone a single governance archetype. Thus we feel the roadmap process must accommodate a governance system or system of systems that may have a single governing entity, particularly at the start, but can evolve into a collective of governing bodies as warranted, in order to be successful. A fast-track process during Spring, 2012 culminated in a Governance Roadmap delivered to an NSF-sponsored charrette in June with an aggressive timetable to define and implement a governance structure to enable the elements of EarthCube to become operational expeditiously. Our goal is to help ensure the realization of this infrastructure sooner, more efficiently, and more effectively, by providing a community endorsed Governance Framework. The Framework, and corresponding community outreach, will maximize engagement of the broader EarthCube community, which in turn will minimize the risks that the community will not adopt EarthCube in its development and final states. The target community includes academia, government, and the private-sector, both nationally and internationally. Based on community feedback to-date, we compiled and synthesized system-wide governance requirements to draft an initial set of EarthCube Governance functions. These functions will permit us to produce a Governance Framework based on an aggressive community outreach and engagement plan.

Autonomous navigation accuracy using simulated horizon sensor and sun sensor observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pease, G. E.; Hendrickson, H. T.

1980-01-01

A relatively simple autonomous system which would use horizon crossing indicators, a sun sensor, a quartz oscillator, and a microprogrammed computer is discussed. The sensor combination is required only to effectively measure the angle between the centers of the Earth and the Sun. Simulations for a particular orbit indicate that 2 km r.m.s. orbit determination uncertainties may be expected from a system with 0.06 deg measurement uncertainty. A key finding is that knowledge of the satellite orbit plane orientation can be maintained to this level because of the annual motion of the Sun and the predictable effects of Earth oblateness. The basic system described can be updated periodically by transits of the Moon through the IR horizon crossing indicator fields of view.

Geoinformatics 2007: data to knowledge

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brady, Shailaja R.; Sinha, A. Krishna; Gundersen, Linda C.

2007-01-01

Geoinformatics is the term used to describe a variety of efforts to promote collaboration between the computer sciences and the geosciences to solve complex scientific questions. It refers to the distributed, integrated digital information system and working environment that provides innovative means for the study of the Earth systems, as well as other planets, through use of advanced information technologies. Geoinformatics activities range from major research and development efforts creating new technologies to provide high-quality, sustained production-level services for data discovery, integration and analysis, to small, discipline-specific efforts that develop earth science data collections and data analysis tools serving the needs of individual communities. The ultimate vision of Geoinformatics is a highly interconnected data system populated with high quality, freely available data, as well as, a robust set of software for analysis, visualization, and modeling.

Rare Earth Element Mines, Deposits, and Occurrences

USGS Publications Warehouse

Orris, Greta J.; Grauch, Richard I.

2002-01-01

Data on rare earth (including yttrium) mines, deposits, and occurrences were compiled as part of an effort by the USGS and the University of Arizona Center for Mineral Resources to summarize current knowledge on the supply and demand outlook and related topics for this group of elements. Economic competition and environmental concerns are increasingly constraining the mining and processing of rare earths from the Mountain Pass mine in California. For many years, the deposit at Mountain Pass was the world's dominant source of rare earth elements and the United States was essentially self-sufficient. Starting approximately 10 years ago, the U.S. has become increasingly dependent (> 90 percent of separated rare earths) upon imports from China, now the dominant source of rare earths. A knowledge of the known economic and noneconomic sources of rare earths is basic to evaluating the outlook for rare earth supply and associated issues.

A preliminary geodetic data model for geographic information systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelly, K. M.

2009-12-01

Our ability to gather and assimilate integrated data collections from multiple disciplines is important for earth system studies. Moreover, geosciences data collection has increased dramatically, with pervasive networks of observational stations on the ground, in the oceans, in the atmosphere and in space. Contemporary geodetic observations from several space and terrestrial technologies contribute to our knowledge of earth system processes and thus are a valuable source of high accuracy information for many global change studies. Assimilation of these geodetic observations and numerical models into models of weather, climate, oceans, hydrology, ice, and solid Earth processes is an important contribution geodesists can make to the earth science community. Clearly, the geodetic observations and models are fundamental to these contributions. ESRI wishes to provide leadership in the geodetic community to collaboratively build an open, freely available content specification that can be used by anyone to structure and manage geodetic data. This Geodetic Data Model will provide important context for all geographic information. The production of a task-specific geodetic data model involves several steps. The goal of the data model is to provide useful data structures and best practices for each step, making it easier for geodesists to organize their data and metadata in a way that will be useful in their data analyses and to their customers. Built on concepts from the successful Arc Marine data model, we introduce common geodetic data types and summarize the main thematic layers of the Geodetic Data Model. These provide a general framework for envisioning the core feature classes required to represent geodetic data in a geographic information system. Like Arc Marine, the framework is generic to allow users to build workflow or product specific geodetic data models tailored to the specific task(s) at hand. This approach allows integration of the data with other existing geophysical datasets, thus facilitating creation of multi-tiered models. The Geodetic Data Model encourages data assimilation and analysis and facilitates data interoperability, coordination and integration in earth system modeling. It offers a basic set of data structures organized in a simple and homogeneous way and can streamline access to and processing of geodetic data. It can aid knowledge discovery through the use of GIS technology to enable identification and understanding of relationships and provide well-established tools and methods to communicate complex technical knowledge with non-specialist audiences. The Geodetic Data Model comprise the base classes for using workflow driven ontology (WDO) techniques for specifying the computation of complex geodetic products along with the ability to capture provenance information. While we do not specify WDO for any given geodetic product, we recognize that structured geodetic data is essential for generating any geodetic WDO, a task that can be streamlined in some GIS software.

Collaboration and Perspectives on Identity Management and Access from two Geoscience Cyberinfrastructure Programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramamurthy, M. K.

2016-12-01

Increasingly, the conduct of science requires close international collaborations to share data, information, knowledge, expertise, and other resources. This is particularly true in the geosciences where the highly connected nature of the Earth system and the need to understand global environmental processes have heightened the importance of scientific partnerships. As geoscience studies become a team effort involving networked scientists and data providers, it is crucial that there is open and reliable access to earth system data of all types, software, tools, models, and other assets. That environment demands close attention to security-related matters, including the creation of trustworthy cyberinfrastructure to facilitate the efficient use of available resources and support the conduct of science. Unidata and EarthCube, both of which are NSF-funded and community-driven programs, recognize the importance of collaborations and the value of networked communities. Unidata, a cornerstone cyberinfrastructure facility for the geosciences, includes users in nearly 180 countries. The EarthCube initiative is aimed at transforming the conduct of geosciences research by creating a well-connected and facile environment for sharing data and in an open, transparent, and inclusive manner and to accelerate our ability to understand and predict the Earth system. We will present the Unidata and EarthCube community perspectives on the approaches to balancing an environment that promotes open and collaborative eScience with the needs for security and communication, including what works, what is needed, the challenges, and opportunities to advance science.

Vancouver, Canada 2010

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

The Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite captured this image of Vancouver on September 7, 2011. Flowing through braided channels, the Fraser River meanders toward the sea, emptying through multiple outlets. Moe info: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77368 NASA Earth Observatory image created by Robert Simmon and Jesse Allen, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey. Instrument: Landsat 5 - TM Credit: NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

The Triangulum

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-01-10

NASA image release January 10, 2011 The Triangulum, located nearly 3 million light years from Earth, is another far galaxy where researchers have found diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). The detailed observations needed to see DIBs along a straight line from Earth to an individual star in such a distant galaxy stretch the limits of even the largest telescopes. Credit: NASA/Swift Science Team/Stefan Immler To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/molecule-fingerprin... NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, from Space

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

While gymnasts leap, cyclists pedal and divers twirl for Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, several NASA Earth Observing satellites catch glimpses of the city and its surroundings from space. This image shows how Rio Olympic Park appeared to the Operational Land Imager (OLI), a sensor on Landsat 8, last September as the city prepared for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Image credit: Landsat 8/NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Towards An Oceanographic Component Of A Global Earth Observation System Of Systems: Progress And Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ackleson, S. G.

2012-12-01

Ocean observatories (systems of coordinated sensors and platforms providing real-time in situ observations across multiple temporal and spatial scales) have advanced rapidly during the past several decades with the integration of novel hardware, development of advanced cyber-infrastructures and data management software, and the formation of researcher networks employing fixed, drifting, and mobile assets. These advances have provided persistent, real-time, multi-disciplinary observations representing even the most extreme environmental conditions, enabled unique and informative views of complicated ocean processes, and aided in the development of more accurate and higher fidelity ocean models. Combined with traditional ship-based and remotely sensed observations, ocean observatories have yielded new knowledge across a broad spectrum of earth-ocean scales that would likely not exist otherwise. These developments come at a critical time in human history when the demands of global population growth are creating unprecedented societal challenges associated with rapid climatic change and unsustainable consumption of key ocean resources. Successfully meeting and overcoming these challenges and avoiding the ultimate tragedy of the commons will require greater knowledge of environmental processes than currently exists, including interactions between the ocean, the overlying atmosphere, and the adjacent land and synthesizing new knowledge into effective policy and management structures. To achieve this, researchers must have free and ready access to comprehensive data streams (oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial), regardless of location and collection system. While the precedent for the concept of free and open access to environmental data is not new (it traces back to the International Geophysical Year, 1957), implementing procedures and standards on a global scale is proving to be difficult, both logistically and politically. Observatories have been implemented in many parts of the global ocean, inspiring researchers to begin planning and developing connected regional observing systems that are networked into a Global Ocean Observing System as part of a comprehensive Global Earth Observation System of Systems. However, much remains to be accomplished, especially in the areas of standardizing observation methods and metadata, implementing procedures to assure an acceptable level of data quality, and defining and producing key derived products. This paper will briefly discuss the evolution of ocean observatories, summarize current efforts to develop local, regional and global observing networks, and suggest future steps towards a global ocean observing system.

NASA Earth Observations Informing Renewable Energy Management and Policy Decision Making

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eckman, Richard S.; Stackhouse, Paul W., Jr.

2008-01-01

The NASA Applied Sciences Program partners with domestic and international governmental organizations, universities, and private entities to improve their decisions and assessments. These improvements are enabled by using the knowledge generated from research resulting from spacecraft observations and model predictions conducted by NASA and providing these as inputs to the decision support and scenario assessment tools used by partner organizations. The Program is divided into eight societal benefit areas, aligned in general with the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) themes. The Climate Application of the Applied Sciences Program has as one of its focuses, efforts to provide for improved decisions and assessments in the areas of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency, and climate change impacts. The goals of the Applied Sciences Program are aligned with national initiatives such as the U.S. Climate Change Science and Technology Programs and with those of international organizations including the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). Activities within the Program are funded principally through proposals submitted in response to annual solicitations and reviewed by peers.

New NASA 3D Animation Shows Seven Days of Simulated Earth Weather

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-08-11

This visualization shows early test renderings of a global computational model of Earth's atmosphere based on data from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). This particular run, called Nature Run 2, was run on a supercomputer, spanned 2 years of simulation time at 30 minute intervals, and produced Petabytes of output. The visualization spans a little more than 7 days of simulation time which is 354 time steps. The time period was chosen because a simulated category-4 typhoon developed off the coast of China. The 7 day period is repeated several times during the course of the visualization. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio Read more or download here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4180 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Knowledge Discovery for Smart Grid Operation, Control, and Situation Awareness -- A Big Data Visualization Platform

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gu, Yi; Jiang, Huaiguang; Zhang, Yingchen

In this paper, a big data visualization platform is designed to discover the hidden useful knowledge for smart grid (SG) operation, control and situation awareness. The spawn of smart sensors at both grid side and customer side can provide large volume of heterogeneous data that collect information in all time spectrums. Extracting useful knowledge from this big-data poll is still challenging. In this paper, the Apache Spark, an open source cluster computing framework, is used to process the big-data to effectively discover the hidden knowledge. A high-speed communication architecture utilizing the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model is designed to transmitmore » the data to a visualization platform. This visualization platform uses Google Earth, a global geographic information system (GIS) to link the geological information with the SG knowledge and visualize the information in user defined fashion. The University of Denver's campus grid is used as a SG test bench and several demonstrations are presented for the proposed platform.« less

Stability of hydrocarbon systems at thermobaric conditions corresponding to depth down to 50 km

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutcherov, V.; Kolesnikov, A.; Mukhina, E.; Serovaiskii, A.

2017-12-01

Most of the theoretical models show that crude oil stability is limited by the depth of 6-8 km (`oil window'). Commercial discovery of crude oil deposits on the depth more than 10 km in the different petroleum basins worldwide casts doubt on the validity of the above-mentioned theoretical calculations. Therefore, the question at which depth complex hydrocarbon systems could be stable is important not only from fundamental research point of view but has a great practical application. To answer this question a hydrocarbon mixture was investigated under thermobaric conditions corresponding to the conditions of the Earth's lower crust. Experiments were conducted by means of Raman Mössbauer spectroscopy. The results obtained show that the complex hydrocarbon systems could be stable and remain their qualitative and quantitative composition at temperature 320-450 °C and pressure 0.7-1.4 GPa. The oxidizing resistance of hydrocarbon system was tested in the modelled the Earth's crust surrounding. The hydrocarbon system stability at the presence of Fe2O3 strongly confirms that the Earth's crust oxygen fugacity does not influence on petroleum composition. The data obtained broaden our knowledge about the possible range of depths for crude oil and natural gas deposits in the Earth's crust and give us the possibility to revise the depth of petroleum deposits occurrence.

Pedotransfer Functions in Earth System Science: Challenges and Perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Looy, Kris; Bouma, Johan; Herbst, Michael; Koestel, John; Minasny, Budiman; Mishra, Umakant; Montzka, Carsten; Nemes, Attila; Pachepsky, Yakov A.; Padarian, José; Schaap, Marcel G.; Tóth, Brigitta; Verhoef, Anne; Vanderborght, Jan; van der Ploeg, Martine J.; Weihermüller, Lutz; Zacharias, Steffen; Zhang, Yonggen; Vereecken, Harry

2017-12-01

Soil, through its various functions, plays a vital role in the Earth's ecosystems and provides multiple ecosystem services to humanity. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are simple to complex knowledge rules that relate available soil information to soil properties and variables that are needed to parameterize soil processes. In this paper, we review the existing PTFs and document the new generation of PTFs developed in the different disciplines of Earth system science. To meet the methodological challenges for a successful application in Earth system modeling, we emphasize that PTF development has to go hand in hand with suitable extrapolation and upscaling techniques such that the PTFs correctly represent the spatial heterogeneity of soils. PTFs should encompass the variability of the estimated soil property or process, in such a way that the estimation of parameters allows for validation and can also confidently provide for extrapolation and upscaling purposes capturing the spatial variation in soils. Most actively pursued recent developments are related to parameterizations of solute transport, heat exchange, soil respiration, and organic carbon content, root density, and vegetation water uptake. Further challenges are to be addressed in parameterization of soil erosivity and land use change impacts at multiple scales. We argue that a comprehensive set of PTFs can be applied throughout a wide range of disciplines of Earth system science, with emphasis on land surface models. Novel sensing techniques provide a true breakthrough for this, yet further improvements are necessary for methods to deal with uncertainty and to validate applications at global scale.

Teaching climate change: A 16-year record of introducing undergraduates to the fundamentals of the climate system and its complexities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winckler, G.; Pfirman, S. L.; Hays, J. D.; Schlosser, P.; Ting, M.

2011-12-01

Responding to climate change challenges in the near and far future, will require a wide range of knowledge, skills and a sense of the complexities involved. Since 1995, Columbia University and Barnard College have offered an undergraduate class that strives to provide students with some of these skills. The 'Climate System' course is a component of the three-part 'Earth Environmental Systems' series and provides the fundamentals needed for understanding the Earth's climate system and its variability. Being designed both for science majors and non-science majors, the emphasis of the course is on basic physical explanations, rather than mathematical derivations of the laws that govern the climate system. The course includes lectures, labs and discussion. Laboratory exercises primarily explore the climate system using global datasets, augmented by hands-on activities. Course materials are available for public use at http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/ees/climate/camel_modules/ and http://ncseonline.org/climate/cms.cfm?id=3783. In this presentation we discuss the experiences, challenges and future demands of conveying the science of the Earth's Climate System and the risks facing the planet to a wide spectrum of undergraduate students, many of them without a background in the sciences. Using evaluation data we reflect how the course, the students, and the faculty have evolved over the past 16 years as the earth warmed, pressures for adaptation planning and mitigation measures increased, and public discourse became increasingly polarized.

Towards coupled physical-biogeochemical models of the ocean carbon cycle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rintoul, Stephen R.

1992-01-01

The purpose of this review is to discuss the critical gaps in our knowledge of ocean dynamics and biogeochemical cycles. It is assumed that the ultimate goal is the design of a model of the earth system that can predict the response to changes in the external forces driving climate.

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Dr. Robert Goddard's rocket ready for flight. Roswell, New Mexico. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

"Xoa:dau" to "Maunkaui": Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into an Undergraduate Earth Systems Science Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Mark H.; Elmore, R. Douglas; Watson, Mary Jo; Kloesel, Kevin; Palmer, Kristen

2009-01-01

Very few Native American students pursue careers in the geosciences. To address this national problem, several units at the University of Oklahoma are implementing a geoscience "pipeline" program that is designed to increase the number of Native American students entering geoscience disciplines. One of the program's strategies includes…

Solar System in the Hallway

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Malonne; Landis, Linda; Landis, Arthur

2009-01-01

After studying phenomena related to the positions and motions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon, many students are familiar with the positional ordering of the planets, but their knowledge of the distances involved is vague. Scale models are one means of bringing extreme sizes into better focus, cutting them down to relative values that they can better…

Student Understanding of Water and Water Resources: A Review of the Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brody, Michael J.

This paper reviews the educational research related to student understanding of water and water resources. The literature is drawn primarily from science and environmental education literature and is divided into student knowledge of: physical and chemical properties, biology, earth systems and water resources. The majority of work has been in the…

Precision GPS ephemerides and baselines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

The required knowledge of the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite position accuracy can vary depending on a particular application. Application to relative positioning of receiver locations on the ground to infer Earth's tectonic plate motion requires the most accurate knowledge of the GPS satellite orbits. Research directed towards improving and evaluating the accuracy of GPS satellite orbits was conducted at the University of Texas Center for Space Research (CSR). Understanding and modeling the forces acting on the satellites was a major focus of the research. Other aspects of orbit determination, such as the reference frame, time system, measurement modeling, and parameterization, were also investigated. Gravitational forces were modeled by truncated versions of extant gravity fields such as, Goddard Earth Model (GEM-L2), GEM-T1, TEG-2, and third body perturbations due to the Sun and Moon. Nongravitational forces considered were the solar radiation pressure, and perturbations due to thermal venting and thermal imbalance. At the GPS satellite orbit accuracy level required for crustal dynamic applications, models for the nongravitational perturbation play a critical role, since the gravitational forces are well understood and are modeled adequately for GPS satellite orbits.

The Importance of Conducting Life Sciences Experiments on the Deep Space Gateway Platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhattacharya, S.

2018-01-01

Over the last several decades important information has been gathered by conducting life science experiments on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station. It is now time to leverage that scientific knowledge, as well as aspects of the hardware that have been developed to support the biological model systems, to NASA's next frontier - the Deep Space Gateway. In order to facilitate long duration deep space exploration for humans, it is critical for NASA to understand the effects of long duration, low dose, deep space radiation on biological systems. While carefully controlled ground experiments on Earth-based radiation facilities have provided valuable preliminary information, we still have a significant knowledge gap on the biological responses of organisms to chronic low doses of the highly ionizing particles encountered beyond low Earth orbit. Furthermore, the combined effects of altered gravity and radiation have the potential to cause greater biological changes than either of these parameters alone. Therefore a thorough investigation of the biological effects of a cis-lunar environment will facilitate long term human exploration of deep space.

In Brief: European Earth science network for postdocs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

2008-12-01

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a new initiative called the Changing Earth Science Network, to support young scientists undertaking leading-edge research activities aimed at advancing the understanding of the Earth system. The initiative will enable up to 10 young postdoctoral researchers from the agency's member states to address major scientific challenges by using Earth observation (EO) satellite data from ESA and its third-party missions. The initiative aims to foster the development of a network of young scientists in Europe with a good knowledge of the agency and its EO programs. Selected candidates will have the option to carry out part of their research in an ESA center as a visiting scientist. The deadline to submit proposals is 16 January 2009. Selections will be announced in early 2009. The Changing Earth Science Network was developed as one of the main programmatic components of ESA's Support to Science Element, launched in 2008. For more information, visit http://www.esa.int/stse.

Lunar Satellite Snaps Image of Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-07

This image, captured Feb. 1, 2014, shows a colorized view of Earth from the moon-based perspective of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) experiences 12 "earthrises" every day, however LROC (short for LRO Camera) is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that LROC can capture a view of Earth. On Feb. 1, 2014, LRO pitched forward while approaching the moon's north pole allowing the LROC Wide Angle Camera to capture Earth rising above Rozhdestvenskiy crater (112 miles, or 180 km, in diameter). Read more: go.nasa.gov/1oqMlgu NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

NASA Earth Science Partnerships - A Multi-Level Approach to Effectively Collaborating with Communities and Organizations to Utilize Earth Science Data for Societal Benefit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Favors, J.

2016-12-01

NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) seeks to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth as a dynamic, integrated system of diverse components that interact in complex ways - analogous to the human body. The Division approaches this goal through a coordinated series of satellite and airborne missions, sponsored basic and applied research, technology development, and science education. Integral to this approach are strong collaborations and partnerships with a spectrum of organizations that produce substantive benefit to communities - both locally and globally. This presentation will showcase various ways ESD approaches partnering and will highlight best practices, challenges, and provide case studies related to rapid partnerships, co-location of scientists and end-user communities, capacity building, and ESD's new Partnerships Program which is built around taking an innovative approach to partnering that fosters interdisplinary teaming & co-production of knowledge to broaden the applicability of Earth observations and answer new, big questions for partners and NASA, alike.

Heuristics for Relevancy Ranking of Earth Dataset Search Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynnes, C.; Quinn, P.; Norton, J.

2016-12-01

As the Variety of Earth science datasets increases, science researchers find it more challenging to discover and select the datasets that best fit their needs. The most common way of search providers to address this problem is to rank the datasets returned for a query by their likely relevance to the user. Large web page search engines typically use text matching supplemented with reverse link counts, semantic annotations and user intent modeling. However, this produces uneven results when applied to dataset metadata records simply externalized as a web page. Fortunately, data and search provides have decades of experience in serving data user communities, allowing them to form heuristics that leverage the structure in the metadata together with knowledge about the user community. Some of these heuristics include specific ways of matching the user input to the essential measurements in the dataset and determining overlaps of time range and spatial areas. Heuristics based on the novelty of the datasets can prioritize later, better versions of data over similar predecessors. And knowledge of how different user types and communities use data can be brought to bear in cases where characteristics of the user (discipline, expertise) or their intent (applications, research) can be divined. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System has begun implementing some of these heuristics in the relevancy algorithm of its Common Metadata Repository search engine.

Heuristics for Relevancy Ranking of Earth Dataset Search Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lynnes, Christopher; Quinn, Patrick; Norton, James

2016-01-01

As the Variety of Earth science datasets increases, science researchers find it more challenging to discover and select the datasets that best fit their needs. The most common way of search providers to address this problem is to rank the datasets returned for a query by their likely relevance to the user. Large web page search engines typically use text matching supplemented with reverse link counts, semantic annotations and user intent modeling. However, this produces uneven results when applied to dataset metadata records simply externalized as a web page. Fortunately, data and search provides have decades of experience in serving data user communities, allowing them to form heuristics that leverage the structure in the metadata together with knowledge about the user community. Some of these heuristics include specific ways of matching the user input to the essential measurements in the dataset and determining overlaps of time range and spatial areas. Heuristics based on the novelty of the datasets can prioritize later, better versions of data over similar predecessors. And knowledge of how different user types and communities use data can be brought to bear in cases where characteristics of the user (discipline, expertise) or their intent (applications, research) can be divined. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System has begun implementing some of these heuristics in the relevancy algorithm of its Common Metadata Repository search engine.

Sun, Earth and man: The need to know. The quest for knowledge of Sun-Earth relations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stafford, E. P.

1982-01-01

Solar physics and the effects of emanations from the Sun on communications and Earth's weather and climate are discussed. Scientific interest in the solar system from the old Stone Age to the present is reviewed with particular emphasis on the objectives sought and information obtained by Explorer satellites, Pioneer satellites, Skylab, Helios, ISEE, the solar maximum mission, and the Dynamics Explorer. The goals of missions planned for the 1980's are discussed including those using space shuttle, Spacelab, the Solar Mesosphere Explorer, the solar optical telescope, the upper atmosphere research satellite, and the solar probe. The objectives of the international solar polar mission and of the Origin of Plasma in Earth's Neighborhood mission are also delineated. Other missions being considered are reviewed and the prospect of taming the fusion process to provide clean, harmless electrical energy like that obtained from the Sun is entertained.

Transit of Venus 2004 [detail

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

To read more about the 2012 Venus Transit go to: sunearthday.nasa.gov/transitofvenus Add your photos of the Transit of Venus to our Flickr Group here: www.flickr.com/groups/venustransit/ NASA FILE PHOTO Date: 8 Jun 2004 NASA's TRACE satellite captured this image of Venus crossing the face of the Sun as seen from Earth orbit. The last event occurred in 1882. The next Venus transit will be visible in 2012. This image also is a good example of the scale of Earth to the Sun since Venus and Earth are similar in size. Credit: NASA NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

NASA's Van Allen Probes Discover a Surprise Circling Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

On Aug. 31, 2012, a giant prominence on the sun erupted, sending out particles and a shock wave that traveled near Earth. This event may have been one of the causes of a third radiation belt that appeared around Earth a few days later, a phenomenon that was observed for the very first time by the newly-launched Van Allen Probes. This image of the prominence before it erupted was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/Goddard Space Flight Center To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/news/third-belt.html NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Space Weather

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hapgood, Mike

2017-01-01

Space weather-changes in the Earth's environment that can often be traced to physical processes in the Sun-can have a profound impact on critical Earth-based infrastructures such as power grids and civil aviation. Violent eruptions on the solar surface can eject huge clouds of magnetized plasma and particle radiation, which then propagate across interplanetary space and envelop the Earth. These space weather events can drive major changes in a variety of terrestrial environments, which can disrupt, or even damage, many of the technological systems that underpin modern societies. The aim of this book is to offer an insight into our current scientific understanding of space weather, and how we can use that knowledge to mitigate the risks it poses for Earth-based technologies. It also identifies some key challenges for future space-weather research, and considers how emerging technological developments may introduce new risks that will drive continuing investigation.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) through 2025

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryan, Barbara; Cripe, Douglas

Ministers from the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Member governments, meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in January 2014, unanimously renewed the mandate of GEO through 2025. Through a Ministerial Declaration, they reconfirmed that GEO’s guiding principles of collaboration in leveraging national, regional and global investments and in developing and coordinating strategies to achieve full and open access to Earth observations data and information in order to support timely and knowledge-based decision-making - are catalysts for improving the quality of life of people around the world, advancing global sustainability, and preserving the planet and its biodiversity. GEO Ministers acknowledged and valued the contributions of GEO Member governments and invited all remaining Member States of the United Nations to consider joining GEO. The Ministers also encouraged all Members to strengthen national GEO arrangements, and - of particular interest to COSPAR - they highlighted the unique contributions of Participating Organizations. In this regard, ten more organizations saw their applications approved by Plenary and joined the ranks along with COSPAR to become a Participating Organization in GEO, bringing the current total to 77. Building on the efforts of a Post-2015 Working Group, in which COSPAR participated, Ministers provided additional guidance for GEO and the evolution of its Global Earth Observation System of System (GEOSS) through 2025. Five key areas of activities for the next decade include the following: 1.) Advocating for the value of Earth observations and the need to continue improving Earth observation worldwide; 2.) Urging the adoption and implementation of data sharing principles globally; 3.) Advancing the development of the GEOSS information system for the benefit of users; 4.) Developing a comprehensive interdisciplinary knowledge base defining and documenting observations needed for all disciplines and facilitate availability and accessibility of these observations to user communities; and 5.) Cultivating global initiatives tailored to meet specific user needs. The work in these five areas will build on the current GEOSS achievements and ensure that these achievements are both sustained and evolve in keeping pace with policy, technological and information changes at the global level. Certainly much has been accomplished in GEO’s first decade. Yet, more remains to be done. Many - possibly most - nations are facing challenges in operating and sustaining, not to mention expanding, their Earth observation networks. Broad, open data-sharing policies and practices are still not universally accepted and employed. And, communicating scientific results so that policy makers and the general public can understand the long term (as well as short term) impacts and implications remains challenging. GEO Members and Participating Organizations must continue to work aggressively to address each of these challenges if Earth system science is going to fully address the significant environmental issues facing the world today.

A low cost automatic detection and ranging system for space surveillance in the medium Earth orbit region and beyond.

PubMed

Danescu, Radu; Ciurte, Anca; Turcu, Vlad

2014-02-11

The space around the Earth is filled with man-made objects, which orbit the planet at altitudes ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of kilometers. Keeping an eye on all objects in Earth's orbit, useful and not useful, operational or not, is known as Space Surveillance. Due to cost considerations, the space surveillance solutions beyond the Low Earth Orbit region are mainly based on optical instruments. This paper presents a solution for real-time automatic detection and ranging of space objects of altitudes ranging from below the Medium Earth Orbit up to 40,000 km, based on two low cost observation systems built using commercial cameras and marginally professional telescopes, placed 37 km apart, operating as a large baseline stereovision system. The telescopes are pointed towards any visible region of the sky, and the system is able to automatically calibrate the orientation parameters using automatic matching of reference stars from an online catalog, with a very high tolerance for the initial guess of the sky region and camera orientation. The difference between the left and right image of a synchronized stereo pair is used for automatic detection of the satellite pixels, using an original difference computation algorithm that is capable of high sensitivity and a low false positive rate. The use of stereovision provides a strong means of removing false positives, and avoids the need for prior knowledge of the orbits observed, the system being able to detect at the same time all types of objects that fall within the measurement range and are visible on the image.

A knowledge based system for scientific data visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Senay, Hikmet; Ignatius, Eve

1992-01-01

A knowledge-based system, called visualization tool assistant (VISTA), which was developed to assist scientists in the design of scientific data visualization techniques, is described. The system derives its knowledge from several sources which provide information about data characteristics, visualization primitives, and effective visual perception. The design methodology employed by the system is based on a sequence of transformations which decomposes a data set into a set of data partitions, maps this set of partitions to visualization primitives, and combines these primitives into a composite visualization technique design. Although the primary function of the system is to generate an effective visualization technique design for a given data set by using principles of visual perception the system also allows users to interactively modify the design, and renders the resulting image using a variety of rendering algorithms. The current version of the system primarily supports visualization techniques having applicability in earth and space sciences, although it may easily be extended to include other techniques useful in other disciplines such as computational fluid dynamics, finite-element analysis and medical imaging.

NASA Performance Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Introduction NASA's mission is to advance and communicate scientific knowledge and understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe; to advance human exploration, use, and development of space; and to research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space, and related technologies. In support of this mission, NASA has a strategic architecture that consists of four Enterprises supported by four Crosscutting Processes. The Strategic Enterprises are NASA's primary mission areas to include Earth Science, Space Science, Human Exploration and Development of Space, and Aerospace Technology. NASA's Crosscutting Processes are Manage Strategically, Provide Aerospace Products and Capabilities, Generate Knowledge and Communicate Knowledge. The implementation of NASA programs, science, and technology research occurs primarily at our Centers. NASA consists of a Headquarters, nine Centers, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as several ancillary installations and offices in the United States and abroad. The nine Centers are as follows: (1) Ames Research Center, (2) Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), (3) Glenn Research Center (GRC), (4) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), (5) Johnson Space Center, (6) Kennedy Space Center (KSC), (7) Langley Research Center (LaRC), (8) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and (9) Stennis Space Center (SSC).

Improvements to AMS Pre-College Programs: Results of a Self-Study on DataStreme Atmosphere, Ocean and Earth's Climate System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moses, M. N.; Brey, J. A.; Geer, I. W.; Mills, E. W.; McGinnis, J. R.; Nugnes, K. A.

2011-12-01

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) believes that all teachers should be earth science literate. To achieve this, the AMS Education Program offers content-rich, professional development courses for precollege teachers in the geosciences. During the Fall and Spring semesters, AMS partners with NOAA, NASA and SUNY Brockport to offer DataStreme Atmosphere, Ocean, and Earth's Climate System. These courses are delivered to small groups of K-12 teachers through Local Implementation Teams (LITs) in nearly all 50 states, with twice-weekly online study materials, weekly mentoring, and several face-to-face meetings, supplemented by a provided textbook and investigations manual. Upon completion of each course, teachers receive three free graduate credits from SUNY Brockport. In 2010, AMS embarked on a comprehensive review to assess the program's practices and impacts. A significant aspect of the self-study was a case study of the AMS DataStreme LIT located in Wisconsin. Lead by an external evaluator, the focus of the study was to gain insight into the AMS DataStreme Model and its affect on knowledge growth and pedagogical development for K-12 teacher participants and their instructors. In particular, environmental literacy in atmospheric science, oceanography, and climate science was examined. The study also tracked the number of DataStreme courses offered in areas with groups traditionally underrepresented in science. In Spring 2011, 47% of DataStreme Atmosphere participants and 38% of DataStreme Ocean participants worked in schools with more than 25% minority student population. Data was retrieved using several different methods. The external evaluator conducted phone interviews with the LIT instructors and participating K-12 teachers, and an end-of-course survey data was collected and examined. Preliminary results look extremely favorable. When the participants were asked to what extent their participation in DataStreme Earth's Climate System increased their understanding of Earth system processes, 82.4% of the participants answered "Much", the most positive response available. Participants also offered suggestions to improve the courses, including updating the website with new technology, such as Flash Player. The DataStreme courses have been completed by more than 16,500 teachers, increasing their knowledge of online geoscience resources and confidence in understanding dynamic Earth systems. And, at the same time, those teachers have raised the scientific literacy of more than one million students. Through courses modeled on scientific inquiry and fashioned to develop critical thinking skills, these teachers become a resource for their classrooms and colleagues.

Developing Advanced Human Support Technologies for Planetary Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berdich, Debra P.; Campbell, Paul D.; Jernigan, J. Mark

2004-01-01

The United States Vision for Space Exploration calls for sending robots and humans to explore the Earth's moon, the planet Mars, and beyond. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing a set of design reference missions that will provide further detail to these plans. Lunar missions are expected to provide a stepping stone, through operational research and evaluation, in developing the knowledge base necessary to send crews on long duration missions to Mars and other distant destinations. The NASA Exploration Systems Directorate (ExSD), in its program of bioastronautics research, manages the development of technologies that maintain human life, health, and performance in space. Using a system engineering process and risk management methods, ExSD's Human Support Systems (HSS) Program selects and performs research and technology development in several critical areas and transfers the results of its efforts to NASA exploration mission/systems development programs in the form of developed technologies and new knowledge about the capabilities and constraints of systems required to support human existence beyond Low Earth Orbit. HSS efforts include the areas of advanced environmental monitoring and control, extravehicular activity, food technologies, life support systems, space human factors engineering, and systems integration of all these elements. The HSS Program provides a structured set of deliverable products to meet the needs of exploration programs. These products reduce the gaps that exist in our knowledge of and capabilities for human support for long duration, remote space missions. They also reduce the performance gap between the efficiency of current space systems and the greater efficiency that must be achieved to make human planetary exploration missions economically and logistically feasible. In conducting this research and technology development program, it is necessary for HSS technologists and program managers to develop a common currency for decision making and the allocation of funding. A high level assessment is made of both the knowledge gaps and the system performance gaps across the program s technical project portfolio. This allows decision making that assures proper emphasis areas and provides a key measure of annual technological progress, as exploration mission plans continue to mature.

Developing Advanced Support Technologies for Planetary Exploration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berdich, Debra P.; Campbel, Paul D.; Jernigan, J. Mark

2004-01-01

The United States Vision for Space Exploration calls for sending robots and humans to explore the Earth s moon, the planet Mars, and beyond. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing a set of design reference missions that will provide further detail to these plans. Lunar missions are expected to provide a stepping stone, through operational research and evaluation, in developing the knowledge base necessary to send crews on long duration missions to Mars and other distant destinations. The NASA Exploration Systems Directorate (ExSD), in its program of bioastronautics research, manages the development of technologies that maintain human life, health, and performance in space. Using a systems engineering process and risk management methods, ExSD s Human Support Systems (HSS) Program selects and performs research and technology development in several critical areas and transfers the results of its efforts to NASA exploration mission/systems development programs in the form of developed technologies and new knowledge about the capabilities and constraints of systems required to support human existence beyond Low Earth Orbit. HSS efforts include the areas of advanced environmental monitoring and control, extravehicular activity, food technologies, life support systems, space human factors engineering, and systems integration of all these elements. The HSS Program provides a structured set of deliverable products to meet the needs of exploration programs. these products reduce the gaps that exist in our knowledge of and capabilities for human support for long duration, remote space missions. They also reduce the performance gap between the efficiency of current space systems and the greater efficiency that must be achieved to make human planetary exploration missions economically and logistically feasible. In conducting this research and technology development program, it is necessary for HSS technologists and program managers to develop a common currency for decision making and the allocation of funding. A high level assessment is made of both the knowledge gaps and the system performance gaps across the program s technical project portfolio. This allows decision making that assures proper emphasis areas and provides a key measure of annual technological progress, as exploration mission plans continue to mature.

Summer of Seasons Workshop Program for Emerging Educators in Earth System Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chaudhury, S. Raj

2002-01-01

Norfolk State University BEST Lab successfully hosted three Summer of Seasons programs from 1998-2001. The Summer of Seasons program combined activities during the summer with additional seminars and workshops to provide broad outreach in the number of students and teachers who participated. Lessons learned from the each of the first two years of this project were incorporated into the design of the final year's activities. The "Summer of Seasons" workshop program provided emerging educators with the familiarity and knowledge to utilize in the classroom curriculum materials developed through NASA sponsorship on Earth System Science. A special emphasis was placed on the use of advanced technologies to dispel the commonly held misconceptions regarding seasonal, climactic and global change phenomena.

Graduate student involvement with designing inquiry-based Earth science field projects for the secondary-level classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDermott, J. M.; Scherf, L.; Ward, S.; Cady, P.; Bromley, J.; Varner, R. K.; Froburg, E.

2008-12-01

In a secondary-level Earth System Science (ESS) curriculum, the most authentic learning is achieved through the inquiry-based application of real-world research methods in the context of modern understanding of the interconnected components of the Earth System (e.g. lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere). Following the intensive ESST-1 summer institute at UNH, during which teachers enhance their ESS content knowledge via interactions with UNH faculty, staff, and graduate students, each participating teacher is paired with one graduate student fellow for the duration of the school year. This graduate fellow provides a continuing link between the secondary-level school teaching environment and university resources, facilitating the implementation of new content knowledge and current scientific research methodology into the classroom setting. According to the National Science Education Standards (1), scientific inquiry is the central strategy for teaching science. "In successful science classrooms, teachers and students collaborate in the pursuit of ideas... Students formulate questions and devise ways to answer them, they collect data and decide how to represent it, they organize data to generate knowledge, and they test the reliability of the knowledge they have generated. As they proceed, students explain and justify their work to themselves and to one another, learn to cope with problems such as the limitations of equipment, and react to challenges posed by the teacher and by classmates." To speak to these goals, an ongoing local wetland field study has been conceptualized and implemented in three example classrooms (seventh grade general science, ninth grade physical science and tenth grade biology) in two school systems (Oyster River Middle School in Durham, NH and Berlin High School in Berlin, NH). These field studies were conducted using authentic scientific equipment to collect data, including a Li-Cor 840 infrared CO2 analyzer and handmade sediment coring devices. Students utilized GPS and Google Earth technology both to facilitate the generation of research questions and for accurate geographic location during their field studies. An emphasis was placed on maintaining organized records of observations and data using field notebooks. Every site visit was followed by teacher-guided data analyses, and students communicated their results through a variety of formats, including posters, written reports, and oral presentations. These authentic research experiences create an initial data set which may be referenced in future classroom studies, while effectively engaging students in ESS topics that meet national and state educational standards. (1) National Research Council, 1996.

Assessing Place Location Knowledge Using a Virtual Globe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Liangfeng; Pan, Xin; Gao, Gongcheng

2016-01-01

Advances in the Google Earth virtual globe and the concomitant Keyhole Markup Language (KML) are providing educators with a convenient platform to cultivate and assess one's place location knowledge (PLK). This article presents a general framework and associated implementation methods for the online testing of PLK using Google Earth. The proposed…

Penguin Beach

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Members of the IceBridge team visited a colony of Magellanic penguins near Punta Arenas on a no-flight day. Credit: NASA/ Maria-Jose Vinas NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Moon over Antarctic

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

The moon over the Antarctic Peninsula seen from the IceBridge DC-8 on Oct. 25, 2012. Credit: NASA / James Yungel NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

New NASA Laser Technology Reveals How Ice Measures Up

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-01-28

NASA's Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar flew over Southwest Greenland's glaciers and sea ice to test a new method of measuring the height of Earth from space. Read more here: 1.usa.gov/1fkvoBp Credit: NASA/Tim Williams NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Melt water ponded at surface in the accumulation zone of Columbia Glacier, Alaska, in July 2008. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: W. Tad Pfeffer, University of Colorado at Boulder NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This ice cave in Belcher Glacier (Devon Island, Canada) was formed by melt water flowing within the glacier ice. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Angus Duncan, University of Saskatchewan NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Broken ice

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

An area of broken glacier ice seen from the IceBridge DC-8 on Oct. 22, 2012. Credit: NASA / George Hale NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Sun's influence on climate: Explored with SDO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lundstedt, H.

2010-09-01

Stunning images and movies recorded of the Sun, with Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), makes one wonder: How would this change our view on the Sun-Earth climate coupling? SDO shows a much more variable Sun, on all spatial and temporal scales. Detailed pictures of solar storms are foreseen to improve our understanding of the direct Sun-Earth coupling. Dynamo models, described by dynamical systems using input from helioseismic observations, are foreseen to improve our knowledge of the the Sun's cyclic influence on climate. Both the direct-, and the cycle-influence will be discussed in view of the new SDO observations.

Refrozen lead

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Closer look at a re-frozen lead in sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, seen from the DC-8 on Oct. 19, 2012. Credit: NASA / George Hale NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Global histories, vernacular science, and African genealogies; or, Is the history of science ready for the world?

PubMed

Tilley, Helen

2010-03-01

Scholars in imperial and science studies have recently begun to examine more systematically the different ways knowledge systems around the world have intersected. This essay concentrates on one aspect of this process, the codification of research into "primitive" or "indigenous" knowledge, especially knowledge that was transmitted orally, and argues that such investigations were a by-product of four interrelated phenomena: the globalization of the sciences themselves, particularly those fields that took the earth and its inhabitants as their object of analysis; the professionalization of anthropology and its growing emphasis on studying other cultures' medical, technical, and natural knowledge; the European push, in the late nineteenth century, toward "global colonialism" and the ethnographic research that accompanied colonial state building; and, finally, colonized and marginalized peoples' challenges to scientific epistemologies and their paradoxical call that scientists study their knowledge systems more carefully. These phenomena came together on a global scale in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century to produce a subgenre of research within the sciences, here labeled "vernacular science," focused explicitly on "native" knowledge.

Design and Demonstration of a Miniature Lidar System for Rover Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, Benjamin

2011-01-01

Public awareness of harmful human environmental effects such as global warming has increased greatly in recent years and researchers have increased their efforts in gaining more knowledge about the Earth s atmosphere. Natural and man-made processes pose threats to the environment and human life, so knowledge of all atmospheric processes is necessary. Ozone and aerosols are important factors in many atmospheric processes and active remote sensing techniques provide a way to analyze their quantity and distribution. A compact ground-based lidar system for a robotic platform meant for atmospheric aerosol measurements was designed, tested, and evaluated. The system will eventually be deployed for ozone and aerosol measurements in Mars and lunar missions to improve our knowledge and understanding of atmospheres on Mars and the Moon. All of the major subsystems were described in detail and atmospheric testing was performed to test the operability of the receiver system to acquire the lidar return signal from clouds and aerosols. The measured backscattered results are discussed and compared with theoretical results.

Evolution and possible storage of information in a magnetite system of significance for brain development.

PubMed

Størmer, Fredrik C; Mysterud, Ivar; Slagsvold, Tore

2011-06-01

The initial evolutionary electromagnetic steps in the history of brain development are still unknown, although such knowledge might be of high relevance in understanding human degenerative diseases. All prokaryote organisms, one-celled or multicellular, must have an inherited system to process and store information activating instincts and reflexes, in order to give a quick response to external stimuli. We argue that magnetite is an obvious compound to be evaluated as an initial precursor from prebiotic Earth history in the evolution of such a system. Magnetite is a stable ferrimagnetic compound, present in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. It occurred naturally in the early Earth environment and was later synthesized de novo in biotic organisms. We suggest that the use of magnetite has evolved to represent the main storage system for learned memory in all organisms living today. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global Change: A Biogeochemical Perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcelroy, M.

1983-01-01

A research program that is designed to enhance our understanding of the Earth as the support system for life is described. The program change, both natural and anthropogenic, that might affect the habitability of the planet on a time scale roughly equal to that of a human life is studied. On this time scale the atmosphere, biosphere, and upper ocean are treated as a single coupled system. The need for understanding the processes affecting the distribution of essential nutrients--carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur, and water--within this coupled system is examined. The importance of subtle interactions among chemical, biological, and physical effects is emphasized. The specific objectives are to define the present state of the planetary life-support system; to ellucidate the underlying physical, chemical, and biological controls; and to provide the body of knowledge required to assess changes that might impact the future habitability of the Earth.

From a Million Miles Away, NASA Camera Shows Moon Crossing Face of Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-05

This animation shows images of the far side of the moon, illuminated by the sun, as it crosses between the DISCOVR spacecraft's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) camera and telescope, and the Earth - one million miles away. Credits: NASA/NOAA A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured a unique view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth last month. The series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the moon that is never visible from Earth. The images were captured by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope on the DSCOVR satellite orbiting 1 million miles from Earth. From its position between the sun and Earth, DSCOVR conducts its primary mission of real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-na... NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

From a Million Miles Away, NASA Camera Shows Moon Crossing Face of Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This animation still image shows the far side of the moon, illuminated by the sun, as it crosses between the DISCOVR spacecraft's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) camera and telescope, and the Earth - one million miles away. Credits: NASA/NOAA A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured a unique view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth last month. The series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the moon that is never visible from Earth. The images were captured by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope on the DSCOVR satellite orbiting 1 million miles from Earth. From its position between the sun and Earth, DSCOVR conducts its primary mission of real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/from-a-million-miles-away-na... NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Reproducibility and Knowledge Capture Architecture for the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Votava, P.; Michaelis, A.; Nemani, R. R.

2015-12-01

NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) is a data, supercomputing and knowledge collaboratory that houses NASA satellite, climate and ancillary data where a focused community can come together to address large-scale challenges in Earth sciences. As NEX has been growing into a platform for analysis, experiments and production of data on the order of petabytes in volume, it has been increasingly important to enable users to easily retrace their steps, identify what datasets were produced by which process or chain of processes, and give them ability to readily reproduce their results. This can be a tedious and difficult task even for a small project, but is almost impossible on large processing pipelines. For example, the NEX Landsat pipeline is deployed to process hundreds of thousands of Landsat scenes in a non-linear production workflow with many-to-many mappings of files between 40 separate processing stages where over 100 million processes get executed. At this scale it is almost impossible to easily examine the entire provenance of each file, let alone easily reproduce it. We have developed an initial solution for the NEX system - a transparent knowledge capture and reproducibility architecture that does not require any special code instrumentation and other actions on user's part. Users can automatically capture their work through a transparent provenance tracking system and the information can subsequently be queried and/or converted into workflows. The provenance information is streamed to a MongoDB document store and a subset is converted to an RDF format and inserted into our triple-store. The triple-store already contains semantic information about other aspects of the NEX system and adding provenance enhances the ability to relate workflows and data to users, locations, projects and other NEX concepts that can be queried in a standard way. The provenance system has the ability to track data throughout NEX and across number of executions and can recreate and re-execute the entire history and reproduce the results. The information can also be used to automatically create individual workflow components and full workflows that can be visually examined, modified, executed and extended by researchers. This provides a key component for accelerating research through knowledge capture and scientific reproducibility on NEX.

GENESI-DR - A single access point to Earth Science data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cossu, R.; Goncalves, P.; Pacini, F.

2009-04-01

The amount of information being generated about our planet is increasing at an exponential rate, but it must be easily accessible in order to apply it to the global needs relating to the state of the Earth. Currently, information about the state of the Earth, relevant services, analysis results, applications and tools are accessible in a very scattered and uncoordinated way, often through individual initiatives from Earth Observation mission operators, scientific institutes dealing with ground measurements, service companies, data catalogues, etc. A dedicated infrastructure providing transparent access to all this will support Earth Science communities by allowing them to easily and quickly derive objective information and share knowledge based on all environmentally sensitive domains. The use of high-speed networks (GÉANT) and the experimentation of new technologies, like BitTorrent, will also contribute to better services for the Earth Science communities. GENESI-DR (Ground European Network for Earth Science Interoperations - Digital Repositories), an ESA-led, European Commission (EC)-funded two-year project, is taking the lead in providing reliable, easy, long-term access to Earth Science data via the Internet. This project will allow scientists from different Earth Science disciplines located across Europe to locate, access, combine and integrate historical and fresh Earth-related data from space, airborne and in-situ sensors archived in large distributed repositories. GENESI-DR builds a federated collection of heterogeneous digital Earth Science repositories to establish a dedicated infrastructure providing transparent access to all this and allowing Earth Science communities to easily and quickly derive objective information and share knowledge based on all environmentally sensitive domains. The federated digital repositories, seen as services and data providers, will share access to their resources (catalogue functions, data access, processing services etc.) and will adhere to a common set of standards / policies / interfaces. The end-users will be provided with a virtual collection of digital Earth Science data, irrespectively of their location in the various single federated repositories. GENESI-DR objectives have lead to the identification of the basic GENESI-DR infrastructure requirements: • Capability, for Earth Science users, to discover data from different European Earth Science Digital Repositories through the same interface in a transparent and homogeneous way; • Easiness and speed of access to large volumes of coherently maintained distributed data in an effective and timely way; • Capability, for DR owners, to easily make available their data to a significantly increased audience with no need to duplicate them in a different storage system. Data discovery is based on a Central Discovery Service, which allows users and applications to easily query information about data collections and products existing in heterogeneous catalogues, at federated DR sites. This service can be accessed by users via web interface, the GENESI-DR Web Portal, or by external applications via open standardized interfaces exposed by the system. The Central Discovery Service identifies the DRs providing products complying with the user search criteria and returns the corresponding access points to the requester. By taking into consideration different and efficient data transfer technologies such as HTTPS, GridFTP and BitTorrent, the infrastructure provides easiness and speed of access. Conversely, for data publishing GENESI-DR provides several mechanisms to assist DR owners in producing a metadata catalogues. In order to reach its objectives, the GENESI-DR e-Infrastructure will be validated against user needs for accessing and sharing Earth Science data. Initially, four specific applications in the land, atmosphere and marine domains have been selected, including: • Near real time orthorectification for agricultural crops monitoring • Urban area mapping in support of emergency response • Data assimilation in GlobModel, addressing major environmental and health issues in Europe, with a particular focus on air quality • SeaDataNet to aid environmental assessments and to forecast the physical state of the oceans in near real time. Other applications will complement this during the second half of the project. GENESI-DR also aims to develop common approaches to preserve the historical archives and the ability to access the derived user information as both software and hardware transformations occur. Ensuring access to Earth Science data for future generations is of utmost importance because it allows for the continuity of knowledge generation improvement. For instance, scientists accessing today's climate change data in 50 years will be able to better understand and detect trends in global warming and apply this knowledge to ongoing natural phenomena. GENESI-DR will work towards harmonising operations and applying approved standards, policies and interfaces at key Earth Science data repositories. To help with this undertaking, GENESI-DR will establish links with the relevant organisations and programmes such as space agencies, institutional environmental programmes, international Earth Science programmes and standardisation bodies.

Earth Science Teaching Strategies Used in the International Polar Year

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sparrow, E. B.

2009-04-01

There are many effective methods for teaching earth science education that are being successfully used during the fourth International Polar Year (IPY). Relevance of IPY and the polar regions is better understood using a systems thinking approach used in earth science education. Changes in components of the earth system have a global effect; and changes in the polar regions will affect the rest of the world regions and vice versa. Teaching strategies successfully used for primary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate student earth science education and IPY education outreach include: 1) engaging students in earth science or environmental research relevant to their locale; 2) blending lectures with research expeditions or field studies, 3) connecting students with scientists in person and through audio and video conferencing; 4) combining science and arts in teaching, learning and communicating about earth science and the polar regions, capitalizing on the uniqueness of polar regions and its inhabitants, and its sensitivity to climate change; and 5) integrating different perspectives: western science, indigenous and community knowledge in the content and method of delivery. Use of these strategies are exemplified in IPY projects in the University of the Arctic IPY Higher Education Outreach Project cluster such as the GLOBE Seasons and Biomes project, the Ice Mysteries e-Polar Books: An Innovative Way of Combining Science and Literacy project, the Resilience and Adaptation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship project, and the Svalbard Research Experience for Undergraduates project.

NASA Applied Sciences Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frederick, Martin

2006-01-01

This presentation highlights the NASA Applied Sciences Program. The goal of the program is to extend the results of scientific research and knowledge beyond the science community to contribute to NASA's partners' applications of national priority, such as agricultural efficiency, energy management and Homeland Security. Another purpose of the program's scientific research is to increase knowledge of the Earth-Sun system to enable improved predictions of climate, weather, and natural hazards. The program primarily optimizes benefits for citizens by contributing to partnering on applications that are used by state, local and tribal governments.

DREAM: Distributed Resources for the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) Advanced Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, D. N.

2015-12-01

The data associated with climate research is often generated, accessed, stored, and analyzed on a mix of unique platforms. The volume, variety, velocity, and veracity of this data creates unique challenges as climate research attempts to move beyond stand-alone platforms to a system that truly integrates dispersed resources. Today, sharing data across multiple facilities is often a challenge due to the large variance in supporting infrastructures. This results in data being accessed and downloaded many times, which requires significant amounts of resources, places a heavy analytic development burden on the end users, and mismanaged resources. Working across U.S. federal agencies, international agencies, and multiple worldwide data centers, and spanning seven international network organizations, the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) has begun to solve this problem. Its architecture employs a system of geographically distributed peer nodes that are independently administered yet united by common federation protocols and application programming interfaces. However, significant challenges remain, including workflow provenance, modular and flexible deployment, scalability of a diverse set of computational resources, and more. Expanding on the existing ESGF, the Distributed Resources for the Earth System Grid Federation Advanced Management (DREAM) will ensure that the access, storage, movement, and analysis of the large quantities of data that are processed and produced by diverse science projects can be dynamically distributed with proper resource management. This system will enable data from an infinite number of diverse sources to be organized and accessed from anywhere on any device (including mobile platforms). The approach offers a powerful roadmap for the creation and integration of a unified knowledge base of an entire ecosystem, including its many geophysical, geographical, social, political, agricultural, energy, transportation, and cyber aspects. The resulting aggregation of data combined with analytics services has the potential to generate an informational universe and knowledge system of unprecedented size and value to the scientific community, downstream applications, decision makers, and the public.

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) [video

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-09

MMS Spacecraft Animation The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence. These processes occur in all astrophysical plasma systems but can be studied in situ only in our solar system and most efficiently only in Earth's magnetosphere, where they control the dynamics of the geospace environment and play an important role in the processes known as "space weather." Learn more about MMS at www.nasa.gov/mms Learn more about MMS at www.nasa.gov/mms Credit NASA/Goddard The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, will study how the sun and the Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect, an explosive process that can accelerate particles through space to nearly the speed of light. This process is called magnetic reconnection and can occur throughout all space. NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

MMS Spacecraft Animation The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence. These processes occur in all astrophysical plasma systems but can be studied in situ only in our solar system and most efficiently only in Earth's magnetosphere, where they control the dynamics of the geospace environment and play an important role in the processes known as "space weather." Learn more about MMS at www.nasa.gov/mms Learn more about MMS at www.nasa.gov/mms Credit NASA/Chris Gunn The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, will study how the sun and the Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect, an explosive process that can accelerate particles through space to nearly the speed of light. This process is called magnetic reconnection and can occur throughout all space. NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Ground Calibrations of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Spacecraft Thermistor Bolometers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Robert B., III; Smith, G. Lou; Barkstrom, Bruce R.; Priestley, Kory J.; Thomas, Susan; Paden, Jack; Pandey, Direndra K.; Thornhill, K. Lee; Bolden, William C.; Wilson, Robert S.

1997-01-01

The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) spacecraft scanning thermistor bolometers will measure earth-reflected solar and earth-emmitted,longwave radiances, at the top-of-the-atmosphere. The measurements are performed in the broadband shortwave (0.3-5.0 micron) and longwave (5.0 - >100 micron) spectral regions as well as in the 8 -12 micron water vapor window over geographical footprints as small as 10 kilometers at the nadir. The CERES measurements are designed to improve our knowledge of the earth's natural climate processes, in particular those related to clouds, and man's impact upon climate as indicated by atmospheric temperature. November 1997, the first set of CERES bolometers is scheduled for launch on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Spacecraft. The CERES bolometers were calibrated radiometrically in a vacuum ground facility using absolute reference sources, tied to the International Temperature Scale of 1990. Accurate bolometer calibrations are dependent upon the derivations of the radiances from the spectral properties [reflectance, transmittance, emittance, etc.] of both the sources and bolometers. In this paper, the overall calibration approaches are discussed for the longwave and shortwave calibrations. The spectral responses for the TRMM bolometer units are presented and applied to the bolometer ground calibrations in order to determine pre-launch calibration gains.

Vesper - Venus Chemistry and Dynamics Orbiter - A NASA Discovery Mission Proposal: Submillimeter Investigation of Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chin, Gordon

2011-01-01

Vesper conducts a focused investigation of the chemistry and dynamics of the middle atmosphere of our sister planet- from the base of the global cloud cover to the lower thermosphere. The middle atmosphere controls the stability of the Venus climate system. Vesper determines what processes maintain the atmospheric chemical stability, cause observed variability of chemical composition, control the escape of water, and drive the extreme super-rotation. The Vesper science investigation provides a unique perspective on the Earth environment due to the similarities in the middle atmosphere processes of both Venus and the Earth. Understanding key distinctions and similarities between Venus and Earth will increase our knowledge of how terrestrial planets evolve along different paths from nearly identical initial conditions.

NASA's Van Allen Probes Discover a Surprise Circling Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts. Credit: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/news/third-belt.html NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Scaling of Two-Phase Flows to Partial-Earth Gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hurlbert, Kathryn M.; Witte, Larry C.

2003-01-01

A report presents a method of scaling, to partial-Earth gravity, of parameters that describe pressure drops and other characteristics of two-phase (liquid/ vapor) flows. The development of the method was prompted by the need for a means of designing two-phase flow systems to operate on the Moon and on Mars, using fluid-properties and flow data from terrestrial two-phase-flow experiments, thus eliminating the need for partial-gravity testing. The report presents an explicit procedure for designing an Earth-based test bed that can provide hydrodynamic similarity with two-phase fluids flowing in partial-gravity systems. The procedure does not require prior knowledge of the flow regime (i.e., the spatial orientation of the phases). The method also provides for determination of pressure drops in two-phase partial-gravity flows by use of a generalization of the classical Moody chart (previously applicable to single-phase flow only). The report presents experimental data from Mars- and Moon-activity experiments that appear to demonstrate the validity of this method.

MOORE: A prototype expert system for diagnosing spacecraft problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howlin, Katherine; Weissert, Jerry; Krantz, Kerry

1988-01-01

MOORE is a rule-based, prototype expert system that assists in diagnosing operational Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) problems. It is intended to assist spacecraft engineers at the TDRS ground terminal in trouble shooting problems that are not readily solved with routine procedures, and without expert counsel. An additional goal of the prototype system is to develop in-house expert system and knowledge engineering skills. The prototype system diagnoses antenna pointing and earth pointing problems that may occur within the TDRS Attitude Control System (ACS). Plans include expansion to fault isolation of problems in the most critical subsystems of the TDRS spacecraft. Long term benefits are anticipated with use of an expert system during future TDRS programs with increased mission support time, reduced problem solving time, and retained expert knowledge and experience. Phase 2 of the project is intended to provide NASA the necessary expertise and capability to define requirements, evaluate proposals, and monitor the development progress of a highly competent expert system for NASA's Tracking Data Relay Satellite. Phase 2 also envisions addressing two unexplored applications for expert systems, spacecraft integration and tests (I and T) and support to launch activities. The concept, goals, domain, tools, knowledge acquisition, developmental approach, and design of the expert system. It will explain how NASA obtained the knowledge and capability to develop the system in-house without assistance from outside consultants. Future plans will also be presented.

Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Opinions on Astrobiology Topics and Related Social Issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oreiro, Raquel; Solbes, Jordi

2017-01-01

Astrobiology is the study of the origin of life on Earth and the distribution of life in the Universe. Its multidisciplinary approach, social and philosophical implications, and appeal within the discipline and beyond make astrobiology a uniquely qualified subject for general science education. In this study, student knowledge and opinions on astrobiology topics were investigated. Eighty-nine students in their last year of compulsory education (age 15) completed a written questionnaire that consisted of 10 open questions on the topic of astrobiology. The results indicate that students have significant difficulties understanding the origin of life on Earth, despite exposure to the topic by way of the assigned textbooks. The students were often unaware of past or present achievements in the search for life within the Solar System and beyond, topics that are far less commonly seen in textbooks. Student questionnaire answers also indicated that students had problems in reasoning and critical thinking when asked for their opinions on issues such as the potential for life beyond Earth, the question of whether UFOs exist, or what our place is in the Universe. Astrobiology might help initiate student awareness as to current thinking on these matters and should be considered for general science education.

Supporting Instruction By Defining Conceptual Relevance Of Materials: Alignment Of Resources To An Earth Systems Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menicucci, A. J.; Bean, J. R.

2017-12-01

Environmental, geological, and climatological sciences are important facets of physical science education. However, it is often difficult for educators to acquire the necessary resources to facilitate content explanations, and demonstration of the conceptual links between individual lessons. The Understanding Global Change (UGC) Project at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) at UC Berkeley is aligning new and existing Earth systems educational resources that are high-quality, interactive and inquiry based. Learning resources are organized by the UGC framework topics (Causes of Change, How the Earth System Works, and Measurable Changes), and focus on exploring topic relationships. Resources are currently aligned with both the UGC framework and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), facilitating broad utility among K-16 educators. The overarching goal of the UGC Project is to provide the necessary resources that guide the construction of coherent, interdisciplinary instructional units. These units can be reinforced through system models, providing visual learning scaffolds for assessments of student content knowledge. Utilizing the central framework of UGC alleviates the long-standing problem of creating coherent instructional units from multiple learning resources, each organized and categorized independently across multiple platforms that may not provide explicit connections among Earth science subjects UGC topic cross listing of learning modules establishes conceptual links. Each resource is linked across several Earth system components, facilitating exploration of relationships and feedbacks between processes. Cross listed topics are therefore useful for development of broad picture learning goals via targeted instructional units. We also anticipate cultivating summaries of the explicit conceptual links explored in each resource from both current teachers and content specialists. Insructional units currated and aligned under the UGC framework therefore have the potential for users to develop and impliment inderdisciplinary lesson plans, including multi-segmented units designed to function as independent educational segments, that combine to provide broader subject exploration and deeper understanding of Earth system relationships.

Designing and Developing a NASA Research Projects Knowledge Base and Implementing Knowledge Management and Discovery Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dabiru, L.; O'Hara, C. G.; Shaw, D.; Katragadda, S.; Anderson, D.; Kim, S.; Shrestha, B.; Aanstoos, J.; Frisbie, T.; Policelli, F.; Keblawi, N.

2006-12-01

The Research Project Knowledge Base (RPKB) is currently being designed and will be implemented in a manner that is fully compatible and interoperable with enterprise architecture tools developed to support NASA's Applied Sciences Program. Through user needs assessment, collaboration with Stennis Space Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASA's DEVELOP Staff personnel insight to information needs for the RPKB were gathered from across NASA scientific communities of practice. To enable efficient, consistent, standard, structured, and managed data entry and research results compilation a prototype RPKB has been designed and fully integrated with the existing NASA Earth Science Systems Components database. The RPKB will compile research project and keyword information of relevance to the six major science focus areas, 12 national applications, and the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD). The RPKB will include information about projects awarded from NASA research solicitations, project investigator information, research publications, NASA data products employed, and model or decision support tools used or developed as well as new data product information. The RPKB will be developed in a multi-tier architecture that will include a SQL Server relational database backend, middleware, and front end client interfaces for data entry. The purpose of this project is to intelligently harvest the results of research sponsored by the NASA Applied Sciences Program and related research program results. We present various approaches for a wide spectrum of knowledge discovery of research results, publications, projects, etc. from the NASA Systems Components database and global information systems and show how this is implemented in SQL Server database. The application of knowledge discovery is useful for intelligent query answering and multiple-layered database construction. Using advanced EA tools such as the Earth Science Architecture Tool (ESAT), RPKB will enable NASA and partner agencies to efficiently identify the significant results for new experiment directions and principle investigators to formulate experiment directions for new proposals.

Global Science and Social Systems: The Essentials of Montessori Education and Peace Frameworks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahn, David

2016-01-01

Inspired by Baiba Krumins-Grazzini's interdependencies lecture at NAMTA's Portland conference, David Kahn shows the unifying structures of the program that are rooted in the natural and social sciences. Through a connective web, these sciences explore the integration of all knowledge and lead to a philosophical view of life on earth, including…

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Robert Goddard with a rocket in his workshop at Roswell, NM. October 1935. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Goddard with a rocket in his workshop at Roswell, NM. October 1935. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Dr. Robert Goddard's rocket nose cone, parachute, and relase device, April 19, 1935. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Dr. Robert Goddard with batteries and relay at the launch tower, May 19, 1937. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Atmosphere, ocean, and land: Critical gaps in Earth system models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prinn, Ronald G.; Hartley, Dana

1992-01-01

We briefly review current knowledge and pinpoint some of the major areas of uncertainty for the following fundamental processes: (1) convection, condensation nuclei, and cloud formation; (2) oceanic circulation and its coupling to the atmosphere and cryosphere; (3) land surface hydrology and hydrology-vegetation coupling; (4) biogeochemistry of greenhouse gases; and (5) upper atmospheric chemistry and circulation.

The potential of expert systems for remote sensing application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mooneyhan, D. W.

1983-01-01

An overview of the status and potential of artificial intelligence-driven expert systems in the role of image data analysis is presented. An expert system is defined and its structure is summarized. Three such systems designed for image interpretation are outlined. The use of an expert system to detect changes on the earth's surface is discussed, and the components of a knowledge-based image interpretation system and their make-up are outlined. An example of how such a system should work for an area in the tropics where deforestation has occurred is presented as a sequence of situation/action decisions.

A Knowledge Discovery framework for Planetary Defense

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Y.; Yang, C. P.; Li, Y.; Yu, M.; Bambacus, M.; Seery, B.; Barbee, B.

2016-12-01

Planetary Defense, a project funded by NASA Goddard and the NSF, is a multi-faceted effort focused on the mitigation of Near Earth Object (NEO) threats to our planet. Currently, there exists a dispersion of information concerning NEO's amongst different organizations and scientists, leading to a lack of a coherent system of information to be used for efficient NEO mitigation. In this paper, a planetary defense knowledge discovery engine is proposed to better assist the development and integration of a NEO responding system. Specifically, we have implemented an organized information framework by two means: 1) the development of a semantic knowledge base, which provides a structure for relevant information. It has been developed by the implementation of web crawling and natural language processing techniques, which allows us to collect and store the most relevant structured information on a regular basis. 2) the development of a knowledge discovery engine, which allows for the efficient retrieval of information from our knowledge base. The knowledge discovery engine has been built on the top of Elasticsearch, an open source full-text search engine, as well as cutting-edge machine learning ranking and recommendation algorithms. This proposed framework is expected to advance the knowledge discovery and innovation in planetary science domain.

The Electronic Encyclopedia of Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benthien, M.; Marquis, J.; Jordan, T.

2003-12-01

The Electronic Encyclopedia of Earthquakes is a collaborative project of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), the Consortia of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE) and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). This digital library organizes earthquake information online as a partner with the NSF-funded National Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Digital Library (NSDL) and the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). When complete, information and resources for over 500 Earth science and engineering topics will be included, with connections to curricular materials useful for teaching Earth Science, engineering, physics and mathematics. Although conceived primarily as an educational resource, the Encyclopedia is also a valuable portal to anyone seeking up-to-date earthquake information and authoritative technical sources. "E3" is a unique collaboration among earthquake scientists and engineers to articulate and document a common knowledge base with a shared terminology and conceptual framework. It is a platform for cross-training scientists and engineers in these complementary fields and will provide a basis for sustained communication and resource-building between major education and outreach activities. For example, the E3 collaborating organizations have leadership roles in the two largest earthquake engineering and earth science projects ever sponsored by NSF: the George E. Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (CUREE) and the EarthScope Project (IRIS and SCEC). The E3 vocabulary and definitions are also being connected to a formal ontology under development by the SCEC/ITR project for knowledge management within the SCEC Collaboratory. The E3 development system is now fully operational, 165 entries are in the pipeline, and the development teams are capable of producing 20 new, fully reviewed encyclopedia entries each month. Over the next two years teams will complete 450 entries, which will populate the E3 collection to a level that fully spans earthquake science and engineering. Scientists, engineers, and educators who have suggestions for content to be included in the Encyclopedia can visit www.earthquake.info now to complete the "Suggest a Web Page" form.

The use of Multiple Representations to Enhance Student Mental Model Development of a Complex Earth System in an Introductory Geoscience Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sell, K. S.; Heather, M. R.; Herbert, B. E.

2004-12-01

Exposing earth system science (ESS) concepts into introductory geoscience courses may present new and unique cognitive learning issues for students including understanding the role of positive and negative feedbacks in system responses to perturbations, spatial heterogeneity, and temporal dynamics, especially when systems exhibit complex behavior. Implicit learning goals of typical introductory undergraduate geoscience courses are more focused on building skill-sets and didactic knowledge in learners than developing a deeper understanding of the dynamics and processes of complex earth systems through authentic inquiry. Didactic teaching coupled with summative assessment of factual knowledge tends to limit student¡¦s understanding of the nature of science, their belief in the relevancy of science to their lives, and encourages memorization and regurgitation; this is especially true among the non-science majors who compose the majority of students in introductory courses within the large university setting. Students organize scientific knowledge and reason about earth systems by manipulating internally constructed mental models. This pilot study focuses on characterizing the impact of inquiry-based learning with multiple representations to foster critical thinking and mental model development about authentic environmental issues of coastal systems in an introductory geoscience course. The research was conducted in nine introductory physical geology laboratory sections (N ˜ 150) at Texas A&M University as part of research connected with the Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center. Participants were randomly placed into experimental and control groups. Experimental groups were exposed to multiple representations including both web-based learning materials (i.e. technology-supported visualizations and analysis of multiple datasets) and physical models, whereas control groups were provided with the traditional ¡workbook style¡" laboratory assignments. Assessment of pre- and post-test results was performed to provide indications of content knowledge and mental model expression improvements between groups. A rubric was used as the assessment instrument to evaluate student products (Cronbach alpha: 0.84 ¡V 0.98). Characterization of student performance based on a Student¡¦s t-test indicates that significant differences (p < 0.05) in pre-post achievement occurred primarily within the experimental group; this illustrates that the use of multiple representations had an impact on student learning of ESS concepts, particularly in regard to mental model constructions. Analysis of variance also suggests that student mental model constructions were significantly different (p < 0.10) between test groups. Factor analysis extracted three principle components (eigenvalue > 1) which show similar clustering of variables that influence cognition, indicating that the cognitive processes driving student understanding of geoscience do not vary among student test groups. Categories of cognition include critical thinking skills (percent variance = 22.16%), understanding of the nature of science (percent variance = 25.16%), and ability to interpret results (percent variance = 28.89%). Lower numbers of students completed all of the required assignments of this research than expected (65.3%), restricting the quality of the results and therefore the ability to make more significant interpretations; this was likely due to the non-supportive learning environment in which the research was implemented.

Preparing Teachers to Support the Development of Climate Literate Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haddad, N.; Ledley, T. S.; Ellins, K. K.; Bardar, E. W.; Youngman, E.; Dunlap, C.; Lockwood, J.; Mote, A. S.; McNeal, K.; Libarkin, J. C.; Lynds, S. E.; Gold, A. U.

2014-12-01

The EarthLabs climate project includes curriculum development, teacher professional development, teacher leadership development, and research on student learning, all directed at increasing high school teachers' and students' understanding of the factors that shape our planet's climate. The project has developed four new modules which focus on climate literacy and which are part of the larger Web based EarthLabs collection of Earth science modules. Climate related themes highlighted in the new modules include the Earth system with its positive and negative feedback loops; the range of temporal and spatial scales at which climate, weather, and other Earth system processes occur; and the recurring question, "How do we know what we know about Earth's past and present climate?" which addresses proxy data and scientific instrumentation. EarthLabs climate modules use two central strategies to help students navigate the multiple challenges inherent in understanding climate science. The first is to actively engage students with the content by using a variety of learning modes, and by allowing students to pace themselves through interactive visualizations that address particularly challenging content. The second strategy, which is the focus of this presentation, is to support teachers in a subject area where few have substantive content knowledge or technical skills. Teachers who grasp the processes and interactions that give Earth its climate and the technical skills to engage with relevant data and visualizations are more likely to be successful in supporting students' understanding of climate's complexities. This presentation will briefly introduce the EarthLabs project and will describe the steps the project takes to prepare climate literate teachers, including Web based resources, teacher workshops, and the development of a cadre of teacher leaders who are prepared to continue leading the workshops after project funding ends.

Exploiting Untapped Information Resources in Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramachandran, R.; Fox, P. A.; Kempler, S.; Maskey, M.

2015-12-01

One of the continuing challenges in any Earth science investigation is the amount of time and effort required for data preparation before analysis can begin. Current Earth science data and information systems have their own shortcomings. For example, the current data search systems are designed with the assumption that researchers find data primarily by metadata searches on instrument or geophysical keywords, assuming that users have sufficient knowledge of the domain vocabulary to be able to effectively utilize the search catalogs. These systems lack support for new or interdisciplinary researchers who may be unfamiliar with the domain vocabulary or the breadth of relevant data available. There is clearly a need to innovate and evolve current data and information systems in order to improve data discovery and exploration capabilities to substantially reduce the data preparation time and effort. We assert that Earth science metadata assets are dark resources, information resources that organizations collect, process, and store for regular business or operational activities but fail to utilize for other purposes. The challenge for any organization is to recognize, identify and effectively utilize the dark data stores in their institutional repositories to better serve their stakeholders. NASA Earth science metadata catalogs contain dark resources consisting of structured information, free form descriptions of data and pre-generated images. With the addition of emerging semantic technologies, such catalogs can be fully utilized beyond their original design intent of supporting current search functionality. In this presentation, we will describe our approach of exploiting these information resources to provide novel data discovery and exploration pathways to science and education communities

Laboratory Earth Under the Lens: Diachronic Evaluation of an Integrated Graduate-Level On-Line Earth System Science Course Series for K-12 Educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Low, R.; Gosselin, D. C.; Haney, C.; Larson-Miller, C.; Bonnstetter, R.; Mandryk, C.

2012-12-01

Educational research strives to identify the pedagogies that promote student learning. However, the body of research identifying the characteristics of effective teacher preparation is "least strong for science," and is largely based on studies of the effectiveness of individual courses or workshops (NRC 2010). The National Research Council's "Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Strong Policy," (2010) provides a mandate for teacher education providers to conduct research on program-scale effectiveness. The high priority research agenda identified by the NRC is expected to elicit understanding of the aspects of teacher preparation that critically impact classroom student learning outcomes. The Laboratory Lens project is designed to identify effective practices in a teacher education program, with specific reference to the content domain of Earth science. Now in its fifth year, the Masters of Applied Science (MAS) program at UNL offers a variety of science courses, ranging from entomology to food science. The six-course Lab Earth series serves as the backbone of the Specialization for Science Educators within the MAS program, and provides comprehensive content coverage of all Earth science topics identified in the AAAS Benchmarks. "How People Learn," (NRC 2009) emphasizes that expert knowledge includes not only factual knowledge, but also the well-developed conceptual framework critical to the ability to, "remember, reason, and solve problems." A focus of our research is to document the process by which the transition from novice to expert takes place in Lab Earth's on-line teacher participants. A feature of our research design is the standardization of evaluation instruments across the six courses. We have used data derived from implementation of the Community of Inquiry Survey (COI) in pilot offerings to ensure that the course sequence is effective in developing a community of learners, while developing their content knowledge. A pre- and post- course Wilcoxan Signed Ranks Test is included in the battery of assessments to ensure that the courses achieve a statistically significant increase in participants' beliefs about their personal science teaching efficacy. The research design also includes the analysis of concept maps and content mastery assignments to assist in documentation of a teacher's transition from mastery of novice to expert knowledge. Content-based, course-specific pre and post knowledge surveys are included in the battery of assessments. In the analysis of on-line discussions, the project employs a textual analysis technique outlined in "The Rhetoric of Social Intervention," (RSI) (Opt and Gring 2009). RSI provides a promising analytical framework, especially when examining the development of understanding of scientific topics with societal implications, such as sustainability and climate change. The session provides a description of the integrated research design and data collection and analysis in the first year of this project.

EarthEd Online: Open Source Online Software to Support Large Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prothero, W. A.

2003-12-01

The purpose of the EarthEd Online software project is to support a modern instructional pedagogy in a large, college level, earth science course. It is an ongoing development project that has evolved in a large general education oceanography course over the last decade. Primary goals for the oceanography course are to support learners in acquiring a knowledge of science process, an appreciation for the relevance of science to society, and basic content knowledge. In order to support these goals, EarthEd incorporates: a) integrated access to various kinds of real earth data (and links to web-based data browsers), b) online discussions, live chat, with integrated graphics editing, linking, and upload, c) online writing, reviewing, and grading, d) online homework assignments, e) on demand grade calculation, and f) instructor grade entry and progress reports. The software was created using Macromedia Director. It is distributed to students on a CDROM and updates are downloaded and installed automatically. Data browsers for plate tectonics relevant data ("Our Dynamic Planet"), a virtual exploration of the East Pacific Rise, the World Ocean Atlas-98, and a fishing simulation game are integrated with the EarthEd software. The system is modular which allows new capabilities, such as new data browsers, to be added. Student reactions to the software are positive overall. They are especially appreciative of the on demand grade computation capability. The online writing, commenting and grading is particularly effective in managing the large number of papers that get submitted. The TA's grade the papers, but the instructor can provide feedback to them as they grade the papers, and a record is maintained of all comments and rubric item grades. Commenting is made easy by simply "dragging" a selection of pre-defined comments into the student's text. Scoring is supported by an integrated scoring rubric. All assignments, rubrics, etc. are configured in text files that are downloaded from the course web server. Students rate the writing assignments as the most effective learning activity in the course. This project is in an evaluation and dissemination phase. An open source model is planned for distribution. For documentation and information about the EarthEd team, see: http://oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu/Collab/software.html

A Low Cost Automatic Detection and Ranging System for Space Surveillance in the Medium Earth Orbit Region and Beyond

PubMed Central

Danescu, Radu; Ciurte, Anca; Turcu, Vlad

2014-01-01

The space around the Earth is filled with man-made objects, which orbit the planet at altitudes ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of kilometers. Keeping an eye on all objects in Earth's orbit, useful and not useful, operational or not, is known as Space Surveillance. Due to cost considerations, the space surveillance solutions beyond the Low Earth Orbit region are mainly based on optical instruments. This paper presents a solution for real-time automatic detection and ranging of space objects of altitudes ranging from below the Medium Earth Orbit up to 40,000 km, based on two low cost observation systems built using commercial cameras and marginally professional telescopes, placed 37 km apart, operating as a large baseline stereovision system. The telescopes are pointed towards any visible region of the sky, and the system is able to automatically calibrate the orientation parameters using automatic matching of reference stars from an online catalog, with a very high tolerance for the initial guess of the sky region and camera orientation. The difference between the left and right image of a synchronized stereo pair is used for automatic detection of the satellite pixels, using an original difference computation algorithm that is capable of high sensitivity and a low false positive rate. The use of stereovision provides a strong means of removing false positives, and avoids the need for prior knowledge of the orbits observed, the system being able to detect at the same time all types of objects that fall within the measurement range and are visible on the image. PMID:24521941

60 Years of Studying the Earth-Sun System from Space: Explorer 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zurbuchen, T.

2017-12-01

The era of space-based observation of the Earth-Sun system initiated with the Explorer-1 satellite has revolutionized our knowledge of the Earth, Sun, and the processes that connect them. The space-based perspective has not only enabled us to achieve a fundamentally new understanding of our home planet and the star that sustains us, but it has allowed for significant improvements in predictive capability that serves to protect life, health, and property. NASA has played a leadership role in the United States in creating both the technology and science that has enabled and benefited from these new capabilities, and works closely with partner agencies and around the world to synergistically address these global challenges which are of sufficient magnitude that no one nation or organization can address on their own. Three areas are at the heart of NASA's comprehensive science program: Discovering the secrets of the universe, searching for life elsewhere, and safeguarding and improving life on Earth. Together, these tenets will help NASA lead on a civilization scale. In this talk, a review of these 60 years of advances, a status of current activities, and thoughts about their evolution into the future will be presented.

Pacific Research Platform - Creation of a West Coast Big Data Freeway System Applied to the CONNected objECT (CONNECT) Data Mining Framework for Earth Science Knowledge Discovery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sellars, S. L.; Nguyen, P.; Tatar, J.; Graham, J.; Kawsenuk, B.; DeFanti, T.; Smarr, L.; Sorooshian, S.; Ralph, M.

2017-12-01

A new era in computational earth sciences is within our grasps with the availability of ever-increasing earth observational data, enhanced computational capabilities, and innovative computation approaches that allow for the assimilation, analysis and ability to model the complex earth science phenomena. The Pacific Research Platform (PRP), CENIC and associated technologies such as the Flash I/O Network Appliance (FIONA) provide scientists a unique capability for advancing towards this new era. This presentation reports on the development of multi-institutional rapid data access capabilities and data pipeline for applying a novel image characterization and segmentation approach, CONNected objECT (CONNECT) algorithm to study Atmospheric River (AR) events impacting the Western United States. ARs are often associated with torrential rains, swollen rivers, flash flooding, and mudslides. CONNECT is computationally intensive, reliant on very large data transfers, storage and data mining techniques. The ability to apply the method to multiple variables and datasets located at different University of California campuses has previously been challenged by inadequate network bandwidth and computational constraints. The presentation will highlight how the inter-campus CONNECT data mining framework improved from our prior download speeds of 10MB/s to 500MB/s using the PRP and the FIONAs. We present a worked example using the NASA MERRA data to describe how the PRP and FIONA have provided researchers with the capability for advancing knowledge about ARs. Finally, we will discuss future efforts to expand the scope to additional variables in earth sciences.

NASA Launches Rocket Into Active Auroras

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

A test rocket is launched the night of Feb. 17 from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Test rockets are launched as part of the countdown to test out the radar tracking systems. NASA is launching five sounding rockets from the Poker Range into active auroras to explore the Earth's magnetic environment and its impact on Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The launch window for the four remaining rockets runs through March 3. Credit: NASA/Terry Zaperach NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Facilitating Data-Intensive Education and Research in Earth Science through Geospatial Web Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deng, Meixia

2009-01-01

The realm of Earth science (ES) is increasingly data-intensive. Geoinformatics research attempts to robustly smooth and accelerate the flow of data to information, information to knowledge, and knowledge to decisions and to supply necessary infrastructure and tools for advancing ES. Enabling easy access to and use of large volumes of ES data and…

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery tools for exploiting big Earth-Observation data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Espinoza Molina, D.; Datcu, M.

2015-04-01

The continuous increase in the size of the archives and in the variety and complexity of Earth-Observation (EO) sensors require new methodologies and tools that allow the end-user to access a large image repository, to extract and to infer knowledge about the patterns hidden in the images, to retrieve dynamically a collection of relevant images, and to support the creation of emerging applications (e.g.: change detection, global monitoring, disaster and risk management, image time series, etc.). In this context, we are concerned with providing a platform for data mining and knowledge discovery content from EO archives. The platform's goal is to implement a communication channel between Payload Ground Segments and the end-user who receives the content of the data coded in an understandable format associated with semantics that is ready for immediate exploitation. It will provide the user with automated tools to explore and understand the content of highly complex images archives. The challenge lies in the extraction of meaningful information and understanding observations of large extended areas, over long periods of time, with a broad variety of EO imaging sensors in synergy with other related measurements and data. The platform is composed of several components such as 1.) ingestion of EO images and related data providing basic features for image analysis, 2.) query engine based on metadata, semantics and image content, 3.) data mining and knowledge discovery tools for supporting the interpretation and understanding of image content, 4.) semantic definition of the image content via machine learning methods. All these components are integrated and supported by a relational database management system, ensuring the integrity and consistency of Terabytes of Earth Observation data.

The Mission Accessible Near-Earth Objects Survey (MANOS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abell, Paul; Moskovitz, Nicholas; DeMeo, Francesca; Endicott, Thomas; Busch, Michael; Roe, Henry; Trilling, David; Thomas, Cristina; Willman, Mark; Grundy, Will;

Beyond Earth's boundaries: Human exploration of the Solar System in the 21st Century

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

This is an annual report describing work accomplished in developing the knowledge base that will permit informed recommendations and decisions concerning national space policy and the goal of human expansion into the solar system. The following topics are presented: (1) pathways to human exploration; (2) human exploration case studies; (3) case study results and assessment; (4) exploration program implementation strategy; (5) approach to international cooperation; (6) recommendations; and (7) future horizons.

Advanced techniques for the storage and use of very large, heterogeneous spatial databases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peuquet, Donna J.

1987-01-01

Progress is reported in the development of a prototype knowledge-based geographic information system. The overall purpose of this project is to investigate and demonstrate the use of advanced methods in order to greatly improve the capabilities of geographic information system technology in the handling of large, multi-source collections of spatial data in an efficient manner, and to make these collections of data more accessible and usable for the Earth scientist.

NASA's P-3 at Sunrise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA's P-3B airborne laboratory on the ramp at Thule Air Base in Greenland early on the morning of Mar. 21, 2013. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Christy Hansen NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Iceberg trapped in sea ice

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-01

An iceberg trapped in sea ice in the Amundsen Sea, seen from the IceBridge DC-8 during the Getz 07 mission on Oct. 27. Credit: NASA / Maria-Jose Vinas NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Iceberg in sea ice

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

An iceberg embedded in sea ice as seen from the IceBridge DC-8 over the Bellingshausen Sea on Oct. 19, 2012. Credit: NASA / James Yungel NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Aerial view of the Sverdrup Glacier, a river of ice that flows from the interior of the Devon Island Ice Cap (Canada) into the ocean. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Alex Gardner, Clark University NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-05-15

An airplane drops essential support on the Austfonna Ice Cap in Svalbard (Norwegian Arctic). The triangular structure is a corner reflector used as ground reference for airborne radar surveys. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Andrea Taurisano, Norwegian Polar Institute NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Peripheral glaciers and ice caps (isolated from the main ice sheet, which is seen in the upper right section of the image) in eastern Greenland. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Frank Paul, University of Zurich NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Embedded ice with lead

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Iceberg embedded in sea ice with a lead on one side. This opening was likely caused by winds blowing against the side of the iceberg. Credit: NASA / George Hale NASA's Operation IceBridge is an airborne science mission to study Earth's polar ice. For more information about IceBridge, visit: www.nasa.gov/icebridge NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Earth Science System of the Future: Observing, Processing, and Delivering Data Products Directly to Users

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crisp, David; Komar, George (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Advancement of our predictive capabilities will require new scientific knowledge, improvement of our modeling capabilities, and new observation strategies to generate the complex data sets needed by coupled modeling networks. New observation strategies must support remote sensing from a variety of vantage points and will include "sensorwebs" of small satellites in low Earth orbit, large aperture sensors in Geostationary orbits, and sentinel satellites at L1 and L2 to provide day/night views of the entire globe. Onboard data processing and high speed computing and communications will enable near real-time tailoring and delivery of information products (i.e., predictions) directly to users.

Detection of coal mine workings using high-resolution earth resistivity techniques. Final technical report, September 1979-September 1980

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peters, W.R.; Campbell, T.M.; Sturdivant, V.R.

1980-09-26

Shallow underground voids resulting from early coal mining and other resource recovery activities over the past several decades are now being recognized as a significant cause of ground subsidence problems in developing urban areas. Uncertain knowledge of abandoned coal mines also imposes potential hazards in coal excavation operations since water inundation or the release of methane gas is a principal hazard when mine excavation operations break into an abandoned mine. US Army requirements for an effective method for detecting and mapping subversive abandoned tunnels have resulted in a surface-operated automatic earth resistivity survey system with a digital computer data processingmore » system. Field tests aimed at demonstrating the system performance resulted in successful detection of tunnels having depth-to-diameter ratios up to 15 to 1. Under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Mines, a similar system was designed and constructed for use in the detection of coal mine workings. This report discusses the hardware and software aspects of the system and the application of the high-resolution earth resistivity method to the survey and mapping of abandoned coal mine workings. In the field tests reported, the targets of interest were both air- and water-filled workings.« less

JPL-20170630-ASTRDSf-0001-How Do We Spot Near Earth Asteroids

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-06-30

Animation illustrates how near-Earth asteroids are detected by professional astronomers with the help of amateur astronomers and how our knowledge of their path is refined to determine if they might be a threat to Earth.

An Integrated Geologic Framework for EarthScope's USArray

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tikoff, Basil; van der Pluijm, Ben; Hibbard, Jim; Keller, George Randy; Mogk, David; Selverstone, Jane; Walker, Doug

2006-06-01

The GeoFrame initiative is a new geologic venture that focuses on the construction, stabilization, and modification of the North American continent through time. The initiative's goals can be achieved through systematic integration of geologic knowledge-and particularly geologic time-with the unprecedented Earth imaging to be collected under the USArray program of EarthScope (http://www.earthscope.org/usarray). The GeoFrame initiative encourages a cooperative community approach to collecting and sharing data and will take a coast-to-coast perspective of the continent, focusing not only on the major geologic provinces, but also on the boundaries between these provinces. GeoFrame also offers a tangible, `you can see it and touch it' basis for a national approach to education and outreach in the Earth sciences. The EarthScope project is a massive undertaking to investigate the structure and evolution of the North American continent. Sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), EarthScope uses modern observational, analytical, and telecommunications technologies to establish fundamental and applied research in the Earth's dynamics, contributing to natural resource exploration and development, the mitigation of geologic hazards and risk, and a greater public understanding of solid Earth systems. One part of this project is USArray, a moving, continent-scale network of seismic stations designed to provide a foundation for the study of the lithosphere and deep Earth.

The Search for Life in the Solar System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ehrenfreund, Pascale

2016-07-01

To unravel the origins of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere remains one of mankind's most important discoveries. Basic building blocks of life are widespread in planetary systems in our Milky Way and other galaxies. Extraterrestrial material delivered to young terrestrial planetary surfaces in the early history of our solar system through asteroids, comets and meteorites may have provided significant raw material for the emergence of life on Earth. Since August 2014 the comet rendezvous mission Rosetta has monitored the evolution of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its approach to the Sun and observed numerous volatiles and complex organic compounds on the comet surface. Several asteroid sample return missions as well as the improved analyses of key meteorites increase our knowledge about the organic inventory that seeded the young planets. Prokaryotic, anaerobic bacteria, which are approximately 3.5 billion years old, represent the first evidence for life on Earth. Since then, life has evolved to high complexity and adapted to nearly every explored environment on our planet. Extreme life on Earth has expanded the list of potentially habitable solar system environments. However, our neighbor planet Mars is the most promising target to search for life within our solar system. Data from the Curiosity rover show regions that were habitable in the past, traces of organic carbon and active CH_4 in the Martian atmosphere at present. Recent discoveries such as the plumes from the southern polar region of Enceladus and plume activity on Europa strengthen the long-standing hypothesis that moons in our solar system contain substantial bodies of water and are probably habitable. Since decades, a fleet of robotic space missions target planets, moons and small bodies to reveal clues on the origin of our solar system and life beyond Earth. This lecture will review and discuss past, current and future space missions investigating habitability and biosignatures in our solar system and the science and technology preparation for robotic and human exploration efforts.

Development of EarthCube Governance: An Agile Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearthree, G.; Allison, M. L.; Patten, K.

2013-12-01

Governance of geosciences cyberinfrastructure is a complex and essential undertaking, critical in enabling distributed knowledge communities to collaborate and communicate across disciplines, distances, and cultures. Advancing science with respect to 'grand challenges," such as global climate change, weather prediction, and core fundamental science, depends not just on technical cyber systems, but also on social systems for strategic planning, decision-making, project management, learning, teaching, and building a community of practice. Simply put, a robust, agile technical system depends on an equally robust and agile social system. Cyberinfrastructure development is wrapped in social, organizational and governance challenges, which may significantly impede progress. An agile development process is underway for governance of transformative investments in geosciences cyberinfrastructure through the NSF EarthCube initiative. Agile development is iterative and incremental, and promotes adaptive planning and rapid and flexible response. Such iterative deployment across a variety of EarthCube stakeholders encourages transparency, consensus, accountability, and inclusiveness. A project Secretariat acts as the coordinating body, carrying out duties for planning, organizing, communicating, and reporting. A broad coalition of stakeholder groups comprises an Assembly (Mainstream Scientists, Cyberinfrastructure Institutions, Information Technology/Computer Sciences, NSF EarthCube Investigators, Science Communities, EarthCube End-User Workshop Organizers, Professional Societies) to serve as a preliminary venue for identifying, evaluating, and testing potential governance models. To offer opportunity for broader end-user input, a crowd-source approach will engage stakeholders not involved otherwise. An Advisory Committee from the Earth, ocean, atmosphere, social, computer and library sciences is guiding the process from a high-level policy point of view. Developmental evaluators from the social sciences embedded in the project provide real-time review and adjustments. While a large number of agencies and organizations have agreed to participate, in order to ensure an open and inclusive process, community selected leaders yet to be identified will play key roles through an Assembly Advisory Council. Once consensus is reached on a governing framework, a community-selected demonstration governance pilot will help facilitate community convergence on system design.

Forget the hype or reality. Big data presents new opportunities in Earth Science.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, T. J.

2015-12-01

Earth science is arguably one of the most mature science discipline which constantly acquires, curates, and utilizes a large volume of data with diverse variety. We deal with big data before there is big data. For example, while developing the EOS program in the 1980s, the EOS data and information system (EOSDIS) was developed to manage the vast amount of data acquired by the EOS fleet of satellites. EOSDIS continues to be a shining example of modern science data systems in the past two decades. With the explosion of internet, the usage of social media, and the provision of sensors everywhere, the big data era has bring new challenges. First, Goggle developed the search algorithm and a distributed data management system. The open source communities quickly followed up and developed Hadoop file system to facility the map reduce workloads. The internet continues to generate tens of petabytes of data every day. There is a significant shortage of algorithms and knowledgeable manpower to mine the data. In response, the federal government developed the big data programs that fund research and development projects and training programs to tackle these new challenges. Meanwhile, comparatively to the internet data explosion, Earth science big data problem has become quite small. Nevertheless, the big data era presents an opportunity for Earth science to evolve. We learned about the MapReduce algorithms, in memory data mining, machine learning, graph analysis, and semantic web technologies. How do we apply these new technologies to our discipline and bring the hype to Earth? In this talk, I will discuss how we might want to apply some of the big data technologies to our discipline and solve many of our challenging problems. More importantly, I will propose new Earth science data system architecture to enable new type of scientific inquires.

BENNU’S JOURNEY Poster

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security -- Regolith Explorer spacecraft (OSIRIS-REx) will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu, and bring a sample back to Earth for study. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled for launch in late 2016. As planned, the spacecraft will reach its asteroid target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023. Watch the full video: youtu.be/gtUgarROs08 Learn more about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission and the making of Bennu’s Journey: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/bennus-journey/ More information on the OSIRIS-REx mission is available at: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html www.asteroidmission.org NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

User Needs and Assessing the Impact of Low Latency NASA Earth Observation Data Availability on Societal Benefit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.; Carroll, Mark L.; Escobar, Vanessa M.

2014-01-01

Since the advent of NASA's Earth Observing System, knowledge of the practical benefits of Earth science data has grown considerably. The community using NASA Earth science observations in applications has grown significantly, with increasing sophistication to serve national interests. Data latency, or how quickly communities receive science observations after acquisition, can have a direct impact on the applications and usability of the information. This study was conducted to determine how users are incorporating NASA data into applications and operational processes to benefit society beyond scientific research, as well as to determine the need for data latency of less than 12 h. The results of the analysis clearly show the significant benefit to society of serving the needs of the agricultural, emergency response, environmental monitoring and weather communities who use rapidly delivered, accurate Earth science data. The study also showed the potential of expanding the communities who use low latency NASA science data products to provide new ways of transforming data into information. These benefits can be achieved with a clear and consistent NASA policy on product latency.

Effective and responsible teaching of climate change in Earth Science-related disciplines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinson, Z. P.; Greenhough, B. J.

2009-04-01

Climate change is a core topic within Earth Science-related courses. This vast topic covers a wide array of different aspects that could be covered, from past climatic change across a vast range of scales to environmental (and social and economic) impacts of future climatic change and strategies for reducing anthropogenic climate change. The Earth Science disciplines play a crucial role in our understanding of past, present and future climate change and the Earth system in addition to understanding leading to development of strategies and technological solutions to achieve sustainability. However, an increased knowledge of the occurrence and causes of past (natural) climate changes can lead to a lessened concern and sense of urgency and responsibility amongst students in relation to anthropogenic causes of climatic change. Two concepts integral to the teaching of climate change are those of scientific uncertainty and complexity, yet an emphasis on these concepts can lead to scepticism about future predictions and a further loss of sense of urgency. The requirement to understand the nature of scientific uncertainty and think and move between different scales in particular relating an increased knowledge of longer timescale climatic change to recent (industrialised) climate change, are clearly areas of troublesome knowledge that affect students' sense of responsibility towards their role in achieving a sustainable society. Study of the attitudes of university students in a UK HE institution on a range of Earth Science-related programmes highlights a range of different attitudes in the student body towards the subject of climate change. Students express varied amounts of ‘climate change saturation' resulting from both media and curriculum coverage, a range of views relating to the significance of humans to the global climate and a range of opinions about the relevance of environmental citizenship to their degree programme. Climate change is therefore a challenging topic to cover within the Earth Science-related curricula due to wide-ranging, and sometimes polarised, existing attitudes of students and levels of existing partial and sometimes flawed knowledge in addition to the troublesome concepts that need to be grasped. These issues highlight the responsibility and challenge inherent in teaching the subject of climate change and the importance of consideration of integrating sustainability issues with the core science of climate change. The talk will include a discussion of strategies and resources for the effective teaching of climate change topics for a range of levels and discipline backgrounds.

Effective Integration of the World-Wide Web in Earth Science Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herbert, Bruce; Bednarz, Sarah; Boyd, Tom; Blake, Sally; Harder, Vicki; Sutter, Marilyn

The earth sciences is an evolving set of disciplines encompassing more than 30 specialties; however, earth scientists continue to be trained within the traditional disciplinary structure. Earth science education should focus not only on student acquisition and retention of factual knowledge, but also on the development of higher-order skills…

The Earth's Core: How Does It Work? Perspectives in Science. Number 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

Various research studies designed to enhance knowledge about the earth's core are discussed. Areas addressed include: (1) the discovery of the earth's core; (2) experimental approaches used in studying the earth's core (including shock-wave experiments and experiments at high static pressures), the search for the core's light elements, the…

Reusing Information Management Services for Recommended Decadal Study Missions That Facilitate Aerosol and Cloud Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alcott, G.; Kempler, S.; Lynnes, C.; Leptoukh, G.; Vollmer, B.; Berrick, S.

2008-12-01

NASA Earth Sciences Division (ESD), and its preceding Earth science organizations, has made great investments in the development and maintenance of data management systems, as well as information technologies, for the purpose of maximizing the use and usefulness of NASA generated Earth science data. Earth science information systems, evolving with the maturation and implementation of advancing technologies, reside at NASA data centers, known as Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). With information management system infrastructure in place, and system data and user services already developed and operational, only very small delta costs are required to fully support data archival, processing, and data support services required by the recommended Decadal Study missions. This presentation describes the services and capabilities of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) (one of NASAs DAACs) and their potential reuse for these future missions. After 14 years working with instrument teams and the broader science community, GES DISC personnel expertise in atmospheric, water cycle, and atmospheric modeling data and information services, as well as Earth science missions, information system engineering, operations, and user services have developed a series of modular, reusable data management components currently is use in several projects. The knowledge and experience gained at the GES DISC lend themselves to providing science driven information systems in the areas of aerosols, clouds, and atmospheric chemicals to be measured by recommended Decadal Survey missions. Available reusable capabilities include data archive and distribution (Simple, Scalable, Script-based, Science [S4] Product Archive aka S4PA), data processing (S4 Processor for Measurements aka S4PM), data search (Mirador), data browse, visualization, and analysis (Giovanni), and data mining services. In addition, recent enhancements, such as Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Inc. interoperability implementations and data fusion prototypes, will be described. As a result of the information management systems developed by NASAs GES DISC, not only are large cost savings realized through system reuse, but maintenance costs are also minimized due to the simplicity of their implementations.

Recent Results From The Nasa Earth Science Terra Mission and Future Possibilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salomonson, Vincent V.

2000-01-01

The NASA Earth Sciences Enterprise has made some remarkable strides in recent times in using developing, implementing, and utilizing spaceborne observations to better understand how the Earth works as a coupled, interactive system of the land, ocean, and atmosphere. Notable examples include the Upper Atmosphere Research (UARS) Satellite, the Topology Ocean Experiment (TOPEX) mission, Landsat-7, SeaWiFS, the Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission (TRMM), Quickscatt, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and, quite recently, the Terra'/Earth Observing System-1 mission. The Terra mission, for example, represents a major step forward in providing sensors that offer considerable advantages and progress over heritage instruments. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emissions and Reflections (ASTER) radiometer, and the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) radiometer are the instruments involved. Early indications in March indicate that each of these instruments are working well and will be augmenting data bases from heritage instruments as well as producing new, unprecedented observations of land, ocean, and atmosphere features. Several missions will follow the Terra mission as the Earth Observing mission systems complete development and go into operation. These missions include EOS PM-1/'Aqua', Icesat, Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL), Jason/TOPEX Follow-on, the Chemistry mission, etc. As the Earth Observing systems completes its first phase in about 2004 a wealth of data enabling better understanding of the Earth and the management of its resources will have been provided. Considerable thought is beginning to be placed on what advances in technology can be implemented that will enable further advances in the early part of the 21st century; e.g., in the time from of 2020. Concepts such as 'constellation' missions or 'formation flying' with 'sensorcraft', 'sensor webs', autonomous operation of satellites, more on-board processing and delivery to individual users, data synthesis and analysis in real-time, etc. are being considered. With the data now having been and soon to be received plus the very real possibilities of further advances in use and applicability of data the potential for very significant gains in knowledge for Earth studies and applications looks quite high in the next decade or two.

Funding of Geosciences: Coordinating National and International Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bye, B.; Fontaine, K. S.

2012-12-01

Funding is an important element of national as well as international policy for Earth observations. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. The lack of dedicated funding to support specific S&T activities in support of GEOSS is one of the most important obstacles to engaging the S&T communities in its implementation. This problem can be addressed by establishing explicit linkages between research and development programmes funded by GEO Members and Participating Organizations and GEOSS. In appropriate funding programs, these links may take the form of requiring explanations of how projects to be funded will interface with GEOSS and ensuring that demonstrating significant relevance for GEOSS is viewed as an asset of these proposals, requiring registration of Earth observing systems developed in these projects, or stipulating that data and products must adhere to the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles. Examples of Earth observations include: - Measurements from ground-based, in situ monitors; - Observations from Earth satellites; - Products and predictive capabilities from Earth system models, often using the capabilities of high-performance computers; - Scientific knowledge about the Earth system; and, - Data visualization techniques. These examples of Earth observations activities requires different types of resources, R&D top-down, bottom-up funding and programs of various sizes. Where innovation and infrastructure are involved different kind of resources are better suited, for developing countries completely other sources of funding are applicable etc. The European Commission funded Egida project is coordinating the development of a funding mechanism based on current national and international funding instruments such as the European ERANet, the new Joint Programming Initiatives, ESFRI as well as other European and non-European instruments. A general introduction to various strategies and fundings instruments on international and regional level will be presented together with a proposed first step of a particular funding mechanism for both the implementation and sustained operation of GEOSS. Resources and capacity building is an integral part of national science policy making and an important element in its implementations in societal applications such as disaster management, natural resources management etc. In particular, funding instruments have to be in place to facilitate free, open, authoritative sources of quality data and general scientific results for the benefit of society.

Lowering the barriers to computational modeling of Earth's surface: coupling Jupyter Notebooks with Landlab, HydroShare, and CyberGIS for research and education.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bandaragoda, C.; Castronova, A. M.; Phuong, J.; Istanbulluoglu, E.; Strauch, R. L.; Nudurupati, S. S.; Tarboton, D. G.; Wang, S. W.; Yin, D.; Barnhart, K. R.; Tucker, G. E.; Hutton, E.; Hobley, D. E. J.; Gasparini, N. M.; Adams, J. M.

2017-12-01

The ability to test hypotheses about hydrology, geomorphology and atmospheric processes is invaluable to research in the era of big data. Although community resources are available, there remain significant educational, logistical and time investment barriers to their use. Knowledge infrastructure is an emerging intellectual framework to understand how people are creating, sharing and distributing knowledge - which has been dramatically transformed by Internet technologies. In addition to the technical and social components in a cyberinfrastructure system, knowledge infrastructure considers educational, institutional, and open source governance components required to advance knowledge. We are designing an infrastructure environment that lowers common barriers to reproducing modeling experiments for earth surface investigation. Landlab is an open-source modeling toolkit for building, coupling, and exploring two-dimensional numerical models. HydroShare is an online collaborative environment for sharing hydrologic data and models. CyberGIS-Jupyter is an innovative cyberGIS framework for achieving data-intensive, reproducible, and scalable geospatial analytics using the Jupyter Notebook based on ROGER - the first cyberGIS supercomputer, so that models that can be elastically reproduced through cloud computing approaches. Our team of geomorphologists, hydrologists, and computer geoscientists has created a new infrastructure environment that combines these three pieces of software to enable knowledge discovery. Through this novel integration, any user can interactively execute and explore their shared data and model resources. Landlab on HydroShare with CyberGIS-Jupyter supports the modeling continuum from fully developed modelling applications, prototyping new science tools, hands on research demonstrations for training workshops, and classroom applications. Computational geospatial models based on big data and high performance computing can now be more efficiently developed, improved, scaled, and seamlessly reproduced among multidisciplinary users, thereby expanding the active learning curriculum and research opportunities for students in earth surface modeling and informatics.

Earth from Orbit 2014

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-04-20

Every day of every year, NASA satellites provide useful data about our home planet, and along the way, some beautiful images as well. This video includes satellite images of Earth in 2014 from NASA and its partners as well as photos and a time lapse video from the International Space Station. We’ve also included a range of data visualizations, model runs, and a conceptual animation that were produced in 2014 (but in some cases might have been utilizing data from earlier years.) Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Project.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harries, J. E.; Russell, J. E.; Hanafin, J. A.; Brindley, H.; Futyan, J.; Rufus, J.; Kellock, S.; Matthews, G.; Wrigley, R.; Last, A.; Mueller, J.; Mossavati, R.; Ashmall, J.; Sawyer, E.; Parker, D.; Caldwell, M.; Allan, P. M.; Smith, A.; Bates, M. J.; Coan, B.; Stewart, B. C.; Lepine, D. R.; Cornwall, L. A.; Corney, D. R.; Ricketts, M. J.; Drummond, D.; Smart, D.; Cutler, R.; Dewitte, S.; Clerbaux, N.; Gonzalez, L.; Ipe, A.; Bertrand, C.; Joukoff, A.; Crommelynck, D.; Nelms, N.; Llewellyn-Jones, D. T.; Butcher, G.; Smith, G. L.; Szewczyk, Z. P.; Mlynczak, P. E.; Slingo, A.; Allan, R. P.; Ringer, M. A.

2005-07-01

This paper reports on a new satellite sensor, the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) experiment. GERB is designed to make the first measurements of the Earth's radiation budget from geostationary orbit. Measurements at high absolute accuracy of the reflected sunlight from the Earth, and the thermal radiation emitted by the Earth are made every 15 min, with a spatial resolution at the subsatellite point of 44.6 km (north south) by 39.3 km (east west). With knowledge of the incoming solar constant, this gives the primary forcing and response components of the top-of-atmosphere radiation. The first GERB instrument is an instrument of opportunity on Meteosat-8, a new spin-stabilized spacecraft platform also carrying the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared (SEVIRI) sensor, which is currently positioned over the equator at 3.5°W. This overview of the project includes a description of the instrument design and its preflight and in-flight calibration. An evaluation of the instrument performance after its first year in orbit, including comparisons with data from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite sensors and with output from numerical models, are also presented. After a brief summary of the data processing system and data products, some of the scientific studies that are being undertaken using these early data are described. This marks the beginning of a decade or more of observations from GERB, as subsequent models will fly on each of the four Meteosat Second Generation satellites.

Precambrian evolution of the climate system.

PubMed

Walker, J C

1990-01-01

Climate is an important environmental parameter of the early Earth, likely to have affected the origin and evolution of life, the composition and mineralogy of sedimentary rocks, and stable isotope ratios in sedimentary minerals. There is little observational evidence constraining Precambrian climates. Most of our knowledge is at present theoretical. Factors that must have affected the climate include reduced solar luminosity, enhanced rotation rate of the Earth, an area of land that probably increased with time, and biological evolution, particularly as it affected the composition of the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. Cloud cover is a major uncertainty about the early Earth. Carbon dioxide and its greenhouse effect are the factors that have been most extensively studied. This paper presents a new examination of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon as they may have changed between an Archean Earth deficient in land, sedimentary rocks, and biological activity, and a Proterozoic Earth much like the modern Earth, but lacking terrestrial life and carbonate-secreting plankton. Results of a numerical simulation of this transition show how increasing biological activity could have drawn down atmospheric carbon dioxide by extracting sedimentary organic carbon from the system. Increasing area of continents could further have drawn down carbon dioxide by encouraging the accumulation of carbonate sediments. An attempt to develop a numerical simulation of the carbon cycles of the Precambrian raises questions about sources and sinks of marine carbon and alkalinity on a world without continents. More information is needed about sea-floor weathering processes.

An Earth System Scientist Network for Student and Scientist Partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ledley, T. S.

2001-05-01

Successful student and scientist partnerships require that there is a mutual benefit from the partnership. This means that the scientist needs to be able to see the advantage of having students work on his/her project, and the students and teachers need to see that the students contribute to the project and develop the skills in inquiry and the content knowledge in the geosciences that are desired. Through the Earth System Scientist Network (ESSN) for Student and Scientist Partnerships project we are working toward developing scientific research projects for the participation of high school students. When these research projects are developed they will be posted on the ESSN web site that will appear in the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). In DLESE teachers and students who are interested in participating in a research program will be able to examine the criteria for each project and select the one that matches their needs and situation. In this paper we will report on how the various ESSN research projects are currently being developed to assure that both the scientist and the students benefit from the partnership. The ESSN scientists are working with a team of scientists and educators to 1) completely define the research question that the students will be addressing, 2) determine what role the students will have in the project, 3) identify the data that the students and teachers will work with, 4) map out the scientific protocols that the students will follow, and 5) determine the background and support materials needed to facilitate students successfully participating in the project. Other issues that the team is addressing include 1) identifying the selection criteria for the schools, 2) identifying rewards and recognition for the students and teacher by the scientist, and 3) identifying issues in Earth system science, relevant to the scientists data, that the students and teachers could use as a guide help develop students investigative skills and content knowledge in the geosciences. The importance of fully developing each of these aspects of the ESSN research projects and how they can differ between projects will be discussed.

Spaceship Earth: A partnership in curriculum writing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindstrom, Marilyn M.

1993-01-01

As the Apollo astronauts left Earth to venture onto the surface of another planetary body, they saw their home planet in a new global perspective. Unmanned NASA missions have given us a closer look at all the other planets in our solar system and emphasized the uniqueness of Earth as the only place in our solar system that can sustain life as we know it. Spaceship Earth is a new science curriculum which was developed to help students and teachers to explore the Earth, to see it in the global perspective, and to understand the relationships among life, the planet, and the sun. Astronaut photographs, especially shuttle pictures, are used as groundbased studies to help students to understand global Earth Science and integrate various aspects of physical, life, and social science. The Spaceship Earth curriculum was developed at by a team of JSC scientists working in collaboration with teachers from local school districts. This project was done under the auspices of Partner-In-Space, a local non-profit organization dedicated to improving science education and our general knowledge of space. The team met once a month for a year then assembled the curriculum during the summer. The project is now in the testing stage as the teachers try it out in their classrooms. It was supported by the Texas Education Agency and will be offered by the State of Texas as a supplemental curriculum for statewide use. Because the curriculum was developed by teachers, it is self contained and the lessons are easy to implement and give students concrete experiences. The three sub-units follow in a logical order, but may be used independently. If they are used separately, they may be tied together by the teacher returning to the basic theme of the global Earth as each unit is completed.

EOS-AM precision pointing verification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Throckmorton, A.; Braknis, E.; Bolek, J.

1993-01-01

The Earth Observing System (EOS) AM mission requires tight pointing knowledge to meet scientific objectives, in a spacecraft with low frequency flexible appendage modes. As the spacecraft controller reacts to various disturbance sources and as the inherent appendage modes are excited by this control action, verification of precision pointing knowledge becomes particularly challenging for the EOS-AM mission. As presently conceived, this verification includes a complementary set of multi-disciplinary analyses, hardware tests and real-time computer in the loop simulations, followed by collection and analysis of hardware test and flight data and supported by a comprehensive data base repository for validated program values.

S5: Information Technology for Science Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coughlan, Joe

2017-01-01

NASA Missions and Programs create a wealth of science data and information that are essential to understanding our earth, our solar system and the universe. Advancements in information technology will allow many people within and beyond the Agency to more effectively analyze and apply these data and information to create knowledge. The desired end result is to see that NASA data and science information are used to generate the maximum possible impact to the nation: to advance scientific knowledge and technological capabilities, to inspire and motivate the nation's students and teachers, and to engage and educate the public.

Tracking and data system support for the Pioneer project. Volume 2: Pioneer 11 prelaunch planning through second trajectory correction, to 1 May 1973

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barton, W. R.; Miller, R. B.

1975-01-01

The tracking and data system support of the planning, testing, launch, near-earth, and deep space phases of the Pioneer 11 Jupiter Mission are described, including critical phases of spacecraft flight and guidance. Scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft registered information relative to interplanetary particles and fields. Knowledge of the celestial mechanics of the solar system was improved through radiometric data gathering. Network performance, details of network support activity, and special support activities are discussed.

ESSEA as an Enhancement to K-12 Earth Systems Science Efforts at San José State University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messina, P.; Metzger, E. P.; Sedlock, R. L.

2002-12-01

San José State University's Geology Department has implemented and maintained a two-fold approach to teacher education efforts. Both pre-service and in-service populations have been participants in a wide variety of content-area enrichment, training, and professional development endeavors. Spearheading these initiatives is the Bay Area Earth Science Institute (BAESI); organized in 1990, this program has served more than 1,000 teachers in weekend- and summer-workshops, and field trips. It sustains a network of Bay Area teachers via its Website (http://www.baesi.org), newsletter, and allows teachers to borrow classroom-pertinent materials through the Earth Science Resource Center. The Department has developed a course offering in Earth Systems Science (Geology 103), which targets pre-service teachers within SJSU's multiple-subject credential program. The curriculum satisfies California subject matter competency requirements in the geosciences, and infuses pedagogy into the syllabus. Course activities are intended for pre-service and in-service teachers' adaptation in their own classrooms. The course has been enhanced by two SJSU-NASA collaborations (Project ALERT and the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum), which have facilitated incorporation of NASA data, imagery, and curricular materials. SJSU's M.A. in Natural Science, a combined effort of the Departments of Geology, Biology, and Program in Science Education, is designed to meet the multi-disciplinary needs of single-subject credential science teachers by providing a flexible, individually-tailored curriculum that combines science course work with a science education project. Several BAESI teachers have extended their Earth science knowledge and teaching skills through such projects as field guides to local sites of geological interest; lab-based modules for teaching about earthquakes, rocks and minerals, water quality, and weather; and interactive online materials for students and teachers of science. In keeping with SJSU's alliance with NASA Centers, the Geology Department is proud to offer ESSEA online courses as part of its multi-dimensional approach to Earth Systems teacher education. SJSU plans to offer both the middle- and high-school courses to a national audience, beginning spring 2003. The addition of ESSEA courses will complement existing projects, and will help to build a stronger Earth Systems-savvy community.

Landsat Celebrates 40 Years of Observing Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

An artist's rendition of the next Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) that will launch in Feb. 2013. Credit: NASA The Landsat program is the longest continuous global record of Earth observations from space – ever. Since its first satellite went up in the summer of 1972, Landsat has been looking at our planet. The view of Earth that this 40-year satellite program has recorded allows scientists to see, in ways they never imagined, how the Earth's surface has transformed, over time. In the 1970s Landsat captured the first views from space of the Amazonian rainforest and continued to track the area year after year after year, giving the world an unprecedented view of systemic and rapid deforestation. This view from space let us see an activity that was taking place in an exceptionally remote part of our world. These now iconic-images of tropical deforestation spurred the global environmental community to rally in an unprecedented way, and resulted in worldwide attention and action. To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/news/landsat-history.html NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Advances in Mineral Dust Source Composition Measurement with Imaging Spectroscopy at the Salton Sea, CA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, R. O.; Realmuto, V. J.; Thompson, D. R.; Mahowald, N. M.; Pérez García-Pando, C.; Miller, R. L.; Clark, R. N.; Swayze, G. A.; Okin, G. S.

2015-12-01

Mineral dust emitted from the Earth's surface is a principal contributor to direct radiative forcing over the arid regions, where shifts in climate have a significant impact on agriculture, precipitation, and desert encroachment around the globe. Dust particles contribute to both positive and negative forcing, depending on the composition of the particles. Particle composition is a function of the surface mineralogy of dust source regions, but poor knowledge of surface mineralogy on regional to global scales limits the skill of Earth System models to predict shifts in regional climate around the globe. Earth System models include the source, emission, transport and deposition phases of the dust cycle. In addition to direct radiative forcing contributions, mineral dust impacts include indirect radiative forcing, modification of the albedo and melting rates of snow and ice, kinetics of tropospheric photochemistry, formation and deposition of acidic aerosols, supply of nutrients to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and impact on human health and safety. We demonstrate the ability to map mineral dust source composition in the Salton Sea dust source region with imaging spectroscopy measurements acquired as part of the NASA HyspIRI preparatory airborne campaign. These new spectroscopically derived compositional measurements provide a six orders of magnitude improvement over current atlases for this dust source region and provide a pathfinder example for a remote measurement approach to address this critical dust composition gap for global Earth System models.

Looking at Earth from Space: Teacher's Guide with Activities for Earth and Space Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steele, Colleen (Editor); Steele, Colleen; Ryan, William F.

1995-01-01

The Maryland Pilot Earth Science and Technology Education Network (MAPS-NET) project was sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to enrich teacher preparation and classroom learning in the area of Earth system science. This publication includes a teacher's guide that replicates material taught during a graduate-level course of the project and activities developed by the teachers. The publication was developed to provide teachers with a comprehensive approach to using satellite imagery to enhance science education. The teacher's guide is divided into topical chapters and enables teachers to expand their knowledge of the atmosphere, common weather patterns, and remote sensing. Topics include: weather systems and satellite imagery including mid-latitude weather systems; wave motion and the general circulation; cyclonic disturbances and baroclinic instability; clouds; additional common weather patterns; satellite images and the internet; environmental satellites; orbits; and ground station set-up. Activities are listed by suggested grade level and include the following topics: using weather symbols; forecasting the weather; cloud families and identification; classification of cloud types through infrared Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) imagery; comparison of visible and infrared imagery; cold fronts; to ski or not to ski (imagery as a decision making tool), infrared and visible satellite images; thunderstorms; looping satellite images; hurricanes; intertropical convergence zone; and using weather satellite images to enhance a study of the Chesapeake Bay. A list of resources is also included.

A Testbed Demonstration of an Intelligent Archive in a Knowledge Building System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram; Isaac, David; Morse, Steve; Yang, Wenli; Bonnlander, Brian; McConaughy, Gail; Di, Liping; Danks, David

2005-01-01

The last decade's influx of raw data and derived geophysical parameters from several Earth observing satellites to NASA data centers has created a data-rich environment for Earth science research and applications. While advances in hardware and information management have made it possible to archive petabytes of data and distribute terabytes of data daily to a broad community of users, further progress is necessary in the transformation of data into information, and information into knowledge that can be used in particular applications in order to realize the full potential of these valuable datasets. In examining what is needed to enable this progress in the data provider environment that exists today and is expected to evolve in the next several years, we arrived at the concept of an Intelligent Archive in context of a Knowledge Building System (IA/KBS). Our prior work and associated papers investigated usage scenarios, required capabilities, system architecture, data volume issues, and supporting technologies. We identified six key capabilities of an IA/KBS: Virtual Product Generation, Significant Event Detection, Automated Data Quality Assessment, Large-Scale Data Mining, Dynamic Feedback Loop, and Data Discovery and Efficient Requesting. Among these capabilities, large-scale data mining is perceived by many in the community to be an area of technical risk. One of the main reasons for this is that standard data mining research and algorithms operate on datasets that are several orders of magnitude smaller than the actual sizes of datasets maintained by realistic earth science data archives. Therefore, we defined a test-bed activity to implement a large-scale data mining algorithm in a pseudo-operational scale environment and to examine any issues involved. The application chosen for applying the data mining algorithm is wildfire prediction over the continental U.S. This paper reports a number of observations based on our experience with this test-bed. While proof-of-concept for data mining scalability and utility has been a major goal for the research reported here, it was not the only one. The other five capabilities of an WKBS named above have been considered as well, and an assessment of the implications of our experience for these other areas will also be presented. The lessons learned through the testbed effort and presented in this paper will benefit technologists, scientists, and system operators as they consider introducing IA/KBS capabilities into production systems.

NASA Ames and Future of Space Exploration, Science, and Aeronautics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Jacob

2015-01-01

Pushing the frontiers of aeronautics and space exploration presents multiple challenges. NASA Ames Research Center is at the forefront of tackling these issues, conducting cutting edge research in the fields of air traffic management, entry systems, advanced information technology, intelligent human and robotic systems, astrobiology, aeronautics, space, earth and life sciences and small satellites. Knowledge gained from this research helps ensure the success of NASA's missions, leading us closer to a world that was only imagined as science fiction just decades ago.

Measurement and Modeling of Electromagnetic Scattering by Particles and Particle Groups. Chapter 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mishchenko, Michael I.

2015-01-01

Small particles forming clouds of interstellar and circumstellar dust, regolith surfaces of many solar system bodies, and cometary atmospheres have a strong and often controlling effect on many ambient physical and chemical processes. Similarly, aerosol and cloud particles exert a strong influence on the regional and global climates of the Earth, other planets of the solar system, and exoplanets. Therefore, detailed and accurate knowledge of physical and chemical characteristics of such particles has the utmost scientific importance.

Aeronautics and space report of the president, 1974 activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

The U.S. Government activities for 1974 in aeronautics and space are presented. Significant contributions toward the fulfillment of the nation's goals in space and aeronautics are covered, including application of space systems and technology to beneficial uses on earth, exploration of space and increase of scientific knowledge, development of improved space systems and technology, international cooperation, and advancement of civil and military aeronautics. Also in 1974, space activities in the private sector expanded to provide additional services to the public. The accomplishments are summarized.

Smouldering Fires in the Earth System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rein, G.

2012-04-01

Smouldering fires, the slow, low-temperature, flameless burning, represent the most persistent type of combustion phenomena and the longest continuously fires on Earth system. Indeed, smouldering mega-fires of peatlands occur with some frequency during the dry session in, for example, Indonesia, Canada, Russia, UK and USA. Smouldering fires propagate slowly through organic layers of the ground and can reach depth >5 m if large cracks, natural piping or channel systems exist. It threatens to release sequestered carbon deep into the soil. Once ignited, they are particularly difficult to extinguish despite extensive rains, weather changes or fire-fighting attempts, and can persist for long periods of time (months, years) spreading deep and over extensive areas. Recent figures at the global scale estimate that average annual greenhouse gas emissions from smouldering fires are equivalent to 15% of man-made emissions. These fires are difficult or impossible to detect with current remote sensing methods because the chemistry is significantly different, their thermal radiation signature is much smaller, and the plume is much less buoyant. These wildfires burn fossil fuels and thus are a carbon-positive fire phenomena. This creates feedbacks in the climate system because soil moisture deficit and self-heating are enchanted under warmer climate scenarios and lead to more frequent fires. Warmer temperatures at high latitudes are resulting in more frequent Artic fires. Unprecedented permafrost thaw is leaving large soil carbon pools exposed to smouldering fires for the fist time since millennia. Although interactions between flaming fires and the Earth system have been a central focus, smouldering fires are as important but have received very little attention. DBut differences with flaming fires are important. This paper reviews the current knowledge on smouldering fires in the Earth system regarding combustion dynamics, damage to the soil, emissions, remote sensing and feedbacks in the climate system.

The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution: A Model for the Delivery of Earth Science Professional Development to Minority-Serving Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellins, K. K.; Snow, E.; Olson, H. C.; Stocks, E.; Willis, M.; Olson, J.; Odell, M. R.

2013-01-01

The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution was a 5-y teacher professional development project that aimed to increase teachers' content knowledge in Earth science and preparing them to teach a 12th-grade capstone Earth and Space Science course, which is new to the Texas curriculum. The National Science Foundation-supported project was…

Building A Collaborative And Distributed E&O Program For EarthScope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall-Wallace, M. K.; Boyd, T.; Richard, G.; Ellins, K.; Meertens, C.; Semken, S.; Taber, J.; Benthien, M.; Wald, L.; Marvinney, R.

2003-12-01

EarthScope's education and outreach (E&O) mission is to ensure that the EarthScope experiment creates as its legacy a public more knowledgeable and understanding of the scientific and societal contributions made by the EarthScope experiment and Earth science. It will fulfill this commitment by developing and disseminating programs and products that utilize the data, models, technology and discoveries of EarthScope. The EarthScope Education and Outreach Network (EON), consisting of local EON alliances, the EarthScope facilities, partner organizations and a coordinating office, will facilitate this E&O mission. The local EON alliances, which will vary in size and purpose to respond quickly and to meet the specific needs in a region, will carry out the bulk of the effort. Thus, EarthScope EON can provide customized services that engage culturally, economically and geographically diverse audiences at the national and local scales. The EarthScope facilities and research community will provide access to data, models, and visualization tools for educational purposes. Partnerships with other national and local science education and outreach programs at colleges, universities, research facilities and professional societies within the EarthScope community as well as relevant programs at museums and parks, state geologic surveys and emergency management agencies, and K-12 schools are critical to EON's success. These partnerships will allow EON to use existing resources, networks and expertise to gear up quickly and efficiently. As EON develops, it will reciprocate by contributing new resources and expertise to the partnerships that help improve public understanding of Earth systems overall and promote effective application of EarthScope discoveries. In this presentation, we will outline major programs and products envisioned for EarthScope, plans for evaluating those programs locally and nationally, and mechanisms for collaborating with existing E&O programs.

BENNU’S JOURNEY - Early Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This is an artist's concept of the young Earth being bombarded by asteroids. Scientists think these impacts could have delivered significant amounts of organic matter and water to Earth. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security -- Regolith Explorer spacecraft (OSIRIS-REx) will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu, and bring a sample back to Earth for study. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled for launch in late 2016. As planned, the spacecraft will reach its asteroid target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023. Watch the full video: youtu.be/gtUgarROs08 Learn more about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission and the making of Bennu’s Journey: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/bennus-journey/ More information on the OSIRIS-REx mission is available at: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html www.asteroidmission.org NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Teaching geographical hydrology in a non-stationary world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendriks, Martin R.; Karssenberg, Derek

2010-05-01

Understanding hydrological processes in a non-stationary world requires knowledge of hydrological processes and their interactions. Also, one needs to understand the (non-linear) relations between the hydrological system and other parts of our Earth system, such as the climate system, the socio-economic system, and the ecosystem. To provide this knowledge and understanding we think that three components are essential when teaching geographical hydrology. First of all, a student needs to acquire a thorough understanding of classical hydrology. For this, knowledge of the basic hydrological equations, such as the energy equation (Bernoulli), flow equation (Darcy), continuity (or water balance) equation is needed. This, however, is not sufficient to make a student fully understand the interactions between hydrological compartments, or between hydrological subsystems and other parts of the Earth system. Therefore, secondly, a student also needs to be knowledgeable of methods by which the different subsystems can be coupled; in general, numerical models are used for this. A major disadvantage of numerical models is their complexity. A solution may be to use simpler models, provided that a student really understands how hydrological processes function in our real, non-stationary world. The challenge for a student then lies in understanding the interactions between the subsystems, and to be able to answer questions such as: what is the effect of a change in vegetation or land use on runoff? Thirdly, knowledge of field hydrology is of utmost importance. For this a student needs to be trained in the field. Fieldwork is very important as a student is confronted in the field with spatial and temporal variability, as well as with real life uncertainties, rather than being lured into believing the world as presented in hydrological textbooks and models, e.g. the world under study is homogeneous, isotropic, or lumped (averaged). Also, students in the field learn to plan and cooperate. Besides fieldwork, a student should also learn to make use of the many available data sets, such as google earth, or as provided by remote sensing, or automatic data loggers. In our opinion the following sequence of activities should be applied for a student to attain a desirable working knowledge level. As mentioned earlier, a student first of all needs to have sufficient classical hydrological knowledge. After this a student should be educated in using simple models, in which field knowledge is incorporated. After this, a student should learn how to build models for solving typical hydrological problems. Modelling is especially worthwhile when the model is applied to a known area, as this certifies integration of fieldwork and modelling activities. To learn how to model, tailored courses with software that provides a set of easily learned functions to match the student's conceptual thought processes are needed. It is not easy to bring theoretical, field, and modelling knowledge together, and a pitfall may be the lack of knowledge of one or more of the above. Also, a student must learn to be able to deal with uncertainties in data and models, and must be trained to deal with unpredictability. Therefore, in our opinion a modern student should strive to become an integrating specialist in all of the above mentioned fields if we are to take geographical hydrology to a higher level and if we want to come to grips with it in a non-stationary world. A student must learn to think and act in an integrative way, and for this combining classical hydrology, field hydrology and modelling at a high education level in our hydrology curricula, in our opinion, is the way to proceed.

A roadmap for improving the representation of photosynthesis in Earth system models.

PubMed

Rogers, Alistair; Medlyn, Belinda E; Dukes, Jeffrey S; Bonan, Gordon; von Caemmerer, Susanne; Dietze, Michael C; Kattge, Jens; Leakey, Andrew D B; Mercado, Lina M; Niinemets, Ülo; Prentice, I Colin; Serbin, Shawn P; Sitch, Stephen; Way, Danielle A; Zaehle, Sönke

2017-01-01

Accurate representation of photosynthesis in terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) is essential for robust projections of global change. However, current representations vary markedly between TBMs, contributing uncertainty to projections of global carbon fluxes. Here we compared the representation of photosynthesis in seven TBMs by examining leaf and canopy level responses of photosynthetic CO 2 assimilation (A) to key environmental variables: light, temperature, CO 2 concentration, vapor pressure deficit and soil water content. We identified research areas where limited process knowledge prevents inclusion of physiological phenomena in current TBMs and research areas where data are urgently needed for model parameterization or evaluation. We provide a roadmap for new science needed to improve the representation of photosynthesis in the next generation of terrestrial biosphere and Earth system models. No claim to original US Government works New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

Advanced Information Technology Investments at the NASA Earth Science Technology Office

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clune, T.; Seablom, M. S.; Moe, K.

2012-12-01

The NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) regularly makes investments for nurturing advanced concepts in information technology to enable rapid, low-cost acquisition, processing and visualization of Earth science data in support of future NASA missions and climate change research. In 2012, the National Research Council published a mid-term assessment of the 2007 decadal survey for future spacemissions supporting Earth science and applications [1]. The report stated, "Earth sciences have advanced significantly because of existing observational capabilities and the fruit of past investments, along with advances in data and information systems, computer science, and enabling technologies." The report found that NASA had responded favorably and aggressively to the decadal survey and noted the role of the recent ESTO solicitation for information systems technologies that partnered with the NASA Applied Sciences Program to support the transition into operations. NASA's future missions are key stakeholders for the ESTO technology investments. Also driving these investments is the need for the Agency to properly address questions regarding the prediction, adaptation, and eventual mitigation of climate change. The Earth Science Division has championed interdisciplinary research, recognizing that the Earth must be studied as a complete system in order toaddress key science questions [2]. Information technology investments in the low-mid technology readiness level (TRL) range play a key role in meeting these challenges. ESTO's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program invests in higher risk / higher reward technologies that solve the most challenging problems of the information processing chain. This includes the space segment, where the information pipeline begins, to the end user, where knowledge is ultimatelyadvanced. The objectives of the program are to reduce the risk, cost, size, and development time of Earth Science space-based and ground-based systems, increase the accessibility and utility of science data, and to enable new observation measurements and information products. We will discuss the ESTO investment strategy for information technology development, the methods used to assess stakeholder needs and technology advancements, and technology partnerships to enhance the infusion for the resulting technology. We also describe specific investments and their potential impact on enabling NASA missions and scientific discovery. [1] "Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Midterm Assessment of NASA's Implementation of the Decadal Survey", 2012: National Academies Press, http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13405 [2] "Responding to the Challenge of Climate and Environmental Change: NASA's Plan for a Climate-Centric Architecture for Earth Observations and Applications from Space", 2010: NASA Tech Memo, http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2010/07/01/Climate_Architecture_Final.pdf

A GEO Initiative to Support the Sustainable Development Goals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friedl, L.

2016-12-01

The United Nations Agenda 2030 serves as a global development agenda for progress on economic, social and environmental sustainability. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have a specific provision for the use of Earth observations and geospatial information to support progress. The international Group on Earth Observations, GEO, has a dedicated initiative focused on the SDGs. This initiative supports efforts to integrate Earth observations and geospatial information into national development and monitoring frameworks for the SDGs. It helps enables countries and stakeholders to leverage Earth observations to support the implementation, planning, measuring, monitoring, reporting, and evaluation of the SDGs. This paper will present an overview of the GEO initiative and ways that Earth observations support the development goals. It will address how information and knowledge can be shared on effective methods to apply Earth observations to the SDGs and their associated targets and indicators. It will also highlight some existing information sources and tools on the SDGs, which can help identify key approaches for developing a knowledge base.

Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Opinions on Astrobiology Topics and Related Social Issues.

PubMed

Oreiro, Raquel; Solbes, Jordi

2017-01-01

Astrobiology is the study of the origin of life on Earth and the distribution of life in the Universe. Its multidisciplinary approach, social and philosophical implications, and appeal within the discipline and beyond make astrobiology a uniquely qualified subject for general science education. In this study, student knowledge and opinions on astrobiology topics were investigated. Eighty-nine students in their last year of compulsory education (age 15) completed a written questionnaire that consisted of 10 open questions on the topic of astrobiology. The results indicate that students have significant difficulties understanding the origin of life on Earth, despite exposure to the topic by way of the assigned textbooks. The students were often unaware of past or present achievements in the search for life within the Solar System and beyond, topics that are far less commonly seen in textbooks. Student questionnaire answers also indicated that students had problems in reasoning and critical thinking when asked for their opinions on issues such as the potential for life beyond Earth, the question of whether UFOs exist, or what our place is in the Universe. Astrobiology might help initiate student awareness as to current thinking on these matters and should be considered for general science education. Key Words: Astrobiology-Students' views-Science education. Astrobiology 17, 91-99.

Using Flow Charts to Visualize the Decision-Making Process in Space Weather Forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aung, M. T. Y.; Myat, T.; Zheng, Y.; Mays, M. L.; Ngwira, C.; Damas, M. C.

2016-12-01

Our society today relies heavily on technological systems such as satellites, navigation systems, power grids and aviation. These systems are very sensitive to space weather disturbances. When Earth-directed space weather driven by the Sun arrives at the Earth, it causes changes to the Earth's radiation environment and the magnetosphere. Strong disturbances in the magnetosphere of the Earth are responsible for geomagnetic storms that can last from hours to days depending on strength of storms. Geomagnetic storms can severely impact critical infrastructure on Earth, such as the electric power grid, and Solar Energetic Particles that can endanger life in outer space. How can we lessen these adverse effects? They can be lessened through the early warning signals sent by space weather forecasters before CME or high-speed stream arrives. A space weather forecaster's duty is to send predicted notifications to high-tech industries and NASA missions so that they could take extra measures for protection. NASA space weather forecasters make prediction decisions by following certain steps and processes from the time an event occurs at the sun all the way to the impact locations. However, there has never been a tool that helps these forecasters visualize the decision process until now. A flow chart is created to help forecasters visualize the decision process. This flow chart provides basic knowledge of space weather and can be used to train future space weather forecasters. It also helps to cut down the training period and increase consistency in forecasting. The flow chart is also a great reference for people who are already familiar with space weather.

Rocky or Not, Here We Come: Further Revealing the Internal Structures of K2-21b+c Through Transit Timing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stevenson, Kevin; Bean, Jacob; Dragomir, Diana; Fabrycky, Daniel; Kreidberg, Laura; Mills, Sean; Petigura, Erik

2016-08-01

The provenance of planets 1.5 - 2 times the size of the Earth is one of the biggest unresolved mysteries from the Kepler mission. Determining the nature and origins of these exoplanets relies not only on measuring their radii, but also requires knowledge about their masses, atmospheric compositions, and interior structures. With this information, we can more confidently estimate planet mass distributions from measured radii, distinguish between rocky and non-rocky compositions, and better constrain the occurrence rate of Earth-like planets. Last year, Co-I Petigura announced the discovery of a two-transiting-planet system, K2-21, with bodies of 1.6 and 1.9 Earth-radii. The latter is expected to have a volatile-rich atmosphere, but the former lies squarely on the rocky/non-rocky composition boundary. These exoplanets orbit their relatively bright, nearby M dwarf parent star in a near 5:3 resonance and, based on our successful Spitzer observations, exhibit measurable transit timing variations (TTVs). Complete knowledge about their interactions will reveal constraints on the planets' masses, which is important because significant stellar activity makes RV mass measurements impractical. We propose to continue measuring precise transit times of K2-21b and K2-21c with Spitzer and combine that information with existing K2 timing constraints to determine their masses. Understanding the planets' masses is a critical, first step to ultimately determining their atmospheric compositions and internal structures. These planets will provide an excellent test to current statistical arguments that suggest there is a turning point in composition from rocky, true-to-name super-Earths to volatile-rich sub-Neptunes in the range of 1.5 - 2 Earth-radii.

Physical Samples Linked Data in Action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, P.; Arko, R. A.; Lehnert, K.; Bristol, S.

2017-12-01

Most data and metadata related to physical samples currently reside in isolated relational databases driven by diverse data models. How to approach the challenge for sharing, interchanging and integrating data from these difference relational databases motivated us to publish Linked Open Data for collections of physical samples, using Semantic Web technologies including the Resource Description Framework (RDF), RDF Query Language (SPARQL), and Web Ontology Language (OWL). In last few years, we have released four knowledge graphs concentrated on physical samples, including System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR), USGS National Geochemical Database (NGDC), Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), and Earthchem Database. Currently the four knowledge graphs contain over 12 million facets (triples) about objects of interest to the geoscience domain. Choosing appropriate domain ontologies for representing context of data is the core of the whole work. Geolink ontology developed by Earthcube Geolink project was used as top level to represent common concepts like person, organization, cruise, etc. Physical sample ontology developed by Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA) and Darwin Core vocabulary were used as second level to describe details about geological samples and biological diversity. We also focused on finding and building best tool chains to support the whole life cycle of publishing linked data we have, including information retrieval, linked data browsing and data visualization. Currently, Morph, Virtuoso Server, LodView, LodLive, and YASGUI were employed for converting, storing, representing, and querying data in a knowledge base (RDF triplestore). Persistent digital identifier is another main point we concentrated on. Open Researcher & Contributor IDs (ORCIDs), International Geo Sample Numbers (IGSNs), Global Research Identifier Database (GRID) and other persistent identifiers were used to link different resources from various graphs with person, sample, organization, cruise, etc. This work is supported by the EarthCube "GeoLink" project (NSF# ICER14-40221 and others) and the "USGS-IEDA Partnership to Support a Data Lifecycle Framework and Tools" project (USGS# G13AC00381).

A Statistical Approach to Illustrate the Challenge of Astrobiology for Public Outreach.

PubMed

Foucher, Frédéric; Hickman-Lewis, Keyron; Westall, Frances; Brack, André

2017-10-26

In this study, we attempt to illustrate the competition that constitutes the main challenge of astrobiology, namely the competition between the probability of extraterrestrial life and its detectability. To illustrate this fact, we propose a simple statistical approach based on our knowledge of the Universe and the Milky Way, the Solar System, and the evolution of life on Earth permitting us to obtain the order of magnitude of the distance between Earth and bodies inhabited by more or less evolved past or present life forms, and the consequences of this probability for the detection of associated biosignatures. We thus show that the probability of the existence of evolved extraterrestrial forms of life increases with distance from the Earth while, at the same time, the number of detectable biosignatures decreases due to technical and physical limitations. This approach allows us to easily explain to the general public why it is very improbable to detect a signal of extraterrestrial intelligence while it is justified to launch space probes dedicated to the search for microbial life in the Solar System.

The Importance of Earth Observations and Data Collaboration within Environmental Intelligence Supporting Arctic Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Casas, Joseph

2017-01-01

Within the IARPC Collaboration Team activities of 2016, Arctic in-situ and remote earth observations advanced topics such as :1) exploring the role for new and innovative autonomous observing technologies in the Arctic; 2) advancing catalytic national and international community based observing efforts in support of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region; and 3) enhancing the use of discovery tools for observing system collaboration such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Arctic Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project geo reference visualization decision support and exploitation internet based tools. Critical to the success of these earth observations for both in-situ and remote systems is the emerging of new and innovative data collection technologies and comprehensive modeling as well as enhanced communications and cyber infrastructure capabilities which effectively assimilate and dissemination many environmental intelligence products in a timely manner. The Arctic Collaborative Environment (ACE) project is well positioned to greatly enhance user capabilities for accessing, organizing, visualizing, sharing and producing collaborative knowledge for the Arctic.

A Statistical Approach to Illustrate the Challenge of Astrobiology for Public Outreach

PubMed Central

Westall, Frances; Brack, André

2017-01-01

In this study, we attempt to illustrate the competition that constitutes the main challenge of astrobiology, namely the competition between the probability of extraterrestrial life and its detectability. To illustrate this fact, we propose a simple statistical approach based on our knowledge of the Universe and the Milky Way, the Solar System, and the evolution of life on Earth permitting us to obtain the order of magnitude of the distance between Earth and bodies inhabited by more or less evolved past or present life forms, and the consequences of this probability for the detection of associated biosignatures. We thus show that the probability of the existence of evolved extraterrestrial forms of life increases with distance from the Earth while, at the same time, the number of detectable biosignatures decreases due to technical and physical limitations. This approach allows us to easily explain to the general public why it is very improbable to detect a signal of extraterrestrial intelligence while it is justified to launch space probes dedicated to the search for microbial life in the Solar System. PMID:29072614

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Dr. Robert Goddard's tower for "static" test near the shop at Roswell, New Mexico, 1930. The observation shelter (left foreground) is visible. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Beyond Earth's Boundaries: Human Exploration of the Solar System in the 21st Century. 1988 Annual Report to the Administrator.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC. Office of Exploration.

In June 1987, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator established the Office of Exploration in response to a national need for a long-term goal to energize the civilian space program and stimulate the development of new technology. This document describes work accomplished in developing the knowledge base that will…

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Tail piece, with fixed movable air vanes, and vanes movable into the blast, of Dr. Robert Goddard's rocket, May 19, 1937. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Using Information and Knowledge Required In Assessment and Management Applications for Sustainability

Treesearch

Albert Abee

2006-01-01

A broader concept of sustainability was introduced. Ted Heintz introduced the concept of sustainability as a life sustaining property of earth’s biosphere. Ted observed that Life in a wide variety of forms, interacting in networks of evolving relationships, has been sustained for nearly 4 billion years. Sustainability is a property of the system as a whole, a result of...

WWC Review of the Report "Conceptualizing Astronomical Scale: Virtual Simulations on Handheld Tablet Computers Reverse Misconceptions." What Works Clearinghouse Single Study Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

2014-01-01

The 2014 study, "Conceptualizing Astronomical Scale: Virtual Simulations on Handheld Tablet Computers Reverse Misconceptions," examined the effects of using the true-to-scale (TTS) display mode versus the orrery display mode in the iPad's Solar Walk software application on students' knowledge of the Earth's place in the solar system. The…

Earth Adventure: Virtual Globe-based Suborbital Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Y.; Landolt, K.; Boyer, A.; Santhana Vannan, S. K.; Wei, Z.; Wang, E.

2016-12-01

The Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS) mission is an important component of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program that aims at making substantial advances in Earth system science through measurements from suborbital platforms and modeling researches. For example, the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) project of EVS-1 collected measurements of greenhouse gases (GHG) on local to regional scales in the Alaskan Arctic. The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport - America (ACT-America) project of EVS-2 will provide advanced, high-resolution measurements of atmospheric profiles and horizontal gradients of CO2 and CH4.As the long-term archival center for CARVE and the future ACT-America data, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) has been developing a versatile data management system for CARVE data to maximize their usability. One of these efforts is the virtual globe-based Suborbital Atmospheric GHG Exploration application. It leverages Google Earth to simulate the 185 flights flew by the C-23 Sherpa aircraft in 2012-2015 for the CARVE project. Based on Google Earth's 3D modeling capability and the precise coordinates, altitude, pitch, roll, and heading info of the aircraft recorded in every second during each flight, the application provides users accurate and vivid simulation of flight experiences, with an active 3D visualization of a C-23 Sherpa aircraft in view. This application provides dynamic visualization of GHG, including CO2, CO, H2O, and CH4 captured during the flights, at the same pace of the flight simulation in Google Earth. Photos taken during those flights are also properly displayed along the flight paths. In the future, this application will be extended to incorporate more complicated GHG measurements (e.g. vertical profiles) from the ACT-America project. This application leverages virtual globe technology to provide users an integrated framework to interactively explore information about GHG measurements and to link scientific measurements to the rich virtual planet environment provided by Google Earth. Positive feedbacks have been received from users. It provides a good example of extending basic data visualization into a knowledge discovery experience and maximizing the usability of Earth science observations.

Assessing Gains in Science Teaching Self-Efficacy after Completing an Inquiry-Based Earth Science Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Kyle

2017-01-01

Preservice elementary teachers are often required to take an Earth Science content course as part of their teacher education program but typically enter the course with little knowledge of key Earth Science concepts and are uncertain in their ability to teach science. This study investigated whether completing an inquiry-based Earth Science course…

Astrobiology and the Possibility of Life on Earth and Elsewhere…

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cottin, Hervé; Kotler, Julia Michelle; Bartik, Kristin; Cleaves, H. James; Cockell, Charles S.; de Vera, Jean-Pierre P.; Ehrenfreund, Pascale; Leuko, Stefan; Ten Kate, Inge Loes; Martins, Zita; Pascal, Robert; Quinn, Richard; Rettberg, Petra; Westall, Frances

2017-07-01

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field not only focused on the search of extraterrestrial life, but also on deciphering the key environmental parameters that have enabled the emergence of life on Earth. Understanding these physical and chemical parameters is fundamental knowledge necessary not only for discovering life or signs of life on other planets, but also for understanding our own terrestrial environment. Therefore, astrobiology pushes us to combine different perspectives such as the conditions on the primitive Earth, the physicochemical limits of life, exploration of habitable environments in the Solar System, and the search for signatures of life in exoplanets. Chemists, biologists, geologists, planetologists and astrophysicists are contributing extensively to this interdisciplinary research field. From 2011 to 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) had the initiative to gather a Topical Team of interdisciplinary scientists focused on astrobiology to review the profound transformations in the field that have occurred since the beginning of the new century. The present paper is an interdisciplinary review of current research in astrobiology, covering the major advances and main outlooks in the field. The following subjects will be reviewed and most recent discoveries will be highlighted: the new understanding of planetary system formation including the specificity of the Earth among the diversity of planets, the origin of water on Earth and its unique combined properties among solvents for the emergence of life, the idea that the Earth could have been habitable during the Hadean Era, the inventory of endogenous and exogenous sources of organic matter and new concepts about how chemistry could evolve towards biological molecules and biological systems. In addition, many new findings show the remarkable potential life has for adaptation and survival in extreme environments. All those results from different fields of science are guiding our perspectives and strategies to look for life in other Solar System objects as well as beyond, in extrasolar worlds.

Teacher Directed Design: Content Knowledge, Pedagogy and Assessment under the Nevada K-12 Real-Time Seismic Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cantrell, P.; Ewing-Taylor, J.; Crippen, K. J.; Smith, K. D.; Snelson, C. M.

2004-12-01

Education professionals and seismologists under the emerging SUN (Shaking Up Nevada) program are leveraging the existing infrastructure of the real-time Nevada K-12 Seismic Network to provide a unique inquiry based science experience for teachers. The concept and effort are driven by teacher needs and emphasize rigorous content knowledge acquisition coupled with the translation of that knowledge into an integrated seismology based earth sciences curriculum development process. We are developing a pedagogical framework, graduate level coursework, and materials to initiate the SUN model for teacher professional development in an effort to integrate the research benefits of real-time seismic data with science education needs in Nevada. A component of SUN is to evaluate teacher acquisition of qualified seismological and earth science information and pedagogy both in workshops and in the classroom and to assess the impact on student achievement. SUN's mission is to positively impact earth science education practices. With the upcoming EarthScope initiative, the program is timely and will incorporate EarthScope real-time seismic data (USArray) and educational materials in graduate course materials and teacher development programs. A number of schools in Nevada are contributing real-time data from both inexpensive and high-quality seismographs that are integrated with Nevada regional seismic network operations as well as the IRIS DMC. A powerful and unique component of the Nevada technology model is that schools can receive "stable" continuous live data feeds from 100's seismograph stations in Nevada, California and world (including live data from Earthworm systems and the IRIS DMC BUD - Buffer of Uniform Data). Students and teachers see their own networked seismograph station within a global context, as participants in regional and global monitoring. The robust real-time Internet communications protocols invoked in the Nevada network provide for local data acquisition, remote multi-channel data access, local time-series data management, interactive multi-window waveform display and time-series analysis with centralized meta-data control. Formally integrating educational seismology into the K-12 science curriculum with an overall "positive" impact to science education practices necessarily requires a collaborative effort between professional educators and seismologists yet driven exclusively by teacher needs.

Space research with intact organisms: The role of Space Station Freedom

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Phillips, Robert W.; Haddy, Francis J.

1993-01-01

The study of intact organisms has provided biologists with a good working knowledge of most of the common organisms that have evolved in the 1 g environment of Earth. Reasonably accurate predictions can be made about organismal responses to most stimuli on Earth. To extend this knowledge to life without gravity, we must have access to the space environment for prolonged periods. Space Station Freedom will provide a facility with which to begin this type of research. Spaceflight research to date has been limited to relatively short-term exposures that have been informative but incomplete. This paper provides a brief background of known changes that have occurred in intact organisms in the space environment and proposes the kinds of experiments that are needed to expand our knowledge of life on Earth and in space.

Rewind, review, reflect and fast forward: from Ethics to GeoEthics.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marone, Eduardo

2017-04-01

Philosophy has as many definitions as philosophers but, at the end of the day, it is no more and no less than the science of thinking using the reason. It gives us tools for rationalizing, following logical paths and with a critical eye, to understand the material and immaterial substance of the universe. It has many branches, and a couple of them, Ethics and Epistemology, are central for the evolution of the human knowledge, among many others. Today, at the XXI Century, it seems that the lack of formal and adequate education on such important matters is making the act of "thinking" not so important when compared with the accumulation of "information", right or wrong, pasteurized or in disconnected pieces, with no much room/time for critical and logical analysis (Philosophy). If the tools to build the knowledge (Epistemology) are not usually familiar to the scientists and, worst, the need of taking the right actions with the generated new and existing knowledge (Ethics) is not a priority; the outputs cannot be the best ones. There have been several academic works and meetings looking into the causes of the scholarly illiteracy on Ethics and Epistemology in Earth Sciences. Among them, our sessions at EGU have endured showing important aspects that need to be tackled and, particularly, insisting in the fact that it is a continuous effort. However, we still need to go back (Rewind) to the main principles of Philosophy, Epistemology and Ethics, looking at them with care (Review), and think (Reflecting) returning to the present (Fast Forward) to make the world better for future generations. Geoethics consists of research and reflection on the values that underpin appropriate behaviours and practices, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system. Although more general ethical issues, which affect other/all sciences practices and behaviours, are included among the Geoethic concerns (as plagiarism, harassment, gender equity, etc.), the focus remains at the Human-Earth interactions. That implies in a lot of logical thinking, the use of the reason and the critical eye, founded on the philosophical and scientific knowledge humanity has developed along thousands of years. In the education process, the "training" to think, with logic and reason based, should be given since childhood, respecting all the learning ages and constructing a better human being, truly aware of her/his ethical duties. An ethical behaviour is constructed systematically, not created in one semester course or so, and it is not enough if reduced to following consensual rules (deontology), but it is only true when a mandate of our conscience is the reason that move us, fully convinced by the reason, to walk the right behaviour. Learning to think logically, with the reason and based in the best Earth Sciences knowledge, after arriving at the university will not be, probably, enough. Otherwise, when confronted with ethical dilemmas in the practice of our profession, we will not be truthfully prepared to offer reliable scientific support to society, in a proper ethical way, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system.

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland is the largest valley glacier in the Alps. Its volume loss since the middle of the 19th century is well-visible from the trimlines to the right of the image. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Frank Paul, University of Zurich NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Swedish Delegation Visits NASA Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Swedish Delegation Visits GSFC – May 3, 2017 - Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences listen to Dr. Compton Tucker’s presentation on NASA’s earth science research activities in the Piers Sellers Visualization Theatre in Building 28 at NASA Goddard. Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth Read more: go.nasa.gov/2p1rP0h NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Swedish Delegation Visits NASA Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Swedish Delegation Visits GSFC – May 3, 2017 - Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences listen to Dr. Compton Tucker’s presentation on NASA’s earth science research activities in the Piers Sellers Visualization Theatre in Building 28 at NASA Goddard. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Bill Hrybyk Read more: go.nasa.gov/2p1rP0h NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Stepping Stones: Evolving the Earth and Its Life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKay, Christopher P.

In recent years, science has begun to consider more system-level studies that cross disciplines. These studies challenge our traditional disciplinary training. It is no longer enough to be just a geologist when the problems of interest deal with an entire planet. Indeed, a knowledge of biology, geology astronomy, and myriad subfields is needed. In Stepping Stones, Stephen Drury steps up to the daunting task of writing a general treatment of the science of the entire Earth. He not only ranges through all of the relevant physical sciences but also reaches to economics and political theory. The material is presented at a general level with reading lists but no specific references. Equations have been minimized.

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-09

Propulsion engineer measures the flight filters during the receiving inspection. Learn more about MMS at www.nasa.gov/mms Credit NASA/Goddard The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, will study how the sun and the Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect, an explosive process that can accelerate particles through space to nearly the speed of light. This process is called magnetic reconnection and can occur throughout all space. NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Comets as Messengers from the Early Solar System - Emerging Insights on Delivery of Water, Nitriles, and Organics to Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mumma, Michael J.; Charnley, Steven B.

2012-01-01

The question of exogenous delivery of water and organics to Earth and other young planets is of critical importance for understanding the origin of Earth's volatiles, and for assessing the possible existence of exo-planets similar to Earth. Viewed from a cosmic perspective, Earth is a dry planet, yet its oceans are enriched in deuterium by a large factor relative to nebular hydrogen and analogous isotopic enrichments in atmospheric nitrogen and noble gases are also seen. Why is this so? What are the implications for Mars? For icy Worlds in our Planetary System? For the existence of Earth-like exoplanets? An exogenous (vs. outgassed) origin for Earth's atmosphere is implied, and intense debate on the relative contributions of comets and asteroids continues - renewed by fresh models for dynamical transport in the protoplanetary disk, by revelations on the nature and diversity of volatile and rocky material within comets, and by the discovery of ocean-like water in a comet from the Kuiper Belt (cf., Mumma & Charnley 2011). Assessing the creation of conditions favorable to the emergence and sustenance of life depends critically on knowledge of the nature of the impacting bodies. Active comets have long been grouped according to their orbital properties, and this has proven useful for identifying the reservoir from which a given comet emerged (OC, KB) (Levison 1996). However, it is now clear that icy bodies were scattered into each reservoir from a range of nebular distances, and the comet populations in today's reservoirs thus share origins that are (in part) common. Comets from the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Disk reservoirs should have diverse composition, resulting from strong gradients in temperature and chemistry in the proto-planetary disk, coupled with dynamical models of early radial transport and mixing with later dispersion of the final cometary nuclei into the long-term storage reservoirs. The inclusion of material from the natal interstellar cloud is probable, for comets formed in the outer solar system.

City Lights of South America’s Atlantic Coast

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This image of part of the Atlantic coast of South America was acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite on the night of July 20, 2012. The image was made possible by the “day-night band” of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires, and reflected moonlight. “Nothing tells us more about the spread of humans across the Earth than city lights,” says Chris Elvidge, who leads the Earth Observation Group at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center. Named for satellite meteorology pioneer Verner Suomi, NPP flies over any given point on Earth's surface twice each day at roughly 1:30 a.m. and p.m. The polar-orbiting satellite flies 824 kilometers (512 miles) above the surface, sending its data once per orbit to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and continuously to local direct broadcast users distributed around the world. Suomi NPP is managed by NASA with operational support from NOAA and its Joint Polar Satellite System, which manages the satellite's ground system. NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using VIIRS Day-Night Band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Mike Carlowicz. Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS Credit: NASA Earth Observatory Click here to view all of the Earth at Night 2012 images Click here to read more about this image NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

NASA's Aqua Satellite Celebrates 10th Annivesary

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA's Aqua Satellite Celebrates 10th Anniversary The Aqua satellite mission has proved to be a major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) for its ability to gather unprecedented amounts of information on Earth’s water cycle, including measurements on water vapor, clouds, precipitation, ice, and snow. Aqua data has helped improve weather prediction, detection of forest fires, volcanic ash, and sandstorms. In addition, Aqua data have been used to detect and monitor such greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane, and to examine the energy imbalance at the top of the Earth's atmosphere and the various components of it. With these uses of Aqua data, scientists have been able to better understand our Earth over the course of the past ten years. Aqua is a major international Earth Science satellite mission centered at NASA. Launched on May 4, 2002, the satellite has six different Earth-observing instruments on board and is named for the large amount of information being obtained about water in the Earth system from its stream of approximately 89 Gigabytes of data a day. The water variables being measured include almost all elements of the water cycle and involve water in its liquid, solid, and vapor forms. Additional variables being measured include radiative energy fluxes, aerosols, vegetation cover on the land, phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter in the oceans, and air, land, and water temperatures. For more information about NASA's Aqua satellite, visit: aqua.nasa.gov ------------ Caption: Artist rendition of the NASA's Aqua satellite, which carries the MODIS and AIRS instruments. Credit: NASA NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

CME Cornucopia (May 11, 2012)

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-15

Nearly a dozen coronal mass ejections in less than four days (May 3-6, 2012) may serve as a reminder that the Sun is approaching its period of maximum activity, expected to peak next year. STEREO (Ahead) from its position over 100 degrees ahead of Earth, captured several major eruptions, with most of them heading way to the right (i.e., away from Earth). In these coronagraph images the Sun is represented by the white circle. The black occulting disk blocks out the Sun and some of the corona so that we can see the faint structures beyond that. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SOHO NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Controls on O2 Production in Cyanobacterial Mats and Implications for Earth's Oxygenation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dick, Gregory J.; Grim, Sharon L.; Klatt, Judith M.

2018-05-01

Cyanobacterial mats are widely assumed to have been globally significant hot spots of biogeochemistry and evolution during the Archean and Proterozoic, but little is known about their quantitative contributions to global primary productivity or Earth's oxygenation. Modern systems show that mat biogeochemistry is the outcome of concerted activities and intimate interactions between various microbial metabolisms. Emerging knowledge of the regulation of oxygenic and sulfide-driven anoxygenic photosynthesis by versatile cyanobacteria, and their interactions with sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria, highlights how ecological and geochemical processes can control O2 production in cyanobacterial mats in unexpected ways. This review explores such biological controls on O2 production. We argue that the intertwined effects of light availability, redox geochemistry, regulation and competition of microbial metabolisms, and biogeochemical feedbacks result in emergent properties of cyanobacterial mat communities that are all critical yet largely overlooked mechanisms to potentially explain the protracted nature of Earth's oxygenation.

Earth Eclipses the Sun

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Twice a year, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, has an eclipse season — a weeks-long period in which Earth blocks SDO’s view of the sun for part of each day. This footage captured by SDO on Feb. 15, 2017, shows one such eclipse. Earth’s edge appears fuzzy, rather than crisp, because the sun’s light is able to shine through Earth’s atmosphere in some places. These images were captured in wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, which is typically invisible to our eyes, but is colorized here in gold. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Reusing Joint Polar Satellite System (jpss) Ground System Components to Process AURA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (omi) Science Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moses, J. F.; Jain, P.; Johnson, J.; Doiron, J. A.

2017-12-01

New Earth observation instruments are planned to enable advancements in Earth science research over the next decade. Diversity of Earth observing instruments and their observing platforms will continue to increase as new instrument technologies emerge and are deployed as part of National programs such as Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system (GOES), Landsat as well as the potential for many CubeSat and aircraft missions. The practical use and value of these observational data often extends well beyond their original purpose. The practicing community needs intuitive and standardized tools to enable quick unfettered development of tailored products for specific applications and decision support systems. However, the associated data processing system can take years to develop and requires inherent knowledge and the ability to integrate increasingly diverse data types from multiple sources. This paper describes the adaptation of a large-scale data processing system built for supporting JPSS algorithm calibration and validation (Cal/Val) node to a simplified science data system for rapid application. The new configurable data system reuses scalable JAVA technologies built for the JPSS Government Resource for Algorithm Verification, Independent Test, and Evaluation (GRAVITE) system to run within a laptop environment and support product generation and data processing of AURA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) science products. Of particular interest are the root requirements necessary for integrating experimental algorithms and Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) data access libraries into a science data production system. This study demonstrates the ability to reuse existing Ground System technologies to support future missions with minimal changes.

Emerging technology becomes an opportunity for EOS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fargion, Giulietta S.; Harberts, Robert; Masek, Jeffrey G.

1996-11-01

During the last decade, we have seen an explosive growth in our ability to collect and generate data. When implemented, NASA's Earth observing system data information system (EOSDIS) will receive about 50 gigabytes of remotely sensed image data per hour. This will generate an urgent need for new techniques and tools that can automatically and intelligently assist in transforming this abundance of data into useful knowledge. Some emerging technologies that address these challenges include data mining and knowledge discovery in databases (KDD). The most basic data mining application is a content-based search (examples include finding images of particular meteorological phenomena or identifying data that have been previously mined or interpreted). In order that these technologies be effectively exploited for EOSDIS development, a better understanding of data mining and the requirements for using this technology is necessary. The authors are currently undertaking a project exploring the requirements and options of content-based search and data mining for use on EOSDIS. The scope of the project is to develop a prototype with which to investigate user interface concepts, requirements, and designs relevant for EOSDIS core system (ECS) subsystem utilizing these techniques. The goal is to identify a generic handling of these functions. This prototype will help identify opportunities which the earth science community and EOSDIS can use to meet the challenges of collecting, searching, retrieving, and interacting with abundant data resources in highly productive ways.

Earth Science Microwave Remote Sensing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Edward; Busalacchi, Antonio J. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) was established as NASA's first space flight center in 1959. Its 12,000 personnel are active in the Earth and space sciences, astronomy, space physics, tracking and communications. GSFC's mission is to expand our knowledge of the Earth and its environment, the solar system, and the universe through observations from space. The main Goddard campus is located in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, just north of Washington, D.C. The Wallops Flight Facility (operational since 1945), located on the Atlantic coast of Virginia was consolidated with the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1982. Wallops is now NASA's principal facility for management and implementation of suborbital research programs, and supports a wide variety of airborne science missions as well. As the lead Center for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE)--a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global environmental system--GSFC scientists and engineers are involved in a wide range of Earth Science remote sensing activities. Their activities range from basic geoscience research to the development of instruments and technology for space missions, as well as the associated Calibration/Validation (Cal/Val) work. The shear breadth of work in these areas precludes an exhaustive description here. Rather, this article presents selected brief overviews of microwave-related Earth Science applications and the ground-based, airborne, and space instruments that are in service, under development, or otherwise significantly involving GSFC. Likewise, contributing authors are acknowledged for each section, but the results and projects they describe represent the cumulative efforts of many persons at GSFC as well as at collaborating institutions. For further information, readers are encouraged to consult the listed websites and references.

Mochras Revisited: a new global standard for 25 million years of Jurassic Earth history - A drilling proposal for the International Continental Drilling Programme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hesselbo, Stephen; Bjerrum, Christian; Hinnov, Linda; Mac Niocaill, Conall; Miller, Kenneth; Riding, James; van de Schootbrugge, Bas; Wonik, Thomas

2014-05-01

The Early Jurassic Epoch (201.4 - 175 Ma) was a time of extreme environmental change. Through this period there are well-documented examples of rapid transitions from cold, or even glacial climates, through to super-greenhouse events, the latter characterized worldwide by hugely enhanced organic carbon burial, multiple large-magnitude isotopic anomalies, global sea-level changes, and mass extinctions. These events not only reflect changes in the global climate system but are also thought to have had significant influence on the evolution of Jurassic marine and terrestrial biota. Furthermore, the events may serve as analogues for present-day and future environmental transitions. Although our knowledge of specific global change events within the Early Jurassic is rapidly improving, a prime case-in-point being the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (or T-OAE), we have neither documented all the events, nor do we have a comprehensive understanding of their timing, pacing, or triggers. A key factor contributing to our fragmentary knowledge is the scattered and discontinuous nature of the existing datasets. The major goal for this proposed ICDP project is therefore to produce a new global standard for these key 25 million years of Earth history by re-drilling a 45 year old borehole at Mochras Farm on the edge of Cardigan Bay, Wales, and to develop an integrated stratigraphy for the cored material, as well as high-resolution proxy-records of environmental change. The new datasets will be applied to understand fundamental questions about the long- and short-term evolution of the Earth System.

Students Are Not Highly Familiar with Astronomy Concepts--But What about the Teachers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiroglu, Kasim

2015-01-01

This study aims to assess primary school teachers' knowledge of basic astronomy concepts, such as the sizes and shapes of, and the distances between, the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon, lunar and solar eclipses, and the motions of the Moon and the Earth. Out of a total of 1,533 teachers, 398 (26%) were reached and asked to take a knowledge test. On…

The Effects of Earth Science Textbook Contents on High School Students' Knowledge of, Attitude toward, and Behavior of Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chao, Yu-Long; Chou, Ying-Chyi; Yen, Hsin-Yi; Chen, Shr-Jya

2017-01-01

As science textbooks are considered as one of the major source of climate change information of students, this study aims to examine the differences in energy saving and carbon reduction knowledge, attitude, and behavior between two groups of Taiwan's high school students using earth science textbooks of two different publishers. Some items of…

Undergraduate students' earth science learning: relationships among conceptions, approaches, and learning self-efficacy in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Kuan-Ming; Lee, Min-Hsien; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Chang, Chun-Yen

2016-06-01

In the area of science education research, studies have attempted to investigate conceptions of learning, approaches to learning, and self-efficacy, mainly focusing on science in general or on specific subjects such as biology, physics, and chemistry. However, few empirical studies have probed students' earth science learning. This study aimed to explore the relationships among undergraduates' conceptions of, approaches to, and self-efficacy for learning earth science by adopting the structural equation modeling technique. A total of 268 Taiwanese undergraduates (144 females) participated in this study. Three instruments were modified to assess the students' conceptions of, approaches to, and self-efficacy for learning earth science. The results indicated that students' conceptions of learning made a significant contribution to their approaches to learning, which were consequently correlated with their learning self-efficacy. More specifically, students with stronger agreement that learning earth science involves applying the knowledge and skills learned to unknown problems were prone to possess higher confidence in learning earth science. Moreover, students viewing earth science learning as understanding earth science knowledge were more likely to adopt meaningful strategies to learn earth science, and hence expressed a higher sense of self-efficacy. Based on the results, practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Cross-Cutting Interoperability in an Earth Science Collaboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lynnes, Christopher; Ramachandran, Rahul; Kuo, Kuo-Sen

2011-01-01

An Earth Science Collaboratory is: A rich data analysis environment with: (1) Access to a wide spectrum of Earth Science data, (3) A diverse set of science analysis services and tools, (4) A means to collaborate on data, tools and analysis, and (5)Supports sharing of data, tools, results and knowledge

CRI planning and scheduling for space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aarup, Mads

1994-01-01

Computer Resources International (CRI) has many years of experience in developing space planning and scheduling systems for the European Space Agency. Activities range from AIT/AIV planning over mission planning to research in on-board autonomy using advanced planning and scheduling technologies in conjunction with model based diagnostics. This article presents four projects carried out for ESA by CRI with various subcontractors: (1) DI, Distributed Intelligence for Ground/Space Systems is an on-going research project; (2) GMPT, Generic Mission Planning Toolset, a feasibility study concluded in 1993; (3) OPTIMUM-AIV, Open Planning Tool for AIV, development of a knowledge based AIV planning and scheduling tool ended in 1992; and (4) PlanERS-1, development of an AI and knowledge-based mission planning prototype for the ERS-1 earth observation spacecraft ended in 1991.

Application of artificial intelligence in Geodesy - A review of theoretical foundations and practical examples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reiterer, Alexander; Egly, Uwe; Vicovac, Tanja; Mai, Enrico; Moafipoor, Shahram; Grejner-Brzezinska, Dorota A.; Toth, Charles K.

2010-12-01

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the key technologies in many of today's novel applications. It is used to add knowledge and reasoning to systems. This paper illustrates a review of AI methods including examples of their practical application in Geodesy like data analysis, deformation analysis, navigation, network adjustment, and optimization of complex measurement procedures. We focus on three examples, namely, a geo-risk assessment system supported by a knowledge-base, an intelligent dead reckoning personal navigator, and evolutionary strategies for the determination of Earth gravity field parameters. Some of the authors are members of IAG Sub-Commission 4.2 - Working Group 4.2.3, which has the main goal to study and report on the application of AI in Engineering Geodesy.

The Race To Understand A Changing Planet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sellers, Piers J.

2012-01-01

The Earth's climate is changing rapidly. In some respects, the rate of change is outpacing the predictions of only a few years ago. The challenge to Earth Science is to put forward credible projections of possible future climates so that the public and policy makers can make science-based decisions about energy development strategies. Models, observations and experiments all play strong roles in improving knowledge and increasing confidence in our predictions. The models have progressed from simple, coarse-resolution descriptions of atmospheric dynamics and physics only twenty years ago, to full-up Earth System models (ESMs) that include complete descriptions of the oceans and cryosphere. It has been convincingly argued that such complexity - the construction of realistic "toy" Earth's - is necessary to address the complex processes involved in climate change, including not only the physical atmosphere, oceans and cryosphere, but also the carbon cycle - both its natural and anthropogenic components - and the biosphere. Observations, particularly satellite observations, have more or less kept pace with the demands of the modelers, being able to observe progressively more and different facets of the Earth system, but the global satellite fleet is in need of an overhaul very soon. Lastly, field experiments and process studies confront the models with facts and allow us to develop more sophisticated and accurate satellite data algorithms. The challenges facing our relatively small Earth and planetary science communities are considerable and the stakes are significant. The stakeholders, now numbering 7 billion but soon to be 10 billion, will be relying on our results and capabilitie's to guide them into the future.

The race to understand a changing planet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sellers, P. J.

2012-12-01

The Earth's climate is changing rapidly. In some respects, the rate of change is outpacing the predictions of only a few years ago. The challenge to Earth Science is to put forward credible projections of possible future climates so that the public and policy makers can make science-based decisions about energy development strategies. Models, observations and experiments all play strong roles in improving knowledge and increasing confidence in our predictions. The models have progressed from simple, coarse-resolution descriptions of atmospheric dynamics and physics only twenty years ago, to full-up Earth System models (ESMs) that include complete descriptions of the oceans and cryosphere. It has been convincingly argued that such complexity - the construction of realistic "toy" Earths - is necessary to address the complex processes involved in climate change, including not only the physical atmosphere, oceans and cryosphere, but also the carbon cycle - both its natural and anthropogenic components - and the biosphere. Observations, particularly satellite observations, have more or less kept pace with the demands of the modelers, being able to observe progressively more and different facets of the Earth system, but the global satellite fleet is in need of an overhaul very soon. Lastly, field experiments and process studies confront the models with facts and allow us to develop more sophisticated and accurate satellite data algorithms. The challenges facing our relatively small Earth and planetary science communities are considerable and the stakes are significant. The stakeholders, now numbering 7 billion but soon to be 10 billion, will be relying on our results and capabilities to guide them into the future.

Making Real Life Connections and Engaging High School Students as They Become Climate Detectives using data obtained through JOIDES Resolution Expedition 341

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chegwidden, D.; Mote, A. S.; Manley, J.; Ledley, T. S.; Haddad, N.; Ellins, K.; Lynds, S. E.

2016-02-01

Texas is a state that values and supports an Earth Science curriculum, and as an experienced educator in Texas, I find it crucial to educate my students about the various Ocean Science careers that exist and also be able to use the valuable data that is obtained in a core sample from the ocean floor. "Climate Detective" is an EarthLabs module that is supported by TERC and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 341. This module contains hands-on activities, many opportunities to interpret actual data from a core sample, and collaborative team skills to solve a problem. Through the module, students are able to make real connections with scientists when they understand various roles aboard the JOIDES Resolution. Students can also visually experience real-time research via live video streaming within the research vessel. In my classroom, the use of the "Climate Detective" not only establishes a beneficial relationship between teacher and marine scientists, but such access to the data also helps enhance the climate-related concepts and explanatory procedures involved in obtaining reports. Data is applied to a challenge question for all student groups to answer at the end of the module. This Project-based learning module emphasizes different forms of evidence and requires that learners apply different inquiry approaches to build the knowledge each one needs to acquire, as they become climate-literate citizens. My involvement with the EarthLabs project has strengthened my overall knowledge and confidence to teach about Earth's systems and climate change. In addition, this experience has led me to become an advocate who promotes vigorous classroom discussion among my students; additionally, I am encouraged to collaborate with other educators through the delivery of professional development across the state of Texas. Regularly, I connect with scientists in my classroom and such connection truly enriches not only my personal knowledge, but also provides a foundational understanding for my students.

The Earth System's Missing Energy and Land Warming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, S.; Wang, H.; Duan, W.

2013-05-01

The energy content of the Earth system is determined by the balance or imbalance between the incoming energy from solar radiation and the outgoing energy of terrestrial long wavelength radiation. Change in the Earth system energy budget is the ultimate cause of global climate change. Satellite data show that there is a small yet persistent radiation imbalance at the top-of-atmosphere such that Earth has been steadily accumulating energy, consistent with the theory of greenhouse effect. It is commonly believed [IPCC, 2001; 2007] that up to 94% of the energy trapped by anthropogenic greenhouse gases is absorbed by the upper several hundred meter thick layer of global oceans, with the remaining to accomplish ice melting, atmosphere heating, and land warming, etc. However, the recent measurements from ocean monitoring system indicated that the rate of oceanic heat uptake has not kept pace with the greenhouse heat trapping rate over the past years [Trenberth and Fasullo, Science, 328: 316-317, 2010]. An increasing amount of energy added to the earth system has become unaccounted for, or is missing. A recent study [Loeb et al., Nature Geoscience, 5:110-113, 2012] suggests that the missing energy may be located in the deep ocean down to 1,800 m. Here we show that at least part of the missing energy can be alternatively explained by the land mass warming. We argue that the global continents alone should have a share greater than 10% of the global warming energy. Although the global lands reflect solar energy at a higher rate, they use less energy for evaporation than do the oceans. Taken into accounts the terrestrial/oceanic differences in albedo (34% vs. 28%) and latent heat (27% vs. 58% of net solar radiation at the surface), the radiative energy available per unit surface area for storage or other internal processes is more abundant on land than on ocean. Despite that the lands cover only about 29% of the globe, the portion of global warming energy stored in the lands is much greater than previously thought. The earth system is consisted of well-connected and interdependent atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. The lack of knowledge about or misrepresentation of the role of the heat capacity of the continental land masses will inevitably affect our ability to understand Earth's climate response to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Baltic Earth - Earth System Science for the Baltic Sea Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, Markus; Rutgersson, Anna; Lehmann, Andreas; Reckermann, Marcus

2014-05-01

The Baltic Sea region, defined as its river catchment basin, spans different climate and population zones, from a temperate, highly populated, industrialized south with intensive agriculture to a boreal, rural north. It encompasses most of the Scandinavian Peninsula in the west; most of Finland and parts of Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic states in the east; and Poland and small parts of Germany and Denmark in the south. The region represents an old cultural landscape, and the Baltic Sea itself is among the most studied sea areas of the world. Baltic Earth is the new Earth system research network for the Baltic Sea region. It is the successor to BALTEX, which was terminated in June 2013 after 20 years and two successful phases. Baltic Earth stands for the vision to achieve an improved Earth system understanding of the Baltic Sea region. This means that the research disciplines of BALTEX continue to be relevant, i.e. atmospheric and climate sciences, hydrology, oceanography and biogeochemistry, but a more holistic view of the Earth system encompassing processes in the atmosphere, on land and in the sea as well as in the anthroposphere shall gain in importance in Baltic Earth. Specific grand research challenges have been formulated, representing interdisciplinary research questions to be tackled in the coming years. A major means will be scientific assessments of particular research topics by expert groups, similar to the BACC approach, which shall help to identify knowledge gaps and develop research strategies. Preliminary grand challenges and topics for which Working Groups have been installed include: • Salinity dynamics in the Baltic Sea • Land-Sea biogeochemical feedbacks in the Baltic Sea region • Natural hazards and extreme events in the Baltic Sea region • Understanding sea level dynamics in the Baltic Sea • Understanding regional variability of water and energy exchange • Utility of Regional Climate Models • Assessment of Scenario Simulations for the Baltic Sea 1960-2100 • Outreach and Communication • Education The issue of anthropogenic changes and impacts on the Earth system of the Baltic Sea region is recognized as a major topic, and shall receive special attention. The intention of the "Outreach and Communication" and "Education" groups will be to initiate and design potential outreach activities and to provide an arena for scientific exchange and discussion around the Baltic Sea, to communicate findings and exchange views within the Baltic Earth research community internally and to other researchers and society, both professionals and non-professionals. A regular international Baltic Earth Summer School shall be established from 2015. There will be a strong continuity related to BALTEX in infrastructure (secretariat, conferences, publications) and the network (people and institutions).

Alignment of Content and Pedagogy in an Earth Systems Course for Pre-Service Middle School Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cole, T.; Teed, R.; Slattery, W.

2006-12-01

In 2003 the Ohio Department of Education developed the Ohio K-12 Science Content Standards. These new science standards substantially tracked the goals and objectives of The National Research Council's National Science Education Standards. The Ohio K-12 Science Content Standards followed the National Standards in the content areas of Physical Science, Life Science and Earth and Space Science. At the same time, the state's K-12 schools were gearing up for a new high school graduation requirement, the successful passing of a high-stakes Ohio Graduation Test, given during a student's tenth grade year. Earth and Space science questions make up approximately one third of the science test items. To make it more likely that teachers have the requisite science content knowledge Ohio has recently changed from certification of K-12 teachers to a more content rich licensure standard. This new licensure requirement splits the older certification designation of K-8 into the elementary and middle school licensure areas. Under the new licensure requirements middle school licensure candidates wishing to earn a science concentration now have to take 15 semester hours of content class work in Science. The Ohio Department of Education has strongly suggested that teacher preparation institutions develop new courses for middle school educators in all four areas of concentration, including science. In response to this call for new courses science education faculty in all science areas worked together to develop a comprehensive suite of courses that would target the science content standards guidelines in the state and national standards. The newly developed Earth and Space science course is titled Earth Systems. The course carries 4.5quarter hours of credit and is intended expressly for pre-service middle school (grades 4- 9) science teachers. The content is structured around three modules of study that are designed to develop interdisciplinary science content within the context of past, present and future Earth Systems science. Because the course is created for pre-service teachers, the class models the jigsaw teaching technique, an effective and age-appropriate method of science instruction. This enables pre-service teachers to experience a technique they can use in their own classroom. Course content is aligned with all state and national 4-10 Earth/Space Science standards, which supports pre- service Middle School Science teachers by covering the content areas tested in the Praxis Middle School Science test, a requirement for graduation with licensure from Wright State University. It also helps the pre- service teachers gain experience with the content that they will need to teach to their K-12 students, so they will be able to pass the high-stakes Ohio Graduation Test. Assessment of the Earth Systems course suggests that the course leads to increased science content knowledge that leads to success in passing the Praxis Middle Childhood Science Test, and that the pedagogy modeled in the course is used by the pre- service teachers in their own K-12 teaching upon graduation.

DECADE Web Portal: Integrating MaGa, EarthChem and GVP Will Further Our Knowledge on Earth Degassing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardellini, C.; Frigeri, A.; Lehnert, K. A.; Ash, J.; McCormick, B.; Chiodini, G.; Fischer, T. P.; Cottrell, E.

2014-12-01

The release of gases from the Earth's interior to the exosphere takes place in both volcanic and non-volcanic areas of the planet. Fully understanding this complex process requires the integration of geochemical, petrological and volcanological data. At present, major online data repositories relevant to studies of degassing are not linked and interoperable. We are developing interoperability between three of those, which will support more powerful synoptic studies of degassing. The three data systems that will make their data accessible via the DECADE portal are: (1) the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program database (GVP) of volcanic activity data, (2) EarthChem databases for geochemical and geochronological data of rocks and melt inclusions, and (3) the MaGa database (Mapping Gas emissions) which contains compositional and flux data of gases released at volcanic and non-volcanic degassing sites. These databases are developed and maintained by institutions or groups of experts in a specific field, and data are archived in formats specific to these databases. In the framework of the Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), we are developing a web portal that will create a powerful search engine of these databases from a single entry point. The portal will return comprehensive multi-component datasets, based on the search criteria selected by the user. For example, a single geographic or temporal search will return data relating to compositions of emitted gases and erupted products, the age of the erupted products, and coincident activity at the volcano. The development of this level of capability for the DECADE Portal requires complete synergy between these databases, including availability of standard-based web services (WMS, WFS) at all data systems. Data and metadata can thus be extracted from each system without interfering with each database's local schema or being replicated to achieve integration at the DECADE web portal. The DECADE portal will enable new synoptic perspectives on the Earth degassing process. Other data systems can be easily plugged in using the existing framework. Our vision is to explore Earth degassing related datasets over previously unexplored spatial or temporal ranges.

Disuse of the musculo-skeletal system in space and on earth.

PubMed

Narici, M V; de Boer, M D

2011-03-01

Muscle mass and strength are well known to decline in response to actual and simulated microgravity exposure. However, despite the considerable knowledge gained on the physiological changes induced by spaceflight, the mechanisms of muscle atrophy and the effectiveness of in-flight countermeasures still need to be fully elucidated. The present review examines the effects and mechanisms of actual and simulated microgravity on single fibre and whole muscle structural and functional properties, protein metabolism, tendon mechanical properties, neural drive and reflex excitability. The effects of inflight countermeasures are also discussed in the light of recent advances in resistive loading techniques, in combined physical, pharmacological and nutritional interventions as well as in the development of artificial gravity systems. Emphasis has been given to the pioneering work of Pietro Enrico di Prampero in the development of artificial gravity systems and in the progress of knowledge on the limits of human muscular performance in space.

Most Amazing High Definition Image of Earth - Blue Marble 2012

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

January 25, 2012 *Updated February 2, 2012: According to Flickr, "The western hemisphere Blue Marble 2012 image has rocketed up to over 3.1 million views making it one of the all time most viewed images on the site after only one week." A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin. Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth. Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS. To read more about NASA's Suomi NPP go to: www.nasa.gov/npp Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

IEDA Thesaurus: A Controlled Vocabulary for IEDA Systems to Advance Integration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, P.; Lehnert, K. A.; Arko, R. A.; Song, L.; Hsu, L.; Carter, M. R.; Ferrini, V. L.; Ash, J.

2014-12-01

Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA) is a community-based facility that serves to support, sustain, and advance the geosciences by providing data services for observational geoscience data from the Ocean, Earth, and Polar Sciences. Many dedicated systems such as the Petrological Database (PetDB), Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS), System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR), Data Coordination Center for the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP-DCC), etc., under the umbrella of the IEDA framework, were developed to support the preservation, discovery, retrieval, and analysis of a wide range of observational field and analytical data types from diverse communities. However, it is currently difficult to maintain consistency of indexing content within IEDA schema, and perform unified or precise searching of the data in these diverse systems as each system maintains separate vocabularies, hierarchies, authority files, or sub taxonomies. We present here the IEDA Thesaurus, a system, which combines existing separate controlled vocabularies from the different systems under the IEDA schema into a single master controlled vocabulary, also introducing some new top facets for future long-term use. The IEDA thesaurus contains structured terminology for petrology, geochemistry, sedimentology, oceanography, geochronology, and volcanology, and other general metadata fields. 18 top facets (also called 'top categories') are defined, including equipment, geographic gazetteer, geologic ages, geologic units, materials, etc. The terms of the thesaurus are cross validated with others popular geoscience vocabularies such as GeoRef Thesaurus, U.S. Geological Survey Library Classification System, Global Change Master Directory (GCMD), and Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET) ontologies. The thesaurus is organized along with the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, and is published using Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) format. The IEDA thesaurus server provides classic web semantic features such as SPARQL, RESTful web services, and unique URI based on open source technologies.

Human impact on the planet: an earth system science perspective and ethical considerations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, Richard S.

2002-01-01

The modern Earth Narrative, the scientific story of the 4.5 billion-year natural and human history of the Earth, has emerged from the solid foundation of two factual concepts: Deep (or Geologic) Time and Biological Evolution. spread acceptance of the Earth Narrative is critically important as we begin the third millennium, because it provides a clear understanding of the growing impact of human population growth and associated activities on the Earth System, especially the negative impact on Earth?s biosphere. It is important for humans to realize that we are but one of 4,500 species of mammals that exist on Earth and that we are but one species in the estimated 30 to 100 million species that form the complex biosphere. We also need to recognize that all species exist within the physical limits imposed by the geosphere. We are totally dependent on the biosphere for food, oxygen, and other necessities of life. mans are one of the latest results of biological evolution operating over a long period of Geologic Time. We find ourselves on Earth, after 4.5 billion years of Earth history by chance, not by design. Humans have become so successful at modifying their environment that many of the natural limitations on the expansion of populations of our fellow animals have been overcome by technological and cultural innovations. According to Peter Raven, ?Humans, at a current population of 6 billion [expected to nearly double by 2050], are consuming or wasting about 50 percent of the total net biological productivity on land and 50 percent of the available supply of freshwater. The overwhelming and expanding human presence leaves less and less room in the environment for other biota.? st century will be a pivotal time in the fate of Earth?s biosphere. Whereas human modification of the geosphere will slowly recover over time, human changes to the biosphere are a far more consequential matter? extinction of a species is forever! Will humans effectively use our new knowledge of natural and human history to stop further degradation of Earth?s ecosystems and extinction of its biota? The fate of the biosphere, including humanity, depends on a reaffirmation by all humans of all cultures and religions of the global importance of a planet-wide conservation of the Earth?s biotic heritage. For the world?s religions it means elevation of stewardship of the Earth to a moral imperative and a goal of complete preservation of the Earth?s biotic inheritance, one which is based on a Do No Harm ethic.

Earth Science Data Analytics: Preparing for Extracting Knowledge from Information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kempler, Steven; Barbieri, Lindsay

2016-01-01

Data analytics is the process of examining large amounts of data of a variety of types to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations and other useful information. Data analytics is a broad term that includes data analysis, as well as an understanding of the cognitive processes an analyst uses to understand problems and explore data in meaningful ways. Analytics also include data extraction, transformation, and reduction, utilizing specific tools, techniques, and methods. Turning to data science, definitions of data science sound very similar to those of data analytics (which leads to a lot of the confusion between the two). But the skills needed for both, co-analyzing large amounts of heterogeneous data, understanding and utilizing relevant tools and techniques, and subject matter expertise, although similar, serve different purposes. Data Analytics takes on a practitioners approach to applying expertise and skills to solve issues and gain subject knowledge. Data Science, is more theoretical (research in itself) in nature, providing strategic actionable insights and new innovative methodologies. Earth Science Data Analytics (ESDA) is the process of examining, preparing, reducing, and analyzing large amounts of spatial (multi-dimensional), temporal, or spectral data using a variety of data types to uncover patterns, correlations and other information, to better understand our Earth. The large variety of datasets (temporal spatial differences, data types, formats, etc.) invite the need for data analytics skills that understand the science domain, and data preparation, reduction, and analysis techniques, from a practitioners point of view. The application of these skills to ESDA is the focus of this presentation. The Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Federation Earth Science Data Analytics (ESDA) Cluster was created in recognition of the practical need to facilitate the co-analysis of large amounts of data and information for Earth science. Thus, from a to advance science point of view: On the continuum of ever evolving data management systems, we need to understand and develop ways that allow for the variety of data relationships to be examined, and information to be manipulated, such that knowledge can be enhanced, to facilitate science. Recognizing the importance and potential impacts of the unlimited ways to co-analyze heterogeneous datasets, now and especially in the future, one of the objectives of the ESDA cluster is to facilitate the preparation of individuals to understand and apply needed skills to Earth science data analytics. Pinpointing and communicating the needed skills and expertise is new, and not easy. Information technology is just beginning to provide the tools for advancing the analysis of heterogeneous datasets in a big way, thus, providing opportunity to discover unobvious scientific relationships, previously invisible to the science eye. And it is not easy It takes individuals, or teams of individuals, with just the right combination of skills to understand the data and develop the methods to glean knowledge out of data and information. In addition, whereas definitions of data science and big data are (more or less) available (summarized in Reference 5), Earth science data analytics is virtually ignored in the literature, (barring a few excellent sources).

Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI): facing the challenges and pathways of global change in the twenty-first century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Groisman, Pavel; Shugart, Herman; Kicklighter, David; Henebry, Geoffrey; Tchebakova, Nadezhda; Maksyutov, Shamil; Monier, Erwan; Gutman, Garik; Gulev, Sergey; Qi, Jiaguo; Prishchepov, Alexander; Kukavskaya, Elena; Porfiriev, Boris; Shiklomanov, Alexander; Loboda, Tatiana; Shiklomanov, Nikolay; Nghiem, Son; Bergen, Kathleen; Albrechtová, Jana; Chen, Jiquan; Shahgedanova, Maria; Shvidenko, Anatoly; Speranskaya, Nina; Soja, Amber; de Beurs, Kirsten; Bulygina, Olga; McCarty, Jessica; Zhuang, Qianlai; Zolina, Olga

2017-12-01

During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments must now be secured through science-based strategies co-designed with regional decision-makers to lead their societies to prosperity in the face of environmental and institutional challenges. NEESPI scientific research, data, and models have created a solid knowledge base to support the NEFI program. This paper presents the NEFI research vision consensus based on that knowledge. It provides the reader with samples of recent accomplishments in regional studies and formulates new NEFI science questions. To address these questions, nine research foci are identified and their selections are briefly justified. These foci include warming of the Arctic; changing frequency, pattern, and intensity of extreme and inclement environmental conditions; retreat of the cryosphere; changes in terrestrial water cycles; changes in the biosphere; pressures on land use; changes in infrastructure; societal actions in response to environmental change; and quantification of Northern Eurasia's role in the global Earth system. Powerful feedbacks between the Earth and human systems in Northern Eurasia (e.g., mega-fires, droughts, depletion of the cryosphere essential for water supply, retreat of sea ice) result from past and current human activities (e.g., large-scale water withdrawals, land use, and governance change) and potentially restrict or provide new opportunities for future human activities. Therefore, we propose that integrated assessment models are needed as the final stage of global change assessment. The overarching goal of this NEFI modeling effort will enable evaluation of economic decisions in response to changing environmental conditions and justification of mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Earth science information: Planning for the integration and use of global change information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lousma, Jack R.

1992-01-01

Activities and accomplishments of the first six months of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN's) 1992 technical program have focused on four main missions: (1) the development and implementation of plans for initiation of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) as part of the EOSDIS Program; (2) the pursuit and development of a broad-based global change information cooperative by providing systems analysis and integration between natural science and social science data bases held by numerous federal agencies and other sources; (3) the fostering of scientific research into the human dimensions of global change and providing integration between natural science and social science data and information; and (4) the serving of CIESIN as a gateway for global change data and information distribution through development of the Global Change Research Information Office and other comprehensive knowledge sharing systems.

FINESSE Spaceward Bound - Teacher Engagement in NASA Science and Exploration Field Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, A. J. P.; Heldmann, J. L.; Sheely, T.; Karlin, J.; Johnson, S.; Rosemore, A.; Hughes, S.; Nawotniak, S. Kobs; Lim, D. S. S.; Garry, W. B.

2016-01-01

The FINESSE (Field Investigations to Enable Solar System Science and Exploration) team of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is focused on a science and exploration field-based research program aimed at generating strategic knowledge in preparation for the human and robotic exploration of the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids, and the moons of Mars. The FINESSE science program is infused with leading edge exploration concepts since "science enables exploration and exploration enables science." The FINESSE education and public outreach program leverages the team's field investigations and educational partnerships to share the excitement of lunar, Near Earth Asteroid, and martian moon science and exploration locally, nationally, and internationally. The FINESSE education plan is in line with all of NASA's Science Mission Directorate science education objectives, particularly to enable STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and leverage efforts through partnerships.

Overview of aerothermodynamic loads definition study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gaugler, Raymond E.

1989-01-01

Over the years, NASA has been conducting the Advanced Earth-to-Orbit (AETO) Propulsion Technology Program to provide the knowledge, understanding, and design methodology that will allow the development of advanced Earth-to-orbit propulsion systems with high performance, extended service life, automated operations, and diagnostics for in-flight health monitoring. The objective of the Aerothermodynamic Loads Definition Study is to develop methods to more accurately predict the operating environment in AETO propulsion systems, such as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) powerhead. The approach taken consists of 2 parts: to modify, apply, and disseminate existing computational fluid dynamics tools in response to current needs and to develop new technology that will enable more accurate computation of the time averaged and unsteady aerothermodynamic loads in the SSME powerhead. The software tools are detailed. Significant progress was made in the area of turbomachinery, where there is an overlap between the AETO efforts and research in the aeronautical gas turbine field.

Planetary benchmarks. [structural design criteria for radar reference devices on planetary surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Uphoff, C.; Staehle, R.; Kobrick, M.; Jurgens, R.; Price, H.; Slade, M.; Sonnabend, D.

1978-01-01

Design criteria and technology requirements for a system of radar reference devices to be fixed to the surfaces of the inner planets are discussed. Offshoot applications include the use of radar corner reflectors as landing beacons on the planetary surfaces and some deep space applications that may yield a greatly enhanced knowledge of the gravitational and electromagnetic structure of the solar system. Passive retroreflectors with dimensions of about 4 meters and weighing about 10 kg are feasible for use with orbiting radar at Venus and Mars. Earth-based observation of passive reflectors, however, would require very large and complex structures to be delivered to the surfaces. For Earth-based measurements, surface transponders offer a distinct advantage in accuracy over passive reflectors. A conceptual design for a high temperature transponder is presented. The design appears feasible for the Venus surface using existing electronics and power components.

The economic value of remote sensing of earth resources from space: An ERTS overview and the value of continuity of service. Volume 8: Atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miles, R.; Fawkes, G.

1974-01-01

The economic value of an ERS system in the resource area of atmosphere is determined. Benefits which arise from air pollution and cloud observations correlated to ground stations are discussed along with cost savings associated with air pollution monitoring by satellite. Social benefits due to more precise knowledge of the effects of pollution are presented.

Getting the Lowdown on Airborne Pollutants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

Opto-Knowledge Systems, Inc. was founded in 1991 specifically to take advantage of the emergence of a new technology field related to spectral imaging. The technology has applications in diverse areas such as Earth remote sensing, agriculture, geology, medical diagnosis, manufacturing, forensics, and more. Under the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center STTR project, OKSI developed several major aspects to further the state of the art, resulting in several commercial products.

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

1930--Dr. Robert Goddard built this 30 by 60 ft. workshop for rocket construction at the Mescalero Ranch, 3 miles northeast of Roswell, New Mexico. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Navigation System Design and State Estimation for a Small Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB)

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

addition of the Coriolis term as previously defined has no effect on pitch, only one measurement is compared against Condor’s true pitch angle values...33  B.  REFERENCE FRAME DEFINITIONS ......................................................33  1.  Earth Centered Inertial...the effect of higher order terms. Lastly, the zeroth weight of the scaled weight set can be modified to incorporate prior knowledge of the

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

The family home and birthplace of Dr. Robert Goddard in Worcester, Mass. was called Maple Hill and situated at Gates Lane, now called Tollawanda Drive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Tropical Storm Toraji Approaching Japan

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Tropical Storm Toraji Approaching Japan, 09/03/2013 at 02:10 UTC. Terra/MODIS NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Replacement Capability Options for the United States Space Shuttle

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

extended periods, and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-based observations.” During the Skylab missions, both the man...determined Skylab’s orbit was no longer stable due to higher than predicted solar activity. Therefore, Skylab had to be de-orbited earlier than...Module houses the oxygen, life support, power, communications, thermal control, and propulsions systems. The solar arrays for the Soyuz are also

Embracing Open Source for NASA's Earth Science Data Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baynes, Katie; Pilone, Dan; Boller, Ryan; Meyer, David; Murphy, Kevin

2017-01-01

The overarching purpose of NASAs Earth Science program is to develop a scientific understanding of Earth as a system. Scientific knowledge is most robust and actionable when resulting from transparent, traceable, and reproducible methods. Reproducibility includes open access to the data as well as the software used to arrive at results. Additionally, software that is custom-developed for NASA should be open to the greatest degree possible, to enable re-use across Federal agencies, reduce overall costs to the government, remove barriers to innovation, and promote consistency through the use of uniform standards. Finally, Open Source Software (OSS) practices facilitate collaboration between agencies and the private sector. To best meet these ends, NASAs Earth Science Division promotes the full and open sharing of not only all data, metadata, products, information, documentation, models, images, and research results but also the source code used to generate, manipulate and analyze them. This talk focuses on the challenges to open sourcing NASA developed software within ESD and the growing pains associated with establishing policies running the gamut of tracking issues, properly documenting build processes, engaging the open source community, maintaining internal compliance, and accepting contributions from external sources. This talk also covers the adoption of existing open source technologies and standards to enhance our custom solutions and our contributions back to the community. Finally, we will be introducing the most recent OSS contributions from NASA Earth Science program and promoting these projects for wider community review and adoption.

Apeiron: engaging students if ocean science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manzella, Alessandro; Manzella, Giuseppe M. R.

2017-04-01

Anaxagoras believed that all things existed in a boundless form. Ápeiron begun to rotate under the control of Nous (Mind) and the rotation caused the universe to break up into fragments, each containing parts of all other things. However, since all individual things had originated from the same ápeiron, all things must contain parts of all other things. In some sense, the title contain the main concept on the interdependence of humans and the natural environment that make necessary to have a general understanding on how anthropogenic activities have changed the earth system and how they are impacting the climate cycles. Ápeiron is the interdependence of humans and natural environment. A general understanding on human influences on earth system is necessary. The ability to solve a problem, to write a coherent paragraph, to utter a cogent statement are soft skills supporting sustainable development. Soft skills must be tempered with the ability to integrate knowledge from various sources into a coherent whole. Students, professors and researchers interaction improve personal comprehension. Students must be encouraged to debate ideas and the way to present them. They are asked to look for and develop bases for shared understanding. In this way they participated to the definition of a knowledge building process as a social epistemology: from personal beliefs to social shared vision.

Advanced Earth-to-orbit propulsion technology program overview: Impact of civil space technology initiative

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stephenson, Frank W., Jr.

1988-01-01

The NASA Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) Propulsion Technology Program is dedicated to advancing rocket engine technologies for the development of fully reusable engine systems that will enable space transportation systems to achieve low cost, routine access to space. The program addresses technology advancements in the areas of engine life extension/prediction, performance enhancements, reduced ground operations costs, and in-flight fault tolerant engine operations. The primary objective is to acquire increased knowledge and understanding of rocket engine chemical and physical processes in order to evolve more realistic analytical simulations of engine internal environments, to derive more accurate predictions of steady and unsteady loads, and using improved structural analyses, to more accurately predict component life and performance, and finally to identify and verify more durable advanced design concepts. In addition, efforts were focused on engine diagnostic needs and advances that would allow integrated health monitoring systems to be developed for enhanced maintainability, automated servicing, inspection, and checkout, and ultimately, in-flight fault tolerant engine operations.

Conceptual Design of a Communication-Based Deep Space Navigation Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anzalone, Evan J.; Chuang, C. H.

2012-01-01

As the need grows for increased autonomy and position knowledge accuracy to support missions beyond Earth orbit, engineers must push and develop more advanced navigation sensors and systems that operate independent of Earth-based analysis and processing. Several spacecraft are approaching this problem using inter-spacecraft radiometric tracking and onboard autonomous optical navigation methods. This paper proposes an alternative implementation to aid in spacecraft position fixing. The proposed method Network-Based Navigation technique takes advantage of the communication data being sent between spacecraft and between spacecraft and ground control to embed navigation information. The navigation system uses these packets to provide navigation estimates to an onboard navigation filter to augment traditional ground-based radiometric tracking techniques. As opposed to using digital signal measurements to capture inherent information of the transmitted signal itself, this method relies on the embedded navigation packet headers to calculate a navigation estimate. This method is heavily dependent on clock accuracy and the initial results show the promising performance of a notional system.

Geoinformatics 2008 - Data to Knowledge

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brady, Shailaja R.; Sinha, A. Krishna; Gundersen, Linda C.

2008-01-01

Geoinformatics is the term used to describe a variety of efforts to promote collaboration between the computer sciences and the geosciences to solve complex scientific questions. It refers to the distributed, integrated digital information system and working environment that provides innovative means for the study of the Earth systems, as well as other planets, through use of advanced information technologies. Geoinformatics activities range from major research and development efforts creating new technologies to provide high-quality, sustained production-level services for data discovery, integration and analysis, to small, discipline-specific efforts that develop earth science data collections and data analysis tools serving the needs of individual communities. The ultimate vision of Geoinformatics is a highly interconnected data system populated with high quality, freely available data, as well as, a robust set of software for analysis, visualization, and modeling. This volume is a collection of extended abstracts for oral papers presented at the Geoinformatics 2008 conference, June 11 and 13, 2008, in Potsdam, Germany.

The California Current System

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This February 8, 2016 composite image reveals the complex distribution of phytoplankton in one of Earth's eastern boundary upwelling systems — the California Current. Recent work suggests that our warming climate my be increasing the intensity of upwelling in such regions with possible repercussions for the species that comprise those ecosystems. NASA's OceanColor Web is supported by the Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Our responsibilities include the collection, processing, calibration, validation, archive and distribution of ocean-related products from a large number of operational, satellite-based remote-sensing missions providing ocean color, sea surface temperature and sea surface salinity data to the international research community since 1996. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Suomin-NPP/VIIRS NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Coupled Data Assimilation for Integrated Earth System Analysis and Prediction: Goals, Challenges, and Recommendations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Penny, Stephen G.; Akella, Santha; Buehner, Mark; Chevallier, Matthieu; Counillon, Francois; Draper, Clara; Frolov, Sergey; Fujii, Yosuke; Karspeck, Alicia; Kumar, Arun

2017-01-01

The purpose of this report is to identify fundamental issues for coupled data assimilation (CDA), such as gaps in science and limitations in forecasting systems, in order to provide guidance to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on how to facilitate more rapid progress internationally. Coupled Earth system modeling provides the opportunity to extend skillful atmospheric forecasts beyond the traditional two-week barrier by extracting skill from low-frequency state components such as the land, ocean, and sea ice. More generally, coupled models are needed to support seamless prediction systems that span timescales from weather, subseasonal to seasonal (S2S), multiyear, and decadal. Therefore, initialization methods are needed for coupled Earth system models, either applied to each individual component (called Weakly Coupled Data Assimilation - WCDA) or applied the coupled Earth system model as a whole (called Strongly Coupled Data Assimilation - SCDA). Using CDA, in which model forecasts and potentially the state estimation are performed jointly, each model domain benefits from observations in other domains either directly using error covariance information known at the time of the analysis (SCDA), or indirectly through flux interactions at the model boundaries (WCDA). Because the non-atmospheric domains are generally under-observed compared to the atmosphere, CDA provides a significant advantage over single-domain analyses. Next, we provide a synopsis of goals, challenges, and recommendations to advance CDA: Goals: (a) Extend predictive skill beyond the current capability of NWP (e.g. as demonstrated by improving forecast skill scores), (b) produce physically consistent initial conditions for coupled numerical prediction systems and reanalyses (including consistent fluxes at the domain interfaces), (c) make best use of existing observations by allowing observations from each domain to influence and improve the full earth system analysis, (d) develop a robust observation-based identification and understanding of mechanisms that determine the variability of weather and climate, (e) identify critical weaknesses in coupled models and the earth observing system, (f) generate full-field estimates of unobserved or sparsely observed variables, (g) improve the estimation of the external forcings causing changes to climate, (h) transition successes from idealized CDA experiments to real-world applications. Challenges: (a) Modeling at the interfaces between interacting components of coupled Earth system models may be inadequate for estimating uncertainty or error covariances between domains, (b) current data assimilation methods may be insufficient to simultaneously analyze domains containing multiple spatiotemporal scales of interest, (c) there is no standardization of observation data or their delivery systems across domains, (d) the size and complexity of many large-scale coupled Earth system models makes it is difficult to accurately represent uncertainty due to model parameters and coupling parameters, (e) model errors lead to local biases that can transfer between the different Earth system components and lead to coupled model biases and long-term model drift, (e) information propagation across model components with different spatiotemporal scales is extremely complicated, and must be improved in current coupled modeling frameworks, (h) there is insufficient knowledge on how to represent evolving errors in non-atmospheric model components (e.g. as sea ice, land and ocean) on the timescales of NWP.

Student Cognitive Difficulties and Mental Model Development of Complex Earth and Environmental Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sell, K.; Herbert, B.; Schielack, J.

2004-05-01

Students organize scientific knowledge and reason about environmental issues through manipulation of mental models. The nature of the environmental sciences, which are focused on the study of complex, dynamic systems, may present cognitive difficulties to students in their development of authentic, accurate mental models of environmental systems. The inquiry project seeks to develop and assess the coupling of information technology (IT)-based learning with physical models in order to foster rich mental model development of environmental systems in geoscience undergraduate students. The manipulation of multiple representations, the development and testing of conceptual models based on available evidence, and exposure to authentic, complex and ill-constrained problems were the components of investigation utilized to reach the learning goals. Upper-level undergraduate students enrolled in an environmental geology course at Texas A&M University participated in this research which served as a pilot study. Data based on rubric evaluations interpreted by principal component analyses suggest students' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry is limited and the ability to cross scales and link systems proved problematic. Results categorized into content knowledge and cognition processes where reasoning, critical thinking and cognitive load were driving factors behind difficulties in student learning. Student mental model development revealed multiple misconceptions and lacked complexity and completeness to represent the studied systems. Further, the positive learning impacts of the implemented modules favored the physical model over the IT-based learning projects, likely due to cognitive load issues. This study illustrates the need to better understand student difficulties in solving complex problems when using IT, where the appropriate scaffolding can then be implemented to enhance student learning of the earth system sciences.

NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program: Advanced Concepts and Disruptive Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Little, M. M.; Moe, K.; Komar, G.

2014-12-01

NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) manages a wide range of information technology projects under the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program. The AIST Program aims to support all phases of NASA's Earth Science program with the goal of enabling new observations and information products, increasing the accessibility and use of Earth observations, and reducing the risk and cost of satellite and ground based information systems. Recent initiatives feature computational technologies to improve information extracted from data streams or model outputs and researchers' tools for Big Data analytics. Data-centric technologies enable research communities to facilitate collaboration and increase the speed with which results are produced and published. In the future NASA anticipates more small satellites (e.g., CubeSats), mobile drones and ground-based in-situ sensors will advance the state-of-the-art regarding how scientific observations are performed, given the flexibility, cost and deployment advantages of new operations technologies. This paper reviews the success of the program and the lessons learned. Infusion of these technologies is challenging and the paper discusses the obstacles and strategies to adoption by the earth science research and application efforts. It also describes alternative perspectives for the future program direction and for realizing the value in the steps to transform observations from sensors to data, to information, and to knowledge, namely: sensor measurement concepts development; data acquisition and management; data product generation; and data exploitation for science and applications.

Assessing the Impact of Earth Radiation Pressure Acceleration on Low-Earth Orbit Satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vielberg, Kristin; Forootan, Ehsan; Lück, Christina; Kusche, Jürgen; Börger, Klaus

2017-04-01

The orbits of satellites are influenced by several external forces. The main non-gravitational forces besides thermospheric drag, acting on the surface of satellites, are accelerations due to the Earth and Solar Radiation Pres- sure (SRP and ERP, respectively). The sun radiates visible and infrared light reaching the satellite directly, which causes the SRP. Earth also emits and reflects the sunlight back into space, where it acts on satellites. This is known as ERP acceleration. The influence of ERP increases with decreasing distance to the Earth, and for low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites ERP must be taken into account in orbit and gravity computations. Estimating acceler- ations requires knowledge about energy emitted from the Earth, which can be derived from satellite remote sensing data, and also by considering the shape and surface material of a satellite. In this sensitivity study, we assess ERP accelerations based on different input albedo and emission fields and their modelling for the satellite missions Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload (CHAMP) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). As input fields, monthly 1°x1° products of Clouds and the Earth's Radiant En- ergy System (CERES), L3 are considered. Albedo and emission models are generated as latitude-dependent, as well as in terms of spherical harmonics. The impact of different albedo and emission models as well as the macro model and the altitude of satellites on ERP accelerations will be discussed.

Compositional Investigation of Binary Near-Earth Asteroid 66063 (1998 RO1): A Potentially Undifferentiated Assemblage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abell, P. A.; Gaffey, M. J.; Landis, R. R.; Jarvis, K. S.

2005-01-01

It is now thought that approximately 16% of all asteroids among the near-Earth population may be binary objects. Several independent lines of evidence, such as the presence of doublet craters on the Earth and Moon [1, 2], complex lightcurves of near-Earth objects exhibiting mutual events [3], and radar images of near-Earth asteroids revealing distinct primary and secondary objects, have supported this conclusion [4]. To date at least 23 near-Earth objects have been discovered as binary systems with expectations that many more have yet to be identified or recognized. Little is known about the physical characteristics of binary objects except that they seem to have fairly rapid rotation rates, generally have primaries in the approx. 1 km diameter range with smaller secondaries on the order of a few hundred meters, and apart from a few exceptions, are in synchronous orbits [4, 5]. Previously only two of these binary near-Earth asteroids (1998 ST27 and 2003 YT1) have been characterized in terms of detailed mineralogical investigations [6, 7]. Such investigations are required to fully understand the formation mechanisms of these binary objects and their possible source regions. In addition, detailed knowledge of these objects may play an important role for planning future spacecraft missions and for the development of impact mitigation strategies. The work presented here represents a continued effort to characterize this particular sub-group of the near- Earth asteroid population.

Creating Illusions of Knowledge: Learning Errors that Contradict Prior Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fazio, Lisa K.; Barber, Sarah J.; Rajaram, Suparna; Ornstein, Peter A.; Marsh, Elizabeth J.

2013-01-01

Most people know that the Pacific is the largest ocean on Earth and that Edison invented the light bulb. Our question is whether this knowledge is stable, or if people will incorporate errors into their knowledge bases, even if they have the correct knowledge stored in memory. To test this, we asked participants general-knowledge questions 2 weeks…

Beyond Shape and Gravity: Children's Ideas about the Earth in Space Reconsidered

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharp, John G.; Sharp, Jane C.

2007-01-01

Children's ideas about the Earth in space have been of interest to science educators and cognitive psychologists for some time. By focusing almost exclusively on shape and gravity alone, however, other important Earth attributes have been largely neglected or overlooked. Findings from a quasi-experimental study of knowledge acquisition and concept…

Museum-Based Teacher Professional Development: Peabody Fellows in Earth Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickering, Jane; Ague, Jay J.; Rath, Kenneth A.; Heiser, David M.; Sirch, James N.

2012-01-01

The Peabody Fellows in Earth Science program was a professional development opportunity for middle and high school teachers to enhance their knowledge of, and teaching skills in, the Earth sciences. It combined a summer institute and academic year workshops with the production of new curricular resources on the interpretation of landforms in…

Earth Science in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitburn, Niki

2007-01-01

An area that teachers often find difficult to make interesting is the earth science component of the science curriculum. This may be for a variety of reasons, such as lack of knowledge, lack of ideas or lack of resources. This article outlines ideas and activities that have been developed by the Earth Science Teachers' Association (ESTA) primary…

Using AN Essea Earth Systems Science Course in a Web-Enhanced Setting for Pre-Service Middle School Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slattery, W.

2003-12-01

The ESSEA Middle School course was originally designed as an asynchronous on-line tool for teacher professional development. The ESSEA course uses real world events such as deforestation, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes to develop content understandings of Earth systems processes and to model pedagogical best practices appropriate for middle school students. The course is structured as multiple three-week learning cycles. During week one of each cycle, participants are formed into Sphere groups to study the impact of the event under consideration on the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, or lithosphere. During week two, Event teams are formed to include members from each of the previous week's Sphere groups. Together they develop interactions between the different spheres and the event. During week three, teachers develop classroom applications and post them on-line for other participants to comment upon. On-going assessment suggests that in-service teacher participants of the on-line course are more likely to infuse inquiry-based science instruction into their classroom settings and to teach science as a subject integrating Physical science, Life science, and Earth/Space science in their own classrooms It is imperative to develop such characteristics in pre-service teachers as well. Wright State University's undergraduate Middle School teacher preparation program requires that undergraduates seeking Middle Childhood Licensure by the State of Ohio take a course in Earth Systems science that is aligned with the national and state science education standards. Towards this end the ESSEA course has been adapted for use in a web-enhanced setting. Weeks one and two (Sphere and Event study) of the ESSEA Middle School course are used as an integral component of this Earth Systems science course. In this way content knowledge and pedagogical strategies are modeled just as they are in the fully on-line course. Questions raised on-line are the topic of research or experimentation during the face-to-face component of the course. Follow-up interviews and classroom visits to student teaching sites confirm that pre-service teachers are using Earth systems science concepts and cooperative teaching techniques to teach science as an integrated whole.

The origin and early evolution of life on Earth.

PubMed

Oró, J; Miller, S L; Lazcano, A

1990-01-01

We do not have a detailed knowledge of the processes that led to the appearance of life on Earth. In this review we bring together some of the most important results that have provided insights into the cosmic and primitive Earth environments, particularly those environments in which life is thought to have originated. To do so, we first discuss the evidence bearing on the antiquity of life on our planet and the prebiotic significance of organic compounds found in interstellar clouds and in primitive solar system bodies such as comets, dark asteroids, and carbonaceous chondrites. This is followed by a discussion on the environmental models of the Hadean and early Archean Earth, as well as on the prebiotic formation of organic monomers and polymers essential to life. We then consider the processes that may have led to the appearance in the Archean of the first cells, and how these processes may have affected the early steps of biological evolution. Finally, the significance of these results to the study of the distribution of life in the Universe is discussed.

Hurricane Isaac by Night [annotated

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA image acquired August 29, 2012 1:57 a.m EDT Hurricane Isaac lit up by moonlight as it spins over the city of New Orleans, La. at 1:57 am central daylight savings time the morning of August 29, 2012. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite captured these images with its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The "day-night band" of VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses light intensification to enable the detection of dim signals. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense. Image Credit: NASA/NOAA, Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using VIIRS Day Night Band data. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

From organic chemistry in small bodies of the solar system to low temperature chemistry in the universe. Preface.

PubMed

Levasseur-Regourd, A C; Raulin, F

1995-01-01

A COSPAR two days Symposium has been dedicated to "Prebiotic chemistry in Space" at the COSPAR Plenary Meeting, (Hamburg, Germany, July 1994). This Symposium was jointly organized by Commissions B (Space studies of the Earth-Moon system, planets and small bodies of the solar system) and F (Life sciences as related to space). Its goal was to review, from an interdisciplinary approach, our knowledge on organic and prebiotic chemistry in small bodies of the Solar System, and on low temperature chemistry and exobiology. The Symposium was sponsored by COSPAR and the IAU (session 1), ESA, NASA, and ISSOL (session 2).

TXESS Revolution: Utilizing TERC's EarthLabs Cryosphere Module to Support Professional Development of Texas Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odell, M.; Ellins, K. K.; Polito, E. J.; Castillo Comer, C. A.; Stocks, E.; Manganella, K.; Ledley, T. S.

2010-12-01

TERC’s EarthLabs project provides rigorous and engaging Earth and environmental science labs. Four existing modules illustrate sequences for learning science concepts through data analysis activities and hands-on experiments. A fifth module, developed with NSF, comprises a series of linked inquiry based activities focused on the cryosphere to help students understand concepts around change over time on multiple and embedded time scales. Teachers recruited from the NSF-OEDG-sponsored Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution teacher professional development program conducted a pedagogical review of the Cryosphere EarthLabs module and provided feedback on how well the materials matched high school needs in Texas and were aligned with state and national standards. Five TXESS Revolution teachers field tested the materials in their classrooms and then trained other TXESS Revolution teachers on their implementation during spring and summer 2010. Here we report on the results of PD delivery during the summer 2010 TXESS Revolution summer institute as determined by (1) a set of evaluation instruments that included a pre-post concept map activity to assess changes in workshop teachers’ understanding of the concepts presented, a pre-post test content knowledge test, and a pre-post survey of teachers’ comfort in teaching the Texas Earth and Space Science standards addressed by the module; (2) teacher reflections; and (3) focus group responses. The findings reveal that the teachers liked the module activities and felt they could use them to teach Environmental and Earth Science. They appreciated that the sequence of activities contributed to a deeper understanding and observed that the variety of methods used to present the information accommodates different learning styles. Information about the cryosphere was new to all the teachers. The content knowledge tests reveal that although teachers made appreciable gains, their understanding of cryosphere, how it changes over time, and it’s role in Earth’s climate system remains weak. Our results clearly reflect the challenges of addressing the complexity of climate science and critical need for climate literacy education.

ForM@Ter: a French Solid Earth Research Infrastructure Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandea, M.; Diament, M.; Jamet, O.; Deschamps-Ostanciaux, E.

2017-12-01

Recently, some noteworthy initiatives to develop efficient research e-infrastructures for the study of the Earth's system have been set up. However, some gaps between the data availability and their scientific use still exists, either because technical reasons (big data issues) or because of the lack of a dedicated support in terms of expert knowledge of the data, software availability, or data cost. The need for thematic cooperative platforms has been underlined over the last years, as well as the need to create thematic centres designed to federate the scientific community of Earth's observation. Four thematic data centres have been developed in France, covering the domains of ocean, atmosphere, land, and solid Earth sciences. For the Solid Earth science community, a research infrastructure project named ForM@Ter was launched by the French Space Agency (CNES) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), with the active participation of the National institute for geographical and forestry information (IGN). Currently, it relies on the contributions of scientists from more than 20 French Earth science laboratories.Preliminary analysis have showed that a focus on the determination of the shape and movements of the Earth surface (ForM@Ter: Formes et Mouvements de la Terre) can federate a wide variety of scientific areas (earthquake cycle, tectonics, morphogenesis, volcanism, erosion dynamics, mantle rheology, geodesy) and offers many interfaces with other geoscience domains, such as glaciology or snow evolution. This choice motivates the design of an ambitious data distribution scheme, including a wide variety of sources - optical imagery, SAR, GNSS, gravity, satellite altimetry data, in situ observations (inclinometers, seismometers, etc.) - as well as a wide variety of processing techniques. In the evolving context of the current and forthcoming national and international e-infrastructures, the challenge of the project is to design a non-redundant service based on interoperations with existing services, and to cope with highly complex data flows due to the granularity of the data and its associated knowledge. Here, a presentation of the project status and of the first available operational functionalities is foreseen.

Piers Sellers

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Piers Sellers is currently Deputy Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate and Acting Director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA/GSFC. He was born and educated in the United Kingdom and moved to the U.S. in 1982 to carry out climate research at NASA/GSFC. From 1982 to 1996, he worked on global climate problems, particularly those involving interactions between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and was involved in constructing computer models of the global climate system, satellite data interpretation and conducting large-scale field experiments in the USA, Canada, Africa, and Brazil. He served as project scientist for the first large Earth Observing System platform, Terra, launched in 1998. He joined the NASA astronaut corps in 1996 and flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2002, 2006, and 2010, carrying out six spacewalks and working on ISS assembly tasks. He returned to Goddard Space Flight Center in June, 2011. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

LP DAAC MEaSUREs Project Artifact Tracking Via the NASA Earthdata Collaboration Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, S. D.

2015-12-01

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) is a NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) DAAC that supports selected EOS Community non-standard data products such as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Emissivity Database (GED), and also supports NASA Earth Science programs such as Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) to contribute in providing long-term, consistent, and mature data products. As described in The LP DAAC Project Lifecycle Plan (Daucsavage, J.; Bennett, S., 2014), key elements within the Project Inception Phase fuse knowledge between NASA stakeholders, data producers, and NASA data providers. To support and deliver excellence for NASA data stewardship, and to accommodate long-tail data preservation with Community and MEaSUREs products, the LP DAAC is utilizing NASA's own Earthdata Collaboration Environment to bridge stakeholder communication divides. By leveraging a NASA supported platform, this poster describes how the Atlassian Confluence software combined with a NASA URS/Earthdata support can maintain each project's members, status, documentation, and artifact checklist. Furthermore, this solution provides a gateway for project communities to become familiar with NASA clients, as well as educating the project's NASA DAAC Scientists for NASA client distribution.

Earth-based analogs of lunar and planetary facilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bell, Larry; Trotti, Guillermo

1992-01-01

Antarctica contains areas where the environment and terrain are more similar to regions on the Moon and Mars than any other place on Earth. These features offer opportunities for simulations to determine performance capabilities of people and machines in harsh, isolated locales. The Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) plans to create a facility on Antarctica for research, planning, and demonstrations in support of planetary exploration. The Antarctic Planetary Testbed (APT) will be financed and utilized by public and private organizations throughout the world. Established on a continent owned by no country, it can serve as a model for cooperation between spacefaring nations. APT science and technology programs will expand knowledge about the nature and origin of our solar system, and will support preparations for human settlements beyond Earth that may occur within the first quarter of the next century. The initial APT facility, conceived to be operational by the year 1992, will be constructed during the summer months by a crew of approximately 12. Six to eight of these people will remain through the winter. As in space, structures and equipment systems will be modular to facilitate efficient transport to the site, assembly, and evolutionary expansion. State-of-the-art waste recovery/recycling systems are also emphasized due to their importance in space.

Advanced Concepts, Technologies and Flight Experiments for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meredith, Barry D.

2000-01-01

Over the last 25 years, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has established a tradition of excellence in scientific research and leading-edge system developments, which have contributed to improved scientific understanding of our Earth system. Specifically, LaRC advances knowledge of atmospheric processes to enable proactive climate prediction and, in that role, develops first-of-a-kind atmospheric sensing capabilities that permit a variety of new measurements to be made within a constrained enterprise budget. These advances are enabled by the timely development and infusion of new, state-of-the-art (SOA), active and passive instrument and sensor technologies. In addition, LaRC's center-of-excellence in structures and materials is being applied to the technological challenges of reducing measurement system size, mass, and cost through the development and use of space-durable materials; lightweight, multi-functional structures; and large deployable/inflatable structures. NASA Langley is engaged in advancing these technologies across the full range of readiness levels from concept, to components, to prototypes, to flight experiments, and on to actual science mission infusion. The purpose of this paper is to describe current activities and capabilities, recent achievements, and future plans of the integrated science, engineering, and technology team at Langley Research Center who are working to enable the future of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.

Prospects of the New Science and Outreach Network Baltic Earth with Results of the Second Climate Change Assessment for the Baltic Sea Region (BACC II)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reckermann, M.; Von Storch, H.; Omstedt, A. T.; Meier, M.; Rutgersson, A.

2014-12-01

The Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe spans different climate and population zones, from a temperate, highly populated, industrialized south with intensive agriculture to a boreal, rural north. It represents an old cultural landscape, and the Baltic Sea itself is among the most intensively studied sea areas of the world. Baltic Earth is the new Earth system research network for the Baltic Sea region. It is the successor to BALTEX, which was terminated in June 2013 after 20 years and two successful phases. Baltic Earth stands for the vision to achieve an improved Earth system understanding of the Baltic Sea region. This means that the research disciplines of BALTEX continue to be relevant, i.e. atmospheric and climate sciences, hydrology, oceanography and biogeochemistry, but a more holistic view of the Earth system encompassing processes in the atmosphere, on land and in the sea as well as in the anthroposphere shall gain in importance in Baltic Earth. Specific grand research challenges have been formulated, representing interdisciplinary research questions to be tackled in the coming years. A major means will be scientific assessments of particular research topics by expert groups, similar to the BACC approach, which shall help to identify knowledge gaps and develop research strategies. A major outcome of Baltic Earth will be the update of the BALTEX Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin (BACC II). This new study after 5 years finds the results of BACC I still valid. Climate change can be detected at the regional scale but attribution is still weak. The effect of changing atmospheric aerosol loads and land use change is largely unknown so far and needs further attention in the coming years. For the observed changes in biogeochemical and ecological systems, multiple drivers are at work of which climate change is one. Their relative importance still needs to be evaluated. When addressing climate change impacts on e.g. forestry, agriculture, urban complexes and the marine and terrestrial environment in the Baltic Sea basin, a broad perspective is needed which considers not only climate change but also other significant factors such as emission changes, demographic, economic as well as land-use changes.

Extending TOPS: Ontology-driven Anomaly Detection and Analysis System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Votava, P.; Nemani, R. R.; Michaelis, A.

2010-12-01

Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS) is a flexible modeling software system that integrates ecosystem models with frequent satellite and surface weather observations to produce ecosystem nowcasts (assessments of current conditions) and forecasts useful in natural resources management, public health and disaster management. We have been extending the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS) to include a capability for automated anomaly detection and analysis of both on-line (streaming) and off-line data. In order to best capture the knowledge about data hierarchies, Earth science models and implied dependencies between anomalies and occurrences of observable events such as urbanization, deforestation, or fires, we have developed an ontology to serve as a knowledge base. We can query the knowledge base and answer questions about dataset compatibilities, similarities and dependencies so that we can, for example, automatically analyze similar datasets in order to verify a given anomaly occurrence in multiple data sources. We are further extending the system to go beyond anomaly detection towards reasoning about possible causes of anomalies that are also encoded in the knowledge base as either learned or implied knowledge. This enables us to scale up the analysis by eliminating a large number of anomalies early on during the processing by either failure to verify them from other sources, or matching them directly with other observable events without having to perform an extensive and time-consuming exploration and analysis. The knowledge is captured using OWL ontology language, where connections are defined in a schema that is later extended by including specific instances of datasets and models. The information is stored using Sesame server and is accessible through both Java API and web services using SeRQL and SPARQL query languages. Inference is provided using OWLIM component integrated with Sesame.

Dynamic Assessment of Seismic Risk (DASR) by Multi-parametric Observations: Preliminary Results of PRIME experiment within the PRE-EARTHQUAKES EU-FP7 Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tramutoli, V.; Inan, S.; Jakowski, N.; Pulinets, S. A.; Romanov, A.; Filizzola, C.; Shagimuratov, I.; Pergola, N.; Ouzounov, D. P.; Papadopoulos, G. A.; Parrot, M.; Genzano, N.; Lisi, M.; Alparlsan, E.; Wilken, V.; Tsybukia, K.; Romanov, A.; Paciello, R.; Zakharenkova, I.; Romano, G.

2012-12-01

The integration of different observations together with the refinement of data analysis methods, is generally expected to improve our present knowledge of preparatory phases of earthquakes and of their possible precursors. This is also the main goal of PRE-EARTHQUAKES (Processing Russian and European EARTH observations for earthQUAKE precursors Studies) the FP7 Project which, to this aim, committed together, different international expertise and observational capabilities, in the last 2 years. In the learning phase of the project, different parameters (e.g. thermal anomalies, total electron content, radon concentration, etc.), measured from ground and satellite systems and analyzed by using different data analysis approaches, have been studied for selected geographic areas and specific seismic events in the past. Since July 2012 the PRIME (PRE-EARTHQUAKES Real-time Integration and Monitoring Experiment) started attempting to perform, on the base of independent observations collected and integrated in real-time through the PEG (PRE-EARTHQUAKES Geo-portal), a Dynamic Assessment of Seismic Risk (DASR) on selected geographic areas of Europe (Italy-Greece-Turkey) and Asia (Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Japan). In this paper, results so far achieved as well as the potential and opportunities they open for a worldwide Earthquake Observation System (EQuOS) - as a dedicated component of GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) - will be presented.

Visual thinking networking promotes long-term meaningful learning and achievement for 9th grade earth science students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Longo, Palma Joni

2001-12-01

An experimental and interview-based design was used to test the efficacy of visual thinking networking (VTN), a new generation of metacognitive learning strategies. Students constructed network diagrams using semantic and figural elements to represent knowledge relationships. The findings indicated the importance of using color in VTN strategies. The use of color promoted the encoding and reconstruction of earth science knowledge in memory and enhanced higher order thinking skills of problem solving. Fifty-six ninth grade earth science students (13--15 years of age) in a suburban school district outside New York City were randomly assigned to three classes with the same instructor. Five major positive findings emerged in the areas of problem solving achievement, organization of knowledge in memory, problem solving strategy dimensionality, conceptual understanding, and gender differences. A multi-covariate analysis was conducted on the pre-post gain scores of the AGI/NSTA Earth Science Examination (Part 1). Students who used the color VTN strategies had a significantly higher mean gain score on the problem solving criterion test items than students who used the black/white VTN (p = .003) and the writing strategies for learning science (p < .001). During a think-out-loud problem solving interview, students who used the color VTN strategies: (1) significantly recalled more earth science knowledge than students who used the black/white VTN (p = .021) and the writing strategies (p < .001); (2) significantly recalled more interrelated earth science knowledge than students who used black/white VTN strategies (p = .048) and the writing strategy (p < .001); (3) significantly used a greater number of action verbs than students who used the writing strategy (p = .033). Students with low abstract reasoning aptitude who used the color VTNs had a significantly higher mean number of conceptually accurate propositions than students who used the black/white VTN (p = .018) and the writing strategies (p = .010). Gender influenced the choice of VTN strategy. Females used significantly more color VTN strategies, while males used predominately black/white VTN strategies (p = .01). A neurocognitive model, the encoding activation theory of the anterior cingulate (ENACT-AC), is proposed as an explanation for these findings.

Satellite Sees Holiday Lights Brighten Cities - Saudi Arabia

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

In several cities in the Middle East, city lights brighten during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as seen using a new analysis of daily data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. Dark green pixels are areas where the lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during Ramadan. Credit: Jesse Allen, NASA’s Earth Observatory Read more: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/satellite-sees-holiday-light... NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Glaciers and Sea Level Rise

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Calving front of the Perito Moreno Glacier (Argentina). Contrary to the majority of the glaciers from the southern Patagonian ice field, the Perito Moreno Glacier is currently stable. It is also one of the most visited glaciers in the world. To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html Credit: Etienne Berthier, Université de Toulouse NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Cretaceous Footprints Found on Goddard Campus

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/features/2012/nodosaur.... Credit: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

OSIRIS-REx Executes First Deep Space Maneuver

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer, OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft executed its first deep space maneuver Dec. 28, 2016, putting it on course for an Earth flyby in September 2017. The team will continue to examine telemetry and tracking data as it becomes available at the current low data rate and will have more information in January. Image credit: University of Arizona NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-09

MMS Stacked – View of the fully stacked MMS prior to being bagged for vibration tests. Learn more about MMS at www.nasa.gov/mms Credit NASA/Chris Gunn The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, will study how the sun and the Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect, an explosive process that can accelerate particles through space to nearly the speed of light. This process is called magnetic reconnection and can occur throughout all space. NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Satellite Sees Holiday Lights Brighten Cities - Istanbul

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

In several cities in the Middle East, city lights brighten during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as seen using a new analysis of daily data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. Dark green pixels are areas where the lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during Ramadan. Credit: Jesse Allen, NASA’s Earth Observatory Read more: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/satellite-sees-holiday-light... NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Satellite Sees Holiday Lights Brighten Cities - Cairo

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

In several cities in the Middle East, city lights brighten during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as seen using a new analysis of daily data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. Dark green pixels are areas where the lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during Ramadan. Credit: Jesse Allen, NASA’s Earth Observatory Read more: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/satellite-sees-holiday-light... NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Global monitoring of atmospheric properties by the EOS MODIS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

King, Michael D.

1993-01-01

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) being developed for the Earth Observing System (EOS) is well suited to the global monitoring of atmospheric properties from space. Among the atmospheric properties to be examined using MODIS observations, clouds are especially important, since they are a strong modulator of the shortwave and longwave components of the earth's radiation budget. A knowledge of cloud properties (such as optical thickness and effective radius) and their variation in space and time, which are our task objectives, is also crucial to studies of global climate change. In addition, with the use of related airborne instrumentation, such as the Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) and MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) in intensive field experiments (both national and international campaigns, see below), various types of surface and cloud properties can be derived from the measured bidirectional reflectances. These missions have provided valuable experimental data to determine the capability of narrow bandpass channels in examining the Earth's atmosphere and to aid in defining algorithms and building an understanding of the ability of MODIS to remotely sense atmospheric conditions for assessing global change. Therefore, the primary task objective is to extend and expand our algorithm for retrieving the optical thickness and effective radius of clouds from radiation measurements to be obtained from MODIS. The secondary objective is to obtain an enhanced knowledge of surface angular and spectral properties that can be inferred from airborne directional radiance measurements.

Biodiversity's big wet secret: the global distribution of marine biological records reveals chronic under-exploration of the deep pelagic ocean.

PubMed

Webb, Thomas J; Vanden Berghe, Edward; O'Dor, Ron

2010-08-02

Understanding the distribution of marine biodiversity is a crucial first step towards the effective and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. Recent efforts to collate location records from marine surveys enable us to assemble a global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. They also effectively highlight gaps in our knowledge of particular marine regions. In particular, the deep pelagic ocean--the largest biome on Earth--is chronically under-represented in global databases of marine biodiversity. We use data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System to plot the position in the water column of ca 7 million records of marine species occurrences. Records from relatively shallow waters dominate this global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. In addition, standardising the number of records from regions of the ocean differing in depth reveals that regardless of ocean depth, most records come either from surface waters or the sea bed. Midwater biodiversity is drastically under-represented. The deep pelagic ocean is the largest habitat by volume on Earth, yet it remains biodiversity's big wet secret, as it is hugely under-represented in global databases of marine biological records. Given both its value in the provision of a range of ecosystem services, and its vulnerability to threats including overfishing and climate change, there is a pressing need to increase our knowledge of Earth's largest ecosystem.

Star Tracker Based ATP System Conceptual Design and Pointing Accuracy Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orfiz, Gerardo G.; Lee, Shinhak

2006-01-01

A star tracker based beaconless (a.k.a. non-cooperative beacon) acquisition, tracking and pointing concept for precisely pointing an optical communication beam is presented as an innovative approach to extend the range of high bandwidth (> 100 Mbps) deep space optical communication links throughout the solar system and to remove the need for a ground based high power laser as a beacon source. The basic approach for executing the ATP functions involves the use of stars as the reference sources from which the attitude knowledge is obtained and combined with high bandwidth gyroscopes for propagating the pointing knowledge to the beam pointing mechanism. Details of the conceptual design are presented including selection of an orthogonal telescope configuration and the introduction of an optical metering scheme to reduce misalignment error. Also, estimates are presented that demonstrate that aiming of the communications beam to the Earth based receive terminal can be achieved with a total system pointing accuracy of better than 850 nanoradians (3 sigma) from anywhere in the solar system.

Assessing Current State Science Teaching and Learning Standards for Ability to Achieve Climate Science Literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Busch, K. C.

2012-12-01

Even though there exists a high degree of consensus among scientists about climate change, doubt has actually increased over the last five years within the general U.S. public. In 2006, 79% of those polled agreed that there is evidence for global warming, while only 59% agreed in 2010 (Pew Research Center, 2010). The source for this doubt can be partially attributed to lack of knowledge. Formal education is one mechanism that potentially can address inadequate public understanding as school is the primary place where students - and future citizens - learn about the climate. In a joint effort, several governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, scientists and educators have created a framework called The Essential Principles of Climate Science Literacy, detailing seven concepts that are deemed vital for individuals and communities to understand Earth's climate system (USGCRP, 2009). Can students reach climate literacy - as defined by these 7 concepts - if they are taught using a curriculum based on the current state standards? To answer this question, the K-12 state science teaching and learning standards for Texas and California - two states that heavily influence nation-wide textbook creation - were compared against the Essential Principles. The data analysis consisted of two stages, looking for: 1) direct reference to "climate" and "climate change" and 2) indirect reference to the 7 Essential Principles through axial coding. The word "climate" appears in the California K-12 science standards 4 times and in the Texas standards 7 times. The word "climate change" appears in the California and Texas standards only 3 times each. Indirect references to the 7 Essential Principles of climate science literacy were more numerous. Broadly, California covered 6 of the principles while Texas covered all 7. In looking at the 7 principles, the second one "Climate is regulated by complex interactions among component of the Earth system" was the most substantively addressed. Least covered were number 6 "Human activities are impacting the climate system" and number 7 "Climate change will have consequences for the Earth system and human lives." Most references, either direct or indirect, occurred in the high school standards for earth science, a class not required for graduation in either state. This research points to the gaps between what the 7 Essential Principles of Climate Literacy defines as essential knowledge and what students may learn in their K-12 science classes. Thus, the formal system does not seem to offer an experience which can potentially develop a more knowledgeable citizenry who will be able to make wise personal and policy decisions about climate change, falling short of the ultimate goal of achieving widespread climate literacy. Especially troubling was the sparse attention to the principles addressing the human connection to the climate - principles number 6 and 7. If climate literate citizens are to make "wise personal and policy decisions" (USGCRP, 2009), these two principles especially are vital. This research, therefore, has been valuable for identifying current shortcomings in state standards.

Automatic labeling and characterization of objects using artificial neural networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, William J.; Hill, Scott E.; Cromp, Robert F.

1989-01-01

Existing NASA supported scientific data bases are usually developed, managed and populated in a tedious, error prone and self-limiting way in terms of what can be described in a relational Data Base Management System (DBMS). The next generation Earth remote sensing platforms, i.e., Earth Observation System, (EOS), will be capable of generating data at a rate of over 300 Mbs per second from a suite of instruments designed for different applications. What is needed is an innovative approach that creates object-oriented databases that segment, characterize, catalog and are manageable in a domain-specific context and whose contents are available interactively and in near-real-time to the user community. Described here is work in progress that utilizes an artificial neural net approach to characterize satellite imagery of undefined objects into high-level data objects. The characterized data is then dynamically allocated to an object-oriented data base where it can be reviewed and assessed by a user. The definition, development, and evolution of the overall data system model are steps in the creation of an application-driven knowledge-based scientific information system.

The utilization of neural nets in populating an object-oriented database

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, William J.; Hill, Scott E.; Cromp, Robert F.

1989-01-01

Existing NASA supported scientific data bases are usually developed, managed and populated in a tedious, error prone and self-limiting way in terms of what can be described in a relational Data Base Management System (DBMS). The next generation Earth remote sensing platforms (i.e., Earth Observation System, (EOS), will be capable of generating data at a rate of over 300 Mbs per second from a suite of instruments designed for different applications. What is needed is an innovative approach that creates object-oriented databases that segment, characterize, catalog and are manageable in a domain-specific context and whose contents are available interactively and in near-real-time to the user community. Described here is work in progress that utilizes an artificial neural net approach to characterize satellite imagery of undefined objects into high-level data objects. The characterized data is then dynamically allocated to an object-oriented data base where it can be reviewed and assessed by a user. The definition, development, and evolution of the overall data system model are steps in the creation of an application-driven knowledge-based scientific information system.

An orbit determination algorithm for small satellites based on the magnitude of the earth magnetic field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zagorski, P.; Gallina, A.; Rachucki, J.; Moczala, B.; Zietek, S.; Uhl, T.

2018-06-01

Autonomous attitude determination systems based on simple measurements of vector quantities such as magnetic field and the Sun direction are commonly used in very small satellites. However, those systems always require knowledge of the satellite position. This information can be either propagated from orbital elements periodically uplinked from the ground station or measured onboard by dedicated global positioning system (GPS) receiver. The former solution sacrifices satellite autonomy while the latter requires additional sensors which may represent a significant part of mass, volume, and power budget in case of pico- or nanosatellites. Hence, it is thought that a system for onboard satellite position determination without resorting to GPS receivers would be useful. In this paper, a novel algorithm for determining the satellite orbit semimajor-axis is presented. The methods exploit only the magnitude of the Earth magnetic field recorded onboard by magnetometers. This represents the first step toward an extended algorithm that can determine all orbital elements of the satellite. The method is validated by numerical analysis and real magnetic field measurements.

Application of Telemedicine Technologies to Long Term Spaceflight Support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orlov, O. I.; Grigoriev, A. I.

Space medicine passed a long way of search for informative methods of medical data collection and analysis and worked out a complex of effective means of countermeasures and medical support. These methods and means aimed at optimization of the habitation conditions and professional activity of space crews enabled space medicine specialists to create a background for the consecutive prolongation of manned space flights and providing their safety and effectiveness. To define support systems perspectives we should consider those projects on which bases the systems are implemented. According to the set opinion manned spaceflights programs will develop in two main directions. The first one is connected with the near space exploration, first of all with the growing interest in scientific-applied and in prospect industrial employment of large size orbit manned complexes, further development of transport systems and in long-run prospect - reclamation of Lunar surface. The second direction is connected with the perspectives of interplanetary missions. There's no doubt that the priority project of the near-earth space exploration in the coming decenaries will be building up of the International Space Station. This trend characteristics prove the necessity to provide crews whose members may differ in health with individual approach to the schedule of work, rest, nutrition and training, to the medical control and therapeutic-prophylactic procedures. In these conditions the importance of remote monitoring and distance support of crew members activities by the earth- based medical control services will increase. The response efficiency in such cases can only be maintained by means of advanced telemedicine systems. The international character of the International Space Station (ISS) gives a special importance to the current activities on integrating medical support systems of the participating countries. Creation of such a system will allow to coordinate international research projects on space biology and medicine at the modern high level. In spite of the ISS international cooperation transparency space research programs require to follow the biomedicine ethics and provide confidentiality of the special medical information exchange. That can be achieved in the telemedicine support system built on the network principle. Presently we have all technical facilities needed to create such a system. In Russia activities on space telemedicicine support improvement are carried out by the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute for Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Mission Control Center of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Space Biomedical Center for Training and Research and Yu. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Communications development and next generation Internet systems creation almost eliminate differences in the types of information technologies implementation both in the earth-based and near-earth space conditions. In prospect of the information community creation the telecommunication system of the near-earth space objects and its telemedicine element will become a natural part of the Earth unified information field that will open unlimited perspectives for flight support system improvement and space biomedical research conducting. Russia has unique data of numerous investigations on simulation of long, up to a year, effects of space flight factors on the human body. The sphere of situations studied by space medicine specialists embraced orbit manned space flights of the escalating duration (438 days in 1995). However a number of biomedical problems related to space flights didn't face optimal solutions. It's evident that during a space flight to Mars biomedical problems will be much more difficult in comparison with those of the orbit flights of the same duration. The summed up factors of such flights specify a level of the total medical risk that require assessment and application of effective means lowering the risk level. The characteristics of the interplanetary flights projects make it necessary to develop a special system of telemedicine support with an accent on the onboard facilities. Space crew medical support systems must be "intellectual". The telemedicine system of the interplanetary spacecraft should be based on the extremely large data bank, it's better say "knowledge bank", i.e. it should contain the mankind medical knowledge in miniature. At the same time the system capacity is determined by the flight conditions and existing or supposed factors of the effect on the crew. It can be complemented and concretized from the Earth during the flight. Crew interaction with this system will be built on symbiotic "man-machine" combination where a man has a creative inception, adaptability, common sense and intuition, he or she is irreplaceable in situations when nonstandard decisions should be taken in conditions of time and ingoing parameters shortage. A physician's presence in the crew of the spacecraft will decrease the medical risk of the mission. It's quite natural that the effective operations of this knowledge system carried out autonomously by the crew physician or earth-based service can function only if the system is based on the artificial intelligence principles, neuro information systems with the highest degree of analytical functions and prognostical capabilities of the models. Development of telemedicine technologies will greatly change an extent and level of the interference into a crewmember organism. Interplanetary flight support telemedicine solutions present a new quality of simulation and influence systems. They're not simply a new instrument opening promising opportunities to improve flight medical support systems. They integrate information technologies with biology, physics and chemistry. It's a new interdisciplinary technological breakthrough.

Toward an understanding of global change: Initial priorities for US contributions to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

A limited number of high-priority research initiatives are recommended for early implementation as part of the U.S. contribution to the preparatory phase of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. The recommendations are based on the committee's analysis of the most critical gaps in the scientific knowledge needed to understand the changes that are occurring in the earth system not being addressed by existing programs. The report articulates a number of important key issues and interactions that characterize global change in the geosphere-biosphere system on time scales of decades to centuries; identifies the knowledge that is the most urgently needed to improve understanding of those issues and interactions; and formulates initial priorities for initial U.S. contributions to the IGBP, recognizing the contributions of other ongoing and proposed programs.

Living with a Star: New Opportunities in Sun-Climate Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

Living With a Star is a NASA initiative employing the combination of dedicated spacecraft with targeted research and modeling efforts to improve what we know of solar effects of all kinds on the Earth and its surrounding space environment, with particular emphasis on those that have significant practical impacts on life and society. The highest priority among these concerns is the subject of this report: the potential effects of solar variability on regional and global climate, including the extent to which solar variability has contributed to the well-documented warming of the Earth in the last 100 years. Understanding how the climate system reacts to external forcing from the Sun will also greatly improve our knowledge of how climate will respond to other climate drivers, including those of anthropogenic origin. A parallel element of the LWS program addresses solar effects on space weather : the impulsive emissions of charged particles, short-wave electromagnetic radiation and magnetic disturbances in the upper atmosphere and near-Earth environment that also affect life and society. These include a wide variety of solar impacts on aeronautics, astronautics, electric power transmission, and national defense. Specific examples are (1) the impacts of potentially- damaging high energy radiation and atomic particles of solar origin on satellites and satellite operations, spacecraft electronics systems and components, electronic communications, electric power distribution grids, navigational and GPS systems, and high altitude aircraft; and (2) the threat of sporadic, high-energy solar radiation to astronauts and high altitude aircraft passengers and crews. Elements of the LWS program include an array of dedicated spacecraft in near- Earth and near-Sun orbits that will closely study and observe both the Sun itself and the impacts of its variations on the Earth's radiation belts and magnetosphere, the upper atmosphere, and ionosphere. These spacecraft, positioned to study and monitor changing conditions in the Sun-Earth neighborhood, will also serve as sentinels of solar storms and impulsive events.

Exploratory visualization of earth science data in a Semantic Web context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, X.; Fox, P. A.

2012-12-01

Earth science data are increasingly unlocked from their local 'safes' and shared online with the global science community as well as the average citizen. The European Union (EU)-funded project OneGeology-Europe (1G-E, www.onegeology-europe.eu) is a typical project that promotes works in that direction. The 1G-E web portal provides easy access to distributed geological data resources across participating EU member states. Similar projects can also be found in other countries or regions, such as the geoscience information network USGIN (www.usgin.org) in United States, the groundwater information network GIN-RIES (www.gw-info.net) in Canada and the earth science infrastructure AuScope (www.auscope.org.au) in Australia. While data are increasingly made available online, we currently face a shortage of tools and services that support information and knowledge discovery with such data. One reason is that earth science data are recorded in professional language and terms, and people without background knowledge cannot understand their meanings well. The Semantic Web provides a new context to help computers as well as users to better understand meanings of data and conduct applications. In this study we aim to chain up Semantic Web technologies (e.g., vocabularies/ontologies and reasoning), data visualization (e.g., an animation underpinned by an ontology) and online earth science data (e.g., available as Web Map Service) to develop functions for information and knowledge discovery. We carried out a case study with data of the 1G-E project. We set up an ontology of geological time scale using the encoding languages of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) and OWL (Web Ontology Language) from W3C (World Wide Web Consortium, www.w3.org). Then we developed a Flash animation of geological time scale by using the ActionScript language. The animation is underpinned by the ontology and the interrelationships between concepts of geological time scale are visualized in the animation. We linked the animation and the ontology to the online geological data of 1G-E project and developed interactive applications. The animation was used to show legends of rock age layers in geological maps dynamically. In turn, these legends were used as control panels to filter out and generalize geospatial features of certain rock ages on map layers. We tested the functions with maps of various EU member states. As a part of the initial results, legends for rock age layers of EU individual national maps were generated respectively, and the functions for filtering and generalization were examined with the map of United Kingdom. Though new challenges are rising in the tests, like those caused by synonyms (e.g., 'Lower Cambrian' and 'Terreneuvian'), the initial results achieved the designed goals of information and knowledge discovery by using the ontology-underpinned animation. This study shows that (1) visualization lowers the barrier of ontologies, (2) integrating ontologies and visualization adds value to online earth science data services, and (3) exploratory visualization supports the procedure of data processing as well as the display of results.

Magellan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Of all the planets in the solar system, Venus is the most like our own Earth in size, mass, and distance from the Sun. The motions of our planetary "twin" were known to the ancients, and its apparent changes in shape, similar to the phases of the Moon, were first studied by Galileo more than four centuries ago. In the modern era, it is by far the most visited world in the solar system - more than 20 spacecraft from the Soviet Union and the United States have been sent there since the early 1960's. The clouds of Venus have been probed, the structure and composition of its atmosphere measured, its landscape photographed, and its rocks chemically analyzed by automated landers. Yet, for all our fascination with Venus, we have only a sketchy, general knowledge of the planet's surface. While the other three "terrestrial" worlds - Earth, Mercury, and Mars have long since been mapped, details of the face of Venus are still largely unknown, due to the planet's dense, constant cloud cover. The clouds prevent us from ever photographing the solid surface, even from space, with conventional cameras. Beginning in the early 1960s, scientists on Earth began to counter this problem by using radar waves, which, unlike visible light, are able to penetrate the Venusian clouds and reflect off the solid planet back to Earth. With the help of computer processing, these radar reflections can be turned into pictures of the Venus surface. Earth-based radar imaging is thus extremely valuable. but it also is limited-Venus always shows the same hemisphere to us when it is near enough in its orbit for high-resolution study, so only a fraction of the planet can be explored from Earth.

Dr. Robert Goddard

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-04

Dr. Robert Goddard and colleagues at Roswell, New Mexico. Successful test of May 19, 1937. Dr. Robert Goddard is holding the cap and pilot parachute, parts of the successful operation. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Impact of space on science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elachi, Charles

1993-01-01

The advent of the capability to conduct space-based measurements has revolutionized the study of the Earth, the planetary system and the astrophysical universe. The resultant knowledge has yielded insights into the management of our planet's resources and provides intellectual enrichment for our civilization. New investigation techniques hold promise for extending the scope of space science to address topics in fundamental physics such as gravitational waves and certain aspects of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

NASA's Pleiades Supercomputer Crunches Data For Groundbreaking Analysis and Visualizations

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-11-23

The Pleiades supercomputer at NASA's Ames Research Center, recently named the 13th fastest computer in the world, provides scientists and researchers high-fidelity numerical modeling of complex systems and processes. By using detailed analyses and visualizations of large-scale data, Pleiades is helping to advance human knowledge and technology, from designing the next generation of aircraft and spacecraft to understanding the Earth's climate and the mysteries of our galaxy.

Life origination and development hydrate theory (LOH-Theory) in the context of biological, physicochemical, astrophysical, and paleontological studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ostrovskii, V. E.; Kadyshevich, E. A.

2014-04-01

Till now, we formulated and developed the Life Origination Hydrate Theory (LOH-Theory) and Mitosis and Replication Hydrate Theory (MRHTheory) as the instruments for understanding the physical and chemical mechanisms applied by Nature for the living matter origination and propagation. This work is aimed at coordination of these theories with the paleontological and astrophysical knowledges and hypotheses of the Earth and Solar System remote histories.

March 2015 Solar Eclipse

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Within the penumbra, the eclipse is partial (left), but within the umbra, the Moon completely covers the Sun (right). NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

From Columbus to Columbia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morain, Stanley A.

On the eve of Christopher Columbus's historic voyage to the New World, the international community of remote sensing and mapping sciences is poised to lead a new, environmentally conscious world into the 21st century. Developments in remote sensing and GIS technology during the past 25 years have paved the way for a modern round of earth exploration that could well equal in lasting importance the geographic achievement of Columbus, 500 years ago. Human experience has evolved from land-lubbing to sea-faring, air-faring and now space-faring so that in future all four modes will be used to enhacce our understanding of earth systems. Columbus "dead reckoned" his place into history by sailing the southern arm of the Atlantic Gyre westward to the Bahamas. For reasons beyond his knowledge, he was "lost" almost from the moment he departed; and to this day, his landfall is placed at several islands between Grand Turk at latitude 21.5°N and San Salvador at 24°N. His headings, nautical speeds, and drift are all subjects of controversy. Today, with global positioning systems, scientists and entrepreneurs can triangulate with considerable accuracy almost any point on the earth's surface, day or night; and, with a fourth satellite, can determine elevation. The same satellite constellation can monitor the speeds and headings of land, sea, and air transportation carriers for the benefit of all international commerce - a knowledge that would have been the envy of Spain's Admiral of the Ocean Seas throughout his search for spices, souls, and gold. We can only imagine what he and his captains might have given for a nightly satellite weather report, let alone images by which to navigate.

Providing Elementary Teachers in South Texas with Professional Development to Improve Earth Science Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borrego, H.; Ellins, K. K.

2011-12-01

Through three years of participation in the TeXas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution, an NSF-sponsored teacher professional development program, my knowledge of earth science, new pedagogical approaches, and confidence has improved dramatically. I have also received instructional materials and learned how to access high quality online resources and use a variety of web-based tools. In this session, I will share my experiences and report on how I used my own learning to help both teachers and students to become more earth science literate individuals. Earth Science test scores at the elementary level throughout South Texas are consistently low in comparison to other regions in the state. The majority of the teachers lack the content-knowledge, confidence, or experience to teach Earth Sciences. My TXESS Revolution experience helped me to understand the needs of these teachers and to identify teaching resources that would be useful to them. Particularly noteworthy are TERC's EarthLabs: Earth System Science and GLOBE activities. Although these Earthlab investigations are designed for high schools students, I demonstrated how they could be adapted for elementary students. As a result, I have provided professional development in the Earth Sciences to about 300 South Texas elementary teachers. TXESS Revolution has also equipped me to empower the students I teach. My students this past year presented their challenge Legacy Cycle Project to the community. The TXESS Revolution teamed up with the Texas Water Development Board to deliver training on the implementation of a new online challenged-based curriculum called the Water Exploration Legacy Cycles. This training gave me the tools to guide my students learning through authentic scientific research. To carry out their challenge, students researched an area of interest, read literature, consulted with experts in the field, consider different prospective, and presented their final products via PowerPoint, poster, public announcement, and pamphlet to the community. From great farming soil for organic gardens, to healthy recipes for diabetes and obesity health problems, our community benefited from the authentic scientific research these students presented. The results and knowledge gain by these 5th grade students at Quest Academy was impressive and top-rated by the community. In addition to providing professional development to teachers, I was asked to write the 5th grade science curriculum for IDEA Public School. I used my training in Earth Science by Design, offered by TXESS Revolution in partnership with TERC to accomplish the task. Teachers at Quest Academy followed this framework closely. I believe it is partially responsible for our district receiving an Exemplary rating by Texas Education Agency for two consecutive years. Only one more districts in South Texas was awarded the Exemplary rating. As a result of being part of TXESS Revolution, I am more confident in my teaching practice and I have been recently offered a part-time lecturer job at UT-Pan American teaching an undergraduate course in science for elementary teachers. I have made a commitment to continue to empower both teachers I train and students I teach.

NAAMES Photo Essay

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Only a stone’s throw away, the R/V Atlantis is dwarfed by the immensity of the sea in every direction. Travelling with NAAMES, one is immediately reminded that Earth is much more of a water planet than a land planet, with oceans defining the vast majority of the surface. --- The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) is a five year investigation to resolve key processes controlling ocean system function, their influences on atmospheric aerosols and clouds and their implications for climate. Michael Starobin joined the NAAMES field campaign on behalf of Earth Expeditions and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Office of Communications. He presented stories about the important, multi-disciplinary research being conducted by the NAAMES team, with an eye towards future missions on the NASA drawing board. This is a NAAMES photo essay put together by Starobin, a collection of 49 photographs and captions. Photo and Caption Credit: Michael Starobin NASA image use policy NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Finds Dead Stars 'Polluted with Planet Debris'

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This is an artist’s impression of a white dwarf (burned-out) star accreting rocky debris left behind by the star’s surviving planetary system. It was observed by Hubble in the Hyades star cluster. At lower right, an asteroid can be seen falling toward a Saturn-like disk of dust that is encircling the dead star. Infalling asteroids pollute the white dwarf’s atmosphere with silicon. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) --- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found the building blocks for Earth-sized planets in an unlikely place-- the atmospheres of a pair of burned-out stars called white dwarfs. These dead stars are located 150 light-years from Earth in a relatively young star cluster, Hyades, in the constellation Taurus. The star cluster is only 625 million years old. The white dwarfs are being polluted by asteroid-like debris falling onto them. NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Thermal Orbital Environmental Parameter Study on the Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS) Using Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sharp, John R.; McConnaughey, Paul K. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The natural thermal environmental parameters used on the Space Station Program (SSP 30425) were generated by the Space Environmental Effects Branch at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) utilizing extensive data from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), a series of satellites which measured low earth orbit (LEO) albedo and outgoing long-wave radiation. Later, this temporal data was presented as a function of averaging times and orbital inclination for use by thermal engineers in NASA Technical Memorandum TM 4527. The data was not presented in a fashion readily usable by thermal engineering modeling tools and required knowledge of the thermal time constants and infrared versus solar spectrum sensitivity of the hardware being analyzed to be used properly. Another TM was recently issued as a guideline for utilizing these environments (NASA/TM-2001-211221) with more insight into the utilization by thermal analysts. This paper gives a top-level overview of the environmental parameters presented in the TM and a study of the effects of implementing these environments on an ongoing MSFC project, the Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS), compared to conventional orbital parameters that had been historically used.

A Rapid Prototyping Look at NASA's Next Generation Earth-Observing Satellites; Opportunities for Global Change Research and Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cecil, L.; Young, D. F.; Parker, P. A.; Eckman, R. S.

2006-12-01

The NASA Applied Sciences Program extends the results of Earth Science Division (ESD) research and knowledge beyond the scientific and research communities to contribute to national priority applications with societal benefits. The Applied Sciences Program focuses on, (1) assimilation of NASA Earth-science research results and their associated uncertainties to improve decision support systems and, (2) the transition of NASA research results to evolve improvements in future operational systems. The broad range of Earth- science research results that serve as inputs to the Applied Sciences Program are from NASA's Research and Analysis Program (R&A) within the ESD. The R&A Program has established six research focus areas to study the complex processes associated with Earth-system science; Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Climate Variability and Change, Earth Surface and Interior, Water and Energy Cycle, and Weather. Through observations-based Earth-science research results, NASA and its partners are establishing predictive capabilities for future projections of natural and human perturbations on the planet. The focus of this presentation is on the use of research results and their associated uncertainties from several of NASA's nine next generation missions for societal benefit. The newly launched missions are, (1) CloudSat, and (2) CALIPSO (Cloud Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations), both launched April 28, 2006, and the planned next generation missions include, (3) the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), (4) the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM), (5) the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), (6) Glory, for measuring the spatial and temporal distribution of aerosols and total solar irradiance for long-term climate records, (7) Aquarius, for measuring global sea surface salinity, (8) the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), and (9) the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) for measuring long-term climate trends and global biological productivity. NASA's Applied Sciences Program is taking a scientifically rigorous systems engineering approach to facilitate rapid prototyping of potential uses of the projected research capabilities of these new missions into decision support systems. This presentation includes an example of a prototype experiment that focuses on two of the Applied Sciences Program's twelve National Applications focus areas, Water Management and Energy Management. This experiment is utilizing research results and associated uncertainties from existing Earth-observation missions as well as from several of NASA's nine next generation missions. This prototype experiment is simulating decision support analysis and research results leading to priority management and/or policy issues concentrating on climate change and uncertainties in alpine areas on the watershed scale.

TROPIX: A solar electric propulsion flight experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hickman, J. Mark; Hillard, G. Barry; Oleson, Steven R.

1993-01-01

The Transfer Orbit Plasma Interaction Experiment (TROPIX) is a proposed scientific experiment and flight demonstration of a solar electric propulsion vehicle. Its mission goals are to significantly increase our knowledge of Earth's magnetosphere and its associated plasma environment and to demonstrate an operational solar electric upper stage (SEUS) for small launch vehicles. The scientific investigations and flight demonstration technology experiments are uniquely interrelated because of the spacecraft's interaction with the surrounding environment. The data obtained will complement previous studies of the Earth's magnetosphere and space plasma environment by supplying the knowledge necessary to attain the strategic objectives of the NASA Office of Space Science. This first operational use of a primary ion propulsion vehicle, designed to withstand the harsh environments from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous Earth orbit, may lead to the development of a new class of electric propulsion upper stages or space-based transfer vehicles and may improve future spacecraft design and safety.