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Hydro

Hydrological Sciences

Our Focus

Our focus within Hydrological Sciences is to develop remote sensing and modeling techniques which will improve our understanding of how the various components of the hydrological cycle interact over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, thus producing important information about the current structure of global hydrology and how man kind is changing the hydrological environment.

Mean annual fluxes (1000 km3/yr) of the global water cycle, and associated uncertainties, during the first decade of the millennium. White numbers are based on observational products and data integrating models. Blue numbers are estimates that have been optimized by forcing water and energy budget closure, taking into account uncertainty in the original estimates.  From Rodell, M., Beaudoing, H. K., L’Ecuyer, T. S., Olson, W. S., Famiglietti, J. S., et al. (2015).

Students Post Docs and Faculty

Snow website

Water Resources

 HYDROLOGICAL SCIENCES LAB - Photo Taken October 2, 2019

Field Campaigns

February 2017

SnowEx

Under the leadership of Dr. Edward Kim, the 2017 SnowEx airborne and field campaign was carried out in Colorado during February 6-24. For more information please visit https://snow.nasa.gov/snowex.

NASA Glenn pilot Kurt Blankenship
NASA Goddard SLAP Instrument Manager Albert Wu
NASA Goddard SLAP Lead Engineer Eugenia De Marco
NASA Langley Quality Engineer Carey Smith
NASA Langley Pilot Les Kagey
NASA Langley Crew Chief Scott Sims
NASA Langley Crew Matt Brame
NASA Goddard SLAP Principal Investigator Ed Kim

Space Missions

smap1
Launch

SMAP uses a 1.4 GHz microwave radiometer, a high-resolution 1.2 GHz radar, and a combination of the two instruments to measure surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state, providing new opportunities for scientific advances and societal benefits. 

Interactions between aerosols, cloud particles, precipitation, and radiation are central to understanding and predicting weather and severe storm development, air quality, and climate change. Key to ACCP science is that virtually every cloud particle, raindrop and snowflake is born from an aerosol particle, which intimately links aerosol and cloud/precipitation processes.

The Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission goal is to optimize how we examine links among tiny particles known as "aerosols," clouds, atmospheric convection, and precipitation. AOS will deliver key data for improved forecasts of weather, air quality and climate. How? By providing unmatched insight into the vertical structure of our atmosphere with observations from space, our skies, and on the ground.