Weekly Highlights: April 2018

Week ending April 27th

Carroll. Carroll, M. (618/SSAI), and T. V. Loboda, 2018. The sign, magnitude and potential drivers of change in surface water extent in Canadian tundra. Environmental Research Letters. 13, 4. 045009. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aab794/meta
Melocik. Brandt, M., K. Rasmussen, P. Hiernaux, S. Herrmann, C.J. Tucker (610), X. Tong, F. Tian, O. Mertz, L. Kergoat, C. Mbow, J.L. David (61/SSAI), K.A. Melocik (618/SSAI), M. Dendoncker, C. Vincke, R. Fensholt, 2018. Reduction of tree cover in West African woodlands and promotion in semi-arid farmlands. Nature Geoscience.
Poulter. Kondo, M., K. Ichii, P. K. Patra, J. G. Canadell, B. Poulter (618), S. Sitch, L. Calle, Y. Y. Liu, A. I. J. M. van Dijk, T. Saeki, N. Saigusa, P. Friedlingstein, A. Arneth, A. Harper, A. K. Jain, E. Kato, C. Koven, F. Li, T. A. M. Pugh, S. Zaehle, A. Wiltshire, F. Chevallier, T. Maki, T. Nakamura, Y. Niwa, and C. Rödenbeck, 2018. Land use change and El Niño-Southern Oscillation drive decadal carbon balance shifts in Southeast Asia. Nature Communications 9:1154.
Armstrong. Armstrong, A. (618/USRA), R. Fischer, A. Huth, H. Shugart, and T. Fatoyinbo (618), 2018. Simulating Forest Dynamics of Lowland Rainforests in Eastern Madagascar. Forests. http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/9/4/214

Qiaozhen. Mu, Qiaozhen (618/SSAI), Amit Angal (618/SSAI), Xu Geng (618/SSAI), Aisheng Wu (618/SSAI), and Xiaoxiong Xiong (618) presented "Evaluation of the on-orbit response versus scan-angle (RVS) performance for the MODIS reflective solar bands using multiple ground targets" at SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference in Orlando, FL (April 15-19, 2018)
Qiaozhen. Mu, Qiaozhen (618/SSAI), Tiejun Chang (618/SSAI), Aisheng Wu (618/SSAI), and Xiaoxiong Xiong (618) presented "Evaluating the long-term stability and response versus scan angle effect in the SNPP VIIRS SDR reflectance product using a deep convective cloud technique" at SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference in Orlando, FL (April 15-19, 2018)
Ashish. Shrestha, Ashish (618/SSAI), Amit Angal (618/SSAI), and Xiaoxiong Xiong (618) presented "Evaluation of MODIS and Sentinel-3 SLSTR thermal emissive bands calibration consistency using Dome C" at SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference in Orlando, FL (April 15-19, 2018)
Ashish. Shrestha, Ashish (618/SSAI), Truman Wilson (618/SSAI), Aisheng Wu, (618/SSAI), and Xiaoxiong Xiong (618) presented "Evaluating calibration consistency of Terra and Aqua MODIS LWIR PV bands using Dome C" at SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference in Orlando, FL (April 15-19, 2018)

Fatoyinbo. On Friday, April 13th, a feature story was published at NASA.GOV highlighting the work of Lola Fatoyinbo (618), Bruce Cook (618), Doug Morton (618), and David Lagomasino (618/UMD). The story, titled "NASA Mapping Hurricane Damage to Everglades, Puerto Rico Forests," summarizes a Rapid Response project, measuring the extent and degree of damage to South Florida and Puerto Rico following 2017’s unique hurricane season. For more information:

March 19-23, an AEORNET workshop, hosted by the Code 618 AERONET team, for the global calibration partners from Lille France, Paris France and Valladolid, Spain. The mission was to update all partners on the Version 3 AERONET processing and data delivery system, refine and re-impose standardization of all calibration procedures, as a result of incorporating a new generation of instruments. A comprehensive summary of action items were identified for NASA and French AERONET staff that is expected to improved efficiency and accuracy of calibration over the next year, when two new products will be released: Lunar AOD and inversion products from hybrid sky scans.

Poulter. Kondo, M., K. Ichii, P. K. Patra, J. G. Canadell, B. Poulter (618), S. Sitch, L. Calle, Y. Y. Liu, A. I. J. M. van Dijk, T. Saeki, N. Saigusa, P. Friedlingstein, A. Arneth, A. Harper, A. K. Jain, E. Kato, C. Koven, F. Li, T. A. M. Pugh, S. Zaehle, A. Wiltshire, F. Chevallier, T. Maki, T. Nakamura, Y. Niwa, and C. Rödenbeck. 2018. Land use change and El Niño-Southern Oscillation drive decadal carbon balance shifts in Southeast Asia. Nature Communications 9:1154. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03374-xhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03374-x

Arias. Children, teens and their families had an opportunity to learn about the ICESat-2 mission and experience ICESat-2’s altimeter interactive exhibit at the 5th USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on April 7-8, 2018, in Washington, DC. While some participants had their heights measured with the exhibit’s mock-up satellite, others leveraged NASA’s Scavenger Hunt to ask lots of questions about the mission and how it can help our Earth! Shown in the picture are Kate Ramsayer (130/Telophase Corp) and Sabrina Delgado Arias (618/SSAI) who staffed the exhibit’s table during this public outreach event on Sunday afternoon.

Lagomasino. David Lagomasino (618/UMD) and Priscilla Baltezar (618/UMD) were invited to be keynote speakers at Humboldt State University (HSU) for a Raza Empowerment Day. The purpose was for Priscilla and David to discuss their background, experience entering the NASA workforce, current research projects, and why diversity is important to NASA research and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. In addition they also interacted with students in the Indian Natural Resources, Science, and Engineering Program (INRSEP).
Fatoyinbo. On March 19th, Lola Fatoyinbo (618) gave the Sigma Xi distinguished Lecturer Seminar at SUNY Purchase College, NY entitled: "Tree hugging meets Rocket Science-Space Aged Estimation of Global Carbon Stocks." The audience was college students in sciences and other majors.
Fatoyinbo. On Friday, March 27th, Lola Fatoyinbo (618) presented at the Smithsonian FutureCon event entitled ‘NASA science in the Extremes’. The event was part of the AwesomeCon Conference in Washington DC. The event was featured on NASA’s Social media platforms and covered by the media: