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On May 1, 2009, Spirit got stuck. The rover was trying to negotiate an
incline at a plateau area called Home Plate when one of its wheels broke
through a crusty layer. The soil below the crust had very low cohesion which
made it difficult for Spirit to gain traction. The Jet Propulsion Lab at Cal
Tech in Pasadena, CA, built a simulation box filled with Martian-like soil
and a lighter-weight rover (to compensate for Mars lesser gravity) to figure
out how to get Spirit free from its predicament. In January 2010, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to get Spirit un-stuck, JPL made a decision to abandon attempts to extricate Spirit. The problem with being stuck is movement, or the lack thereof. “I’m stuck!” implies that I once had motion, I was headed in a direction, and that now I’m not. Spirit had been headed in a certain direction; it had movement …but that all came to a screeching halt. What’s interesting is that mission directors did not give up on Spirit. Rather than abandon the rover as a hopeless cause, rather than throw up their hands and rest on Spirit’s already extended and successful mission history, JPL decided to change Spirit’s mission. Spirit is not mechanically crippled, though it’s suffered a couple of wheel malfunctions. It’s simply found itself in a situation it can’t get itself out of. Ever happen to you? Writers call it a “block.” Baseball players call it a “slump.” From time to time we all get a little down and we feel stuck. When you really can’t continue in the direction you’d hoped, consider redefining your mission. You and I might call that “adapting.” You’re not down and out, you’re just stuck. Like Spirit, you’ve got some energy, you’ve got some resources available and you’ve got people you can talk to. Spirit found a new mission conducting stationary experiments. So can you. You need to do three things when you are inextricably stuck. First you need to take stock of all the assets and resources you have available to you at the moment. Write these down. Then you need to get a good picture of where you’re at, what your situation is, and what options are available. Write these down too. Finally, talk to people who are not emotionally involved in your situation, people who can give you ideas, who can contribute to your list of resources and, especially, who can give you encouragement, motivation and inspiration. Without doing these three things you’ll likely remain stuck and, worse, paralyzed. But if you do them, you’ll have a great chance of becoming functional, remaining useful and discovering significance in the lives of those who receive the benefits of your new mission. _____________________________________________________
NASA leader says bright future for SoCal, JPL ______________________________________________________________ Five years after Katrina, there's good news, bad news and some ugly newsBy Steve Tracton, The Washington Post Five years after Katrina, there's good news, bad news and some ugly news in the world of hurricane forecasting. The good news, as covered in
Part 1 of this series, is the considerable improvement made over the
past few decades in predicting the track of tropical cyclones (TC). The bad news is that the current accuracy of track forecasts is not good enough beyond a day or two (at most) to provide the reliable information necessary to, for example, confidently narrow watches and warnings to only those coastal regions likely to be affected. The ugly news? That virtually no progress has been made in forecasting TC intensity (maximum wind speed). Really ugly is that there is no skill in predicting rapid changes in intensity nor in a storm's size and structure, which along with a storm's track govern the distribution and radial extent of damaging winds and heaviest rainfall, and help determine where along the coast the storm surge will be at its worst. Four fundamental requirements are necessary (but not necessarily sufficient) for improving on current TC prediction capabilities:
Three major, collaborative and complementary research programs are currently underway to address the needs for improving TC prediction: NOAA's Intensity Forecast Experiment (IFEX), NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP), and the National Science Foundation's PRE-Depression Investigation of Cloud systems in the Tropics (PREDICT). Collectively, the experiments involve flying specially equipped aircraft, including an unmanned Global Hawk, through, above and around tropical cyclones at different stages in their life cycle -- from formation and early organization, to peak intensity and subsequent landfall or decay over open water. The intent is to collect unprecedented amounts of data during the nominal peak of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico hurricane season. More specifically, researchers will gather data on temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and characteristics of small particles, possibly including African dust, which provide the nuclei for condensation of atmospheric moisture. The latter is especially important since the process of condensation releases the heat energy required for genesis and survival of all TCs. Among the objectives is to learn more about how and why TCs form and evolve. One of the crucial questions is under what situations and circumstances do some clusters of tropical thunderstorms grow and turn deadly (see figure below), while others simply fade away. Ed Zipser, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah, justifiably refers to improved understanding of hurricane formation and changes in intensity over a storm's life cycle as the 'holy grail' of hurricane science.
It's important to recognize that uncovering the secrets of the "holy grail" will contribute significantly to the knowledge base relevant to understanding the structure of TCs and the factors contributing to storm track. These research programs are expected to yield a wealth of data and information to digest and incorporate into experimental forecast models. Importantly, this includes development of advanced ensemble prediction systems and strategies to improve estimates in the level of forecast uncertainty, or confidence, which can vary from one set of model runs to the next. This includes accounting for uncertainties arising from errors in the initial conditions fed into models (current sate of the atmosphere), as well as differences between various models. Along with results of previous and future research, it's hoped (expected?) that the current research will eventually lead to notable gains in operational forecast capabilities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), of course, is the single agency responsible for official TC predictions. All efforts by NOAA and in collaboration with its research partners (e.g., NASA, National Science Foundation) toward gains in the accuracy and value of those forecasts fall under the umbrella of NOAA's Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP). HFIP is a 10-year plan begun in 2008 to improve the accuracy, reliability and degree of confidence of TC forecasts and warnings with an emphasis on rapid intensity change. Specific HFIP goals are:
Meeting these goals would significantly improve forecast guidance and thereby enhance the ability of emergency management officials and individuals to make mitigation and preparedness decisions significantly further in advance of an approaching TC than now possible. Whether these goals are achieved or not depends significantly on maintaining momentum from current research efforts by ensuring proper funding for sufficient computer, technology and human resources over the next several years. The concern is not the science per se, but the impacts of possible (likely?) budget cuts among the government agencies participating in the research. (As I know well from personal experience and insights, requiring agencies to do more with less has definitively reached the limit of what's possible). ______________________________________________________________ Five years after Katrina, Harry Shearer's film tries to set record straightBy WWLTV.com  The time was nine months after Hurricane Katrina and the place was Tulane University. The university was holding a three-day conference called "Rebirth: People, Places and Culture in New Orleans." A keynote address by Brian Williams, managing editor and anchor of NBC Nightly News — which bills itself as "the largest single daily source of news in America" — had just ended and the scheduled Q&A session had begun. Harry Shearer, noted satirist, writer, actor, radio host, part-time resident and full-time defender of all things New Orleans, stepped up to the mic to ask a question he had "rehearsed all night," as he tells it. "I know Brian a little, and I wanted the question to be the appropriate blend of challenging and non-antagonistic," Shearer says. "So I got up and I said, 'We know you're smart, and we know you care because you were in the Superdome for two nights during the worst of it. So please, can you explain why a regular viewer of your broadcast, now nine months later, still doesn't know why New Orleans flooded?' He did a little introductory stuff, most of which was complimentary, and then he said, 'Honestly, we just feel that the emotional stories are more compelling for our audience.'" A look of bewilderment flashes across Shearer's face. "The 'Information Age' is a misnomer," he says. "These people are trafficking in video emoticons. That's what 'the news' is." Fast forward three-and-a-half years or so, and Shearer is in London watching President Barack Obama's town hall meeting in New Orleans on television. The president refers to Katrina as a "natural disaster" while making a larger point. "A firebomb went off in my head," Shearer recalls with a laugh. He realized the "messaging war" about what happened in the days and weeks after the storm was being lost. "At that moment I decided: What's a more effective way of getting this across than a documentary? And who here in the room with me could do that? Oh, nobody. Must be me, then. A couple of minutes later, I realized it had to be done for the fifth anniversary of the storm." The result of those epiphanies is The Big Uneasy, Harry Shearer's harrowing feature-length exploration of what really caused the catastrophic federal levee failures in New Orleans. The local premiere will take place on Aug. 26 at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The film debuts nationwide in some 200 theaters on Aug. 30, including a screening at the Prytania Theatre in the Garden District and another at The Theatres at Canal Place. After the Prytania screening, Shearer will participate in a Q&A session. Click here to view the trailer ______________________________________________________________
Scientists Map Origin of Large,
Underwater Hydrocarbon Plume in Gulf
Scientists funded by the
National
Science Foundation (NSF) and affiliated with the
Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have detected a plume of
hydrocarbons at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the
surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil
spill. The 1.2-mile-wide, 650-foot-high plume of trapped
hydrocarbons was detected during a ten day subsurface sampling effort from
June 19-28, 2010 near the wellhead. The results provide a snapshot of where
the oil has gone as surface slicks shrink and disappear. "These results create a clearer picture of where the oil
is in the Gulf," said Christopher Reddy, a WHOI marine geochemist and one of
the authors of a paper on the results that appears in this week's issue of
the journal Science. The study--which was enabled by three rapid response
grants from NSF's chemical oceanography program, with additional funding
from the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA through the Natural Resource Damage
Assessment Program--confirms once again that a continuous plume was found
"at petroleum hydrocarbon levels that are noteworthy and detectable," Reddy
said. The researchers measured petroleum hydrocarbons in the
plume and, using them as an investigative tool, determined that the source
of the plume could not have been natural oil seeps but had to have come from
the Deepwater Horizon blowout at the Macondo well.
"These findings confirm what NOAA and our federal partners
have reported about the presence and concentration of subsurface oil, and
provide an additional piece of the puzzle as we continue to aggressively
monitor the fate of the oil in the Gulf," said Steve Murawski, NOAA's chief
scientist. "Our collaborations with Woods Hole and other academic and
private research institutions are critical to the ongoing response and
recovery efforts." "This research illustrates the value of NSF's long-term
investment in state-of-the-art technology like Sentry so that it
can be deployed not only to advance basic knowledge but also in national
emergencies," said David Conover, director of NSF's Division of Ocean
Sciences. "Similarly, the NSF RAPID award program enables scientists
to quickly arrive on the scene and begin rigorous study of episodic events
like this oil spill." NSF has so far issued a total of 90 RAPID grant awards to
investigators; the grants to date are worth $10.2 million for study of the
spill. NSF has invested an additional $3 million in ship-related operating
costs. "The payoff occurs when peer-reviewed results like these
reported today are made public," said Conover. The research team based its findings on some 57,000
discrete chemical analyses measured in real time during a June 19-28, 2010,
scientific cruise aboard the R/V Endeavor, which is owned by NSF
and operated by the University of Rhode Island. WHOI President and Director Susan K. Avery praised the
researchers for their "prudence and thoroughness, as they conducted an
important, elegant study under difficult conditions in a timely manner." The scientists accomplished the feat using two advanced
technologies: the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry and a
type of underwater mass spectrometer known as TETHYS (Tethered
Yearlong Spectrometer). "We've shown conclusively not only that a plume developed,
but also defined its origin and near-field structure," said Richard Camilli
of WHOI's Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department, chief scientist
of the cruise and lead author of the paper. "In June, we observed the plume migrating slowly [at about
0.17 miles per hour] southwest of the source of the blowout," said Camilli. The researchers began tracking it about three miles from
the well head and out to about 22 miles (35 kilometers)--until the approach
of Hurricane Alex forced them away from the study area. The levels and distributions of the petroleum hydrocarbons
show that "the plume is not caused by natural [oil] seeps" in the Gulf of
Mexico, Camilli said. The plume has shown that the oil "was persisting for
longer periods than we would have expected," Camilli said.
The key to the discovery and mapping of the plume was the
use of the mass spectrometer TETHYS integrated into the Sentry
AUV. Camilli developed the mass spectrometer in close
industrial partnership with Monitor Instruments Co. in Cheswick, Pa.,
through a grant from the National Ocean Partnership Program. The TETHYS--which is small enough to fit within a
shoebox--is capable of identifying minute quantities of petroleum and other
chemical compounds in seawater instantly. Sentry, funded by NSF and
developed and operated by WHOI, is capable of exploring the ocean down to
14,764 feet (4,500 meters) depth. Equipped with its advanced analytical systems, it was able
to criss-cross plume boundaries continuously 19 times to help determine the
trapped plume's size, shape, and composition. This knowledge of the plume structure guided the team in
collecting physical samples for further laboratory analyses using a
traditional oceanographic tool, a cable-lowered water sampling system that
measures conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD). This CTD, however, was instrumented with a TETHYS.
In each case, the mass spectrometer was used to positively identify areas
containing petroleum hydrocarbons. "We achieved our results because we had a unique
combination of scientific and technological skills," said Dana Yoerger, a
co-principal investigator and WHOI senior scientist. In previous research, Yoerger said, "investigators relied
mostly on a conventional technique: vertical profiling. "We used Sentry and TETHYS to scan large areas
horizontally, which enabled us to target our vertical profiles more
effectively. Our methods provide much better information about the size and
shape of the plume." The researchers detected a class of petroleum hydrocarbons
at concentrations of more than 50 micrograms per liter. The water samples collected at these depths had no odor of
oil and were clear. "But that's not to say it isn't harmful to the
environment," said Reddy. The scientists benefited not only from new technology but
older methods as well. Contrary to previous predictions by other scientists, they
found no "dead zones," regions of significant oxygen depletion within the
plume where almost no fish or other marine animals could survive. They attributed the discrepancy to a potential problem
with more modern measuring devices that can give artificially low oxygen
readings when coated by oil. The team on Endeavor used an established chemical test
developed in the 1880s to check the concentration of dissolved oxygen in
water samples, called a Winkler titration. Of the dozens of samples analyzed for oxygen only a few
from the plume layer were below expected levels, and even these samples were
only slightly depleted. WHOI geochemist Benjamin Van Mooy, also a principal
investigator of the research team, said this finding could have significant
implications. "If the oxygen data from the plume layer are telling us it
isn't being rapidly consumed by microbes near the well," he said, "the
hydrocarbons could persist for some time. So it is possible that oil could
be transported considerable distances from the well before being degraded." The NSF RAPID program, which provides grants for projects
having a severe urgency and requiring quick-response research on natural
disasters or other unanticipated events, significantly speeded up the
acceptance of the WHOI scientific proposals. "In contrast to the usual six-to-eighteen-month lead time
for standard proposals, our plume study was funded two days after the
concept was proposed to NSF, and went from notification of the proposal's
acceptance to boarding the Endeavor in two-and-a-half weeks," Reddy said. "Very good science was done that will make a big
difference," Avery said. "This cruise represents an excellent example of how
non-federal research organizations can work with federal agencies and how
federal agencies can work together to respond to national disasters." Reddy said the results from this study and more samples
yet to be analyzed eventually could refine recent estimates about the amount
of the spilled oil that remains in the Gulf. Camilli said he and his WHOI colleagues are considering a
new research proposal to look for more plumes. Reddy said the WHOI team members know the chemical makeup
of some of the plume, but not all of it. Gas chromatographic analyses of plume samples confirm the
existence of benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, and total xylenes, together
called BTEX, at concentrations in excess of 50 micrograms per liter. "The plume is not pure oil," Camilli said. "But there are
oil compounds in there." It may be "a few months of laboratory analysis and
validation," Reddy said, before they know the entire inventory of chemicals
in the plume. Other WHOI members of study team included Assistant
Scientist James C. Kinsey and Research Associates Cameron P. McIntyre and
Sean P. Sylva. The research team also included Michael V. Jakuba of the
University of Sydney, Australia, and a graduate of the MIT/WHOI joint
program in Oceanographic Engineering, and James V. Maloney of Monitor
Instruments Co.
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"Made in
America" Will Go Away without Investment in STEM-based Education The tagline "Made in America" will go away without increasing investment in STEM-based education. As skilled labor shortages continue to hold back various sectors of U.S. manufacturing, national organizations are looking at their investment strategies and realizing they have to include the funding of STEM-based education programs to protect their longevity. An example of the importance of STEM, and maintaining our competitive position as a research and development and technical powerhouse leader, is China. According to economists, China has supplanted Japan as the world's second-largest economy. To maintain its position, China needs our research and development and resultant advanced technology. In a recent article, published in the Wall Street Journal (August 16), "China dangles rare-earth resources to lure investment," a "technology-for resources" strategy would invite electronics manufacturers and automakers to set up rare-earth processing plants in China giving them access to low labor costs and access to fast-growing markets. This is a just one of the growing examples of why it is not just important, but mandatory, that technology-based education in this country accelerate. The Andersen Corporate Foundation, Bayport, Minn., a supporter of organizations offering intellectual and social opportunities, primarily for young people – K-12, has generously funded $25,000 to the SME Education Foundation for the Gateway Academy – a national technology-based educational program designed for 6th-8th graders offering science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The Andersen gift will cover the cost of Gateway Academies in Minnesota, New Jersey and Western Wisconsin, where Andersen has manufacturing facilities and employees. The SME Education Foundation, which has become a catalyst for STEM education, offers a hands-on, real-world curriculum designed by Project Lead The Way (PLTW) through its Gateway Academy, the fastest-growing formal and rigorous education program in the country. Educators at the Gateway Academy aren't just teachers and instructors, they're lifelong learners trained to inspire and motivate young minds. In 2010, the SME Education Foundation held 237 Gateway Academies and reached over 4,800 students in 34 states. Business and industry leaders joining Andersen in funding the Gateway Academy program include: American Electric Power (AEP), Emerson, Haworth, Kern Family Foundation, Kennametal and SME Education Foundation. This year, thanks to these supporters, the SME Education Foundation grant funded $815,000 to Project Lead The Way. Today, education has become the "hot button" for major organizations and government leaders at national, state and local levels, as thousands of young people continue to move through the education system which currently lacks a focus on STEM education, and teachers and professors are equally challenged. Says SME Education Foundation Director, Bart A. Aslin, "While we are seeing increasing numbers of educators, community leaders, and the media becoming more involved in promoting STEM education, we have a lot of work to do. We need to place greater emphasis on reaching young people at an early age, and making sure they are guided and not intimidated by taking a more challenging course of learning. We see the demand for highly-skilled, technical people increasing every year, and China is in our backyard." At Tomahawk High School in Wausau, Wis., the 4-H Gateway Academy, middle-school students took part in the week-long program exploring career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They created shelters out of newspapers, designed a toy for children ages 4 to 7 in a potential disaster relief shelter using common supplies, and built a bridge after being introduced to engineering principles on the West Point Bridge Builder website. To learn about local businesses and possible careers where science, technology, engineering and math are used, the students toured Tomahawk Log Cabin Homes and Daigle Brothers – an AISC certified steel fabricator and machine shop. At another Gateway Academy held at Washington Middle School in Green Bay, Wis. , kids attending the week-long summer day camp learned to build cars, gliders and catapults of wood, paper and card board, and plastic robots they learned to program with computer software. Gateway Academies allow students to develop skills essential for achievement in the classroom and success in college and at work. They also achieve significantly higher scores in reading, mathematics, and science. Graduates earn higher GPAs as college freshmen, and are 5 to 10 times more likely to study engineering and technology. About Andersen Corporate Foundation:Andersen Corporate Foundation receives annual contributions from the Andersen Corporation. General operating, capital and program funding is allocated to qualified nonprofit organizations that provide community, social and support services to better people's lives and strengthen communities, focusing primarily where Andersen employees live and work. Visit https://www.srinc.biz/bp/. About the Gateway Academy:The concept of the Gateway Academy was created in a partnership between the SME Education Foundation and Project Lead The Way, a not-for-profit organization that promotes engineering courses for middle and high school students. In 2010, the SME Education Foundation held 237 Gateway Academies and reached over 4,800 students in 34 states. For more information about the Gateway Academy program, contact Project Lead The Way at info@pltw.org. About the SME Education Foundation:The SME Education Foundation is committed to inspiring, supporting and preparing the next generation of manufacturing engineers and technologists in the advancement of manufacturing education. Created by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 1979, the SME Education Foundation has provided more than $31million since 1980 in grants, scholarships and awards through its partnerships with corporations, organizations, foundations, and individual donors. Visit www.smeef.org. Also visit www.CareerMe.org, a new website supporting advanced manufacturing careers, and our award-winning Web site for young people – www.manufacturingiscool.com. ______________________________________________________________
Oil spilled in Gulf is not ‘gone’ Columbia Daily Tribune Carol Browner, policy director at the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change, reveals her ignorance of basic science when she says “most of the oil is gone.” Matter is neither created nor destroyed (with the exception of nuclear reactions). I know the oil is still somewhere, and most of it is still in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of this oil evaporated — that is, it’s still oil, just now in a gas, moving through the atmosphere or condensing back into a liquid and falling to Earth. Some of the oil was intentionally burned. As a result of being burned, part of the oil became water, part became carbon dioxide and part became solids, liquid or gaseous by products of burning — think of the ashes and creosote you get in your fireplace and chimney after a wood fire. These by products are either in the ocean or in the air. They aren’t gone. Some of the oil was “dispersed,” a word that begins to have profane overtones in my mind. Chemical dispersants were sprayed onto the surface of the ocean, where they reacted with the oil. This oil and the dispersants haven’t disappeared or “gone,” they are still in the water or have evaporated into the atmosphere. We have no way of knowing whether these dispersants have made the oil more or less toxic to fish, shrimp, whales, pelicans — or to us. There is no way of knowing how they will change over time or how fast this quantity of chemical soup will move into the rest of the ocean, into the atmosphere or into the web of life that we depend upon. The oil that has evaporated, burned or been dispersed should be called “Still there, just harder to track.” Some of the oil has been skimmed. I don’t know what they’ve done with it — it’s still a mess, for sure, and in someone’s backyard. We should call this oil “removed to a landfill.” Some of the oil has been metabolized by microorganisms. To the extent that this metabolism has converted the oil and the dispersants into substances like water, carbon dioxide or oxygen, I’ll grant that this oil is “gone.” To the extent that this metabolism has biologically active metabolites, I’m concerned that the oil is in the “still there and now harder to track” category. Some of the oil was “recovered.” I am presuming this is the oil that actually got contained in the cap and pumped to the surface. Maybe this oil is still able to be refined and used as a fuel. It’s still not “gone”; it’s “back in the petroleum processing system.” Only honest and accurate information is useful as we all work together to minimize the effects of this unprecedented environmental event and to prevent other similar events. ______________________________________________________________
NASA Images Show Anatomy of Pakistan Flood
Disaster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.  In late July 2010, flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains began across several regions of Pakistan. According to the Associated Press, the floods have affected about one-fifth of this country of more than 170 million. Tens of thousands of villages have been flooded, more than 1,500 people have been killed, and millions have been left homeless. The floodwaters are not expected to recede fully before late August. NASA's CloudSat satellite captured the genesis of the flooding event as
it flew over the region on July 28, 2010. At that time, a large area of
intense thunderstorms covered much of Pakistan. Between July 28 and 29, up
to 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain fell from these storm cells,
triggering flooding along the Indus and Kabul Rivers. Storms with similar
structures to this one have become common this summer as tropical monsoon
moisture, coupled with a strengthening La Nina (which has different effects
around the world), dominate this region's weather patterns. The top portion of the second image, from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, reveals the bright white cloud tops of the cluster of thunderstorms. The blue vertical line shows CloudSat's path at the time the MODIS image was acquired. CloudSat's path cut through a large thunderstorm cell in the northern section of the country. The Cloudsat data are shown in the bottom portion of the first image. As
seen in the top half of the bottom image, CloudSat classified the majority
of the clouds present at the time as deep convective (cumulonimbus) clouds,
typical of thunderstorms. The bottom half of the lower image shows the 3-D
vertical structure of the storm along the satellite's flight path, revealing
its heavy precipitation. CloudSat measured the cloud heights along the
radar's flight path at around 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) in the areas of
deepest convection. The next pair of images was taken by the vertical-viewing camera on the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft. The image on the left was taken Aug. 8, 2009, while the one on the right is from Aug. 11, 2010. These false-color views display the instrument's near-infrared, red and green bands as shades of red, green and blue. The colors distinctly highlight the contrast between water and vegetation on the river banks, since vegetation appears bright in the near-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The region of southern Pakistan shown here includes the Sindh Province.
The Indus River, Pakistan's longest, can be seen snaking across the image
from lower left to upper right. The feature near the bottom and left of
center is Manchhar Lake. Water appears as shades of blue and cyan, though
sediment content can add a tan color, as seen in the upper right. Clouds
appear white. In the image from 2009, the Indus is typically about 1
kilometer (0.6 miles) wide. In contrast, in the 2010 image, the river is
around 23 kilometers (14 miles) wide in spots, and flooding is very evident
in much of the surrounding region, particularly in the Larkana District west
of the river. A different before-and-after perspective of the floods is provided by the next pair of false-color images, taken by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft using its four visible and near-infrared channels. These images also show southern Pakistan and the Sindh Province. The Indus River appears to enter from the upper right and winds its way southwestward toward the lower left. The image at the left was taken before the flooding on July 9, 2010, while the right-hand image was taken on Aug. 10, 2010. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft provides the next image, a cloud-free view over the city of Sukkur, Pakistan, taken on Aug. 18, 2010. Sukkur, a city of a half million residents in southeastern Pakistan's Sindh Province, is visible as the gray, urbanized area in the lower left center of the image. It lies along the Indus River, which snakes vertically from north to south through the image and forms the basis for the world's largest canal-based irrigation system. As reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation, Sukkur is one of the few urban areas in the region that has so far escaped widespread destruction from the flooding, which has affected an estimated 4 million people in the province. Relief camps have sprung up across the city to house some of these displaced people. The land along the Indus River in this region is largely agricultural, and the flooding has taken a heavy toll on the region's crops and fruit trees. The final image was created with data from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit instrument, which flies on NASA's Aqua spacecraft as part of the AIRS instrument suite. It shows how surface emissivity-how efficiently Earth's surface radiates heat-changed in the affected region over a 32-day period between July 11 and August 12. Surface emission, in this case in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum, depends strongly on what type of surface is present. For dry land, surface emission is high-measuring close to 1 (land radiates heat very efficiently); while for water, it is quite low-measuring less than 0.5 (water tends to retain heat better than land). The image shows that the emission dropped over this time span by up to 0.4 in large areas surrounding the Indus River, indicating that these areas are almost completely underwater. Scientists can use this technique to estimate how much of the land surface has been inundated. A significant advantage is that the technique works both day and night, and under both clear and cloudy conditions. For more information about CloudSat, see: http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/cloudsat . For more on MISR, visit: http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more on AIRS, see: http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov . For more information on ASTER, see: http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ . ______________________________________________________________ NASA Announces 2010 Global Climate Change Education Awards NASA has awarded $7.7 million in cooperative agreements to 17 organizations across the United States to enhance learning through the use of NASA's Earth science resources. The selected organizations include colleges and universities, nonprofit groups, and a community college. The winning proposals in the Global Climate Change Education Awards illustrated innovative approaches to using NASA content in elementary, secondary and undergraduate teaching, and lifelong learning. The proposals emphasized engaging students in NASA Earth observation data and Earth system models, and providing climate-related research experiences for teachers and undergraduate students. Each cooperative agreement is expected to leverage NASA's unique contributions in climate and Earth system science. The grants support NASA's goal of engaging students in the critical disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and inspiring the next generation of researchers and explorers. The 17 proposals will fund organizations in Washington, D.C., and 13 states: California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Winning proposals were selected through a merit-based, peer-reviewed competition. The performance period is up to three years and awards range in value from $300,000 to $700,000. ______________________________________________________________ Earth’s Plant Growth Fell Because of Climate Change, Study Finds Drought linked to climate change has reversed a decades-long trend of increased global plant growth, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data.“Earth has done an ecological about-face,” a NASA statement said. “Global plant productivity that once flourished under warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline, struck by the stress of drought.”Research over the past two decades had shown terrestrial plant growth on the rise, with higher temperatures and longer growing seasons linked to a 6 percent increase in global plant productivity from 1982 to 1999. Between 2000 and 2009, terrestrial plant growth declined by 1 percent. “This is a pretty serious warning that warmer temperatures are not going to endlessly improve plant growth,” Steven Running, a biologist at the University of Montana in Missoula and co-author of the report, said in the NASA statement. The researchers found that high latitude ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere continued to benefit from longer growing seasons and higher temperatures, but that this increased productivity was offset by severe warming-associated drought in the southern hemisphere. “We see this as a bit of a surprise, and potentially significant on a policy level because previous interpretations suggested global warming might actually help plant growth around the world,” Dr. Running said. The study was published in the journal Science._________________________________________________________________
M.Y. S.P.A.C.E. Photos from the conference posted.
Be a M.Y.
S.P.A.C.E. Teacher _________________________________________________________________
NSTA Unveils
Strategic
Goals 2010 Today, the National Science Teachers Association unveiled its Strategic Goals 2010 document online. NSTA Strategic Goals 2010 is a comprehensive plan to help guide the association’s efforts for the next five years. A yearlong, multiphase project developed to reflect the changes in science education, Strategic Goals 2010 is the successor to Strategy 2005. On Tuesday, October 12, at 6:30 p.m. ET, members of the Strategic Goals 2010 Task Force will be leading a special interactive web seminar about the document and the future direction of the association. NSTA members and those with a vested interest in NSTA are encouraged to participate. In this web seminar, members of the task force will explain the background, purpose, and development process of the new 2010 strategic goals. Discussion of each of the four goals will describe how each addresses current issues in science education and how NSTA’s current and future initiatives will achieve these goals. There will also be a question-and-answer session in which members of the task force will answer any questions that you may have about the document. To submit questions to be answered during the question-and-answer portion of the web seminar, send an e-mail to strategicgoals2010@nsta.org. Please include your name, where you are from, and your question in the body of the e-mail. For more information about the web seminar or to register for the event, visit the NSTA Learning Center. ___________________________________________________________ What Research Says to the Science Teacher NSTA is bringing back the series What Research Says to the Science Teacher. The original series, published in the 1980s, was popular among science teachers because it synthesized research and offered practical suggestions for how to apply research in the classroom. The books in the new series will have these same qualities and more! The publications will be relatively short (15–20 pages), will offer research-based suggestions, and will be reviewed by teachers before they are published to ensure relevancy and readability. More importantly, the contents and themes of the books will be selected by the NSTA community. In order to identify pertinent What Research Says book topics, we need your input. We’re asking members of the NSTA community to spend 10–15 minutes selecting and ranking your 10 most important topics from a list of 25. We’ll conduct a Rasch analysis of the survey returns and will report on the results and the top 10 selected topics in a future article in NSTA Reports. Please participate in our survey by following this link: www.surveymonkey.com/s/2BBPMSD. The survey will be open through September 15, 2010. ___________________________________________________________
The beginning of the school year is a great time
to explore the challenges and exciting opportunities from NASA
for educators and students. The agency offers a variety of
student and teacher opportunities, printed educational products,
multimedia, and assorted other materials and websites related to
NASA's educational programs. NASA resources give educators the
opportunity to learn about careers, science, technology, and how
their students can be among NASA's future team of scientists and
engineers.
NASA Explorer Schools
Throughout the school year, the NES
Virtual Campus website will serve as a portal to
dynamic learning experiences, allowing students to
examine real-world problems and challenges based on
NASA research and exploration. Classroom activities
are coupled with special events featuring
interactions with NASA's scientific and technical
workforce, so students learn firsthand about mission
highlights, new technologies and research findings.
Teachers have the opportunity to participate in professional development experiences delivered through NES Virtual Campus technology to support effective classroom implementation of NES resources. At the end of the year, NES will recognize its best teachers and schools with NASA experiences such as field center training, research opportunities and flights aboard a reduced-gravity aircraft.
NASA Summer of Innovation
Current Opportunities for
Students and Educators
Current Opportunities is a collection of
opportunities for either students or educators, organized in an
easy-to-find way. The
opportunities consist of programs, projects, contests, webcasts,
or other miscellaneous events that are available to educators
and/or students. The opportunities are segmented by grade
levels, specifically K-4, 5-8, 9-12 and Higher Education. The
Educators section also includes a segment for informal
educators. The Educators Current Opportunities section includes
a listing of all items. The opportunities are listed by date so
that the items with the most recent deadlines are toward the top
of the listing. Items that are always open and do not have a
deadline are listed toward the bottom of the pages. They are
updated as often as new items come in, with outdated items being
removed as deadlines expire. Current Opportunities is a great way for educators and students to find ways to be involved with NASA. For Educators: > http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/current-opps-index.html For Students: > http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.html
National Space Grant College and
Fellowship Program
Taking Up Space Blog -- Go Backstage With
NASA Education Homework Topics for Students
NASA's Education Resources -- Easy Ways to
Obtain NASA Educational Materials
Find NASA Teaching Materials
NASA's Educator Resource Center Network
Central Operation of Resources for
Educators Educational Multimedia NASA offers educational multimedia such as the Do-It-Yourself Podcast activity for students, video learning clips, webcasts, monthly educational programming on NASA TV and image galleries.
NASA Education EXPRESS Mailing List
______________________________________________________________
Deepwater,
Assessing Ecosystem Damage NOAA is the lead agency for the Natural Resource Damage
Assessment (NRDA) process helping identify and quantify short- and long-term
impacts to the Gulf of Mexico’s thriving ecosystems. NOAA continues to
collaborate with various federal and state agencies, industry, and citizens
to collect data in the Gulf of Mexico and across the affected states to
determine which natural resources have been harmed, which remain in jeopardy
and which human uses have been lost.
Quantifying these impacts is critical to ensuring that there is a true understanding of the extent of the damages. This information is used to inform the restoration planning process and ensure people are compensated appropriately for losses. Here’s how:
______________________________________________________________
Investigating Climate Past: The Little Ice Age Case Study Welcome Educators! This teacher's guide was produced by the National Center for Atmospheric Research as a companion to the Climate Discovery exhibit at our Boulder, Colorado laboratory. It contains lessons appropriate for grades 5-9 on a variety of Earth system science topics that facilitate student learning about our planet's climate system. In this unit, students explore how scientists study climates of the recent and ancient past. Students model the methods of scientists through inquiry activities, investigating real data to learn more about changes in climate over the past millennium. Living During the Little Ice Age ______________________________________________________________
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said JPL's long history of research and design make it a strong contender
in the program, which will be built around competitive bidding.
They reported
that deep-sea microbes were degrading the plume relatively slowly, and that
it was possible that the plume had and could persist for some time if the
rate of microbial degradation or the dilution of the plume does not
accelerate.
Whether the
plume's existence poses a significant threat to the Gulf is not yet clear,
the researchers say. "We don't know how toxic it is," said Reddy, "and we
don't know how it formed, or why. But knowing the size, shape, depth, and
heading of this plume will be vital for answering many of these questions."
