THE EARTH OBSERVER November/December 2002, Vol
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rvin bse g S O ys th t r e a m E THE EARTH OBSERVER November/December 2002, Vol. 14, No. 6 In this issue ... EDITOR’S CORNER Meeting/Workshop Summaries Michael King CERES Science Team Meeting ......... 9 EOS Senior Project Scientist Aura Science and Validation Team I’m pleased to share with you news that NASA was nominated for and has Meeting ........................................ 13 won three of Popular Science magazine’s “Best of What’s New” awards for International Workshop on Surface Albedo Product Validation .......... 17 2002. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), the Aqua GOFC/GOLD Regional Workshop . 19 mission, and the Mars Odyssey mission were chosen in the Aviation/Space SAFARI 2000 Synthesis Workshop. 24 category of the magazine’s annual awards program. The December 2002 issue Alaska SAR Facility User Working of Popular Science features 100 winners in 10 categories. The winners are Group ........................................... 26 considered the best among thousands of new and innovative products and DAAC Alliance Data Interoperability Workshop ..................................... 27 services reviewed annually by the magazine, and represent significant advancements in their categories. Other Items of Interest An Overview of ICESat .................... 3 Of the three NASA missions, two are within the Earth Science Enterprise Joanne Simpson Honored ................ 16 (ESE). GRACE is nine months into its mission to precisely measure the Earth’s shifting water masses and map their effects on the Earth’s gravity field. A Mous Cahine Honored..................... 23 global gravity field map created from just 14 days of GRACE data is proving An Overview of SEEDS .................. 30 to be substantially more accurate than the combined results of more than Thirty Years of Airborne Research at the University of Washington ............ 35 three decades of satellite and surface measurements collected before GRACE (see map on next page). These new gravity maps provide unprecedented The “Firemapper” Airborne Sensor and Flight Plans to Support insight into variations in the weight of the Earth’s oceans and polar ice sheets, Validation of MODIS Fire Products which will greatly advance studies of ocean circulation and ice sheet mass. over Brazil ................................ 38 GRACE is a joint partnership between NASA and the German Aerospace Kudos ................................................ 42 Center. The University of Texas Center for Space Research has overall mission Shifts in Rice Farming Practices in China Reduce Methane Emis- responsibility, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the U.S. portion of sions ..................................... 43 the project for NASA. Regular Features Aqua is the latest in a series of larger EOS spacecraft dedicated to advancing EOS Scientists in the News ............. 44 our understanding of climate and global change. As its name implies, Aqua’s Earth Science Education Program instruments are primarily designed to gather information on the Earth’s Update ......................................... 46 water cycle. Aqua is enabling greatly improved understanding of the global Science Calendars ............................ 47 water cycle and its influence on the Earth’s climate system. All of Aqua’s six The Earth Observer Information/ Inquiries ........................ Back Cover Continued on page 2 THE EARTH OBSERVER • November/December 2002 Vol. 14 No. 6 meeting is the primary forum for sharing information on the latest EOS program and science activities, and this year focused on new science results from Aqua and other recently launched missions, including Jason-1, GRACE, and SAGE III. Aqua Project Scientist Claire Parkinson chaired a session on new science results from Aqua, and Terra Project Scientist Jon Ranson chaired a similar session on Terra. Both sessions emphasized integrated data sources from multiple missions. There was also a special session on Earth science applications, chaired by Ron Birk, Director of the NASA Headquarters Applications Division, which included several presentations by program managers 0 10 20 30 40 50 leading the 12 specific NASA themes GRAVITY EFFECT SENSED BY GRACE IN MICROMETERS involving human health and the First Data from GRACE. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment was selected by environment, community growth Popular Science magazine as one of three NASA recipients of “The Best of What’s New” award. management, public health, air and The image above is a grayscale version of a color graphic depicting the sensitivity of the two water quality, and others. GRACE satellites to changes in the Earth’s gravity field. The changes are measured using the K- band Ranging system onboard GRACE, which is sensitive to changes in distance down to one-tenth the width of a human hair. The influence of larger scale spatial features on gravity has been removed Finally, I’m happy to report the for this calculation so that smaller scale changes in gravity can be highlighted. The GRACE Science appointment of Steven Platnick as the Team will process this and similar images and expects to have a preliminary map of the Earth’s geoid—mean gravity field—by the Spring. Byron Tapley, GRACE Project Scientist, says, “ In 30 Aqua Deputy Project Scientist. Platnick days, the GRACE mission has exceeded the information gained [about Earth’s gravity field] in over recently joined Goddard Space Flight 30 years of previous study!” Center after having been a Research Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for the past 6 years. Platnick received his instruments are performing exception- I am pleased to be associated with these Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the ally well and are beginning to provide prestigious awards, and I hope you University of Arizona and his M.S. and validated data products and exciting share with me the sense of contribution B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering new science discoveries. In addition, and excitement that they bring. from Duke University and the Univer- data gathered from the MODIS and Together with several other important sity of California-Berkeley, respectively. CERES instruments on Aqua are operational and future EOS missions, He has had considerable experience complemented by identical instru- these recent accomplishments highlight with remote sensing of cloud optical ments on Aqua’s sibling satellite Terra, the significant scientific and societal properties using MODIS, AVHRR, and effectively doubling the data archive contributions of NASA’s Earth science MODIS Airborne Simulator data, and from these instruments, and enabling program. the generation of valuable blended has participated in numerous satellite data products. Aqua is also a joint The EOS Investigators Working Group validation airborne field campaigns. I international project among NASA, the meeting was held November 18-20 at look forward to his participation in National Space Development Agency the Turf Valley Resort and Conference Aqua validation and related activities. of Japan, and Brazil. Center in Ellicott City, MD. The IWG 2 THE EARTH OBSERVER • November/December 2002 Vol. 14, No. 6 An Overview of the Ice Clouds and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) — Jay Zwally, [email protected], NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, ICESat Project Scientist — Christopher Shuman, [email protected], NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, ICESat Deputy Project Scientist — Waleed Abdalati, [email protected], NASA Headquarters, ICESat Program Scientist — Bob Schutz, [email protected], University of Texas, ICESat Science Team Leader — Jim Abshire, [email protected], NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, ICESat Instrument Scientist — Jim Watzin, [email protected], NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Project Manager “Possible changes in the mass balance of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are fundamental gaps in our understanding and are crucial to the quantification and refinement of sea-level forecasts.” —Sea-Level Change Report, National Research Council (1990) “In light of…abrupt ice-sheet changes affecting global climate and sea level, enhanced emphasis on ice-sheet character- ization over time is essential.” —Abrupt Climate Change Report, National Research Council (2002) Introduction to ICESat Are the ice sheets that still blanket the Earth’s poles growing or shrinking? Will global sea level rise or fall? NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) has developed the Ice Clouds and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission to provide answers to these and other questions - to help fulfill NASA’s mission to understand and protect our home planet. The primary goal of FIGURE 1: The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on the Ice, Clouds, and ICESat is to quantify ice sheet mass land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) spacecraft immediately following its initial mechanical integration on June 18, 2002. Note that ICESat’s solar arrays have not yet been attached. balance and understand how changes Left – Gordon Casto, NASA/GSFC. Right – John Bishop, Mantech. Photo Credit: in the Earth’s atmosphere and climate Courtesy of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. 3 THE EARTH OBSERVER • November/December 2002 Vol. 14 No. 6 ice sheets are an average of 2.4 km level is believed to be rising about 2 cm (7900 ft) thick, cover 10% of the Earth’s (0.8 in) every 10 years, less rapidly than land area, and contain 77% of the at the end of the ice age, but still Earth’s fresh water (33 million km3 or 8 significantly.