Science, Technology and Students

This newsletter also could be called "What We've Done and What We're Doing."

Earthzine staffers are working to bring you another Virtual Poster Session from students with NASA's DEVELOP National Program. And, we've been working on several new articles, and bringing on new staff (a science writer and content manager) that will help take our publication and its content to "the next level."

For now, our recent offerings include:

• A profile on "falling snow detective" Gail Skofronick-Jackson, by our interim content manager and ongoing writer Sarah Frazier
• Details from researchers on a recently concluded project called MAMUD, which investigated how high and moderate resolution satellite imagery can be used for mapping and modelling urban growth in Ireland
• A "Farewell to Landsat 5" from another of our writers, Elise Osenga Mulder.

Don't forget our Student Essay Contest, with $1,500 (U.S) in prizes, and our latest Call for Papers: Earth Observations on  Health Prediction.

Please pass on the announcements to revelant people and organizations. The more awareness and submissions, the better.

By the way, the next DEVELOP Virtual Poster Session (VPS) is due to launch in early August. Our VPS Archive is here. Look below and to the right for more recent content from Earthzine.

Cheers,

Jeff Kart
Managing Editor

Gail Skofronick-Jackson: Falling Snow Detective

Gail Skofronick-Jackson once described her job to a school group as that of a “falling snow detective,” who must use science to crack the case.

Skofronick-Jackson is an atmospheric scientist who focuses on the detection of falling snow from space, which is essential to understanding the flow of energy and heat throughout the Earth.

Mapping and modelling urban growth and its impact on the hydrology of urban watersheds with satellite imagery

As cities play a central role in human-environment interactions, the concepts of sustainable development and good governance have become important topics in urban policy.

One of the main challenges is to safeguard and improve the quality of life in cities, while mitigating the negative effects of urban growth on the functioning of natural ecosystems.

Farewell to the Landsat 5

The end of Landsat 5’s transmissions, however, does not mean an end to the Landsat project.

Landsat 8, the latest of USGS and NASA’s remote sensing systems, was launched in February.  It will orbit the Earth once every 99 minutes, offering data to researchers every eight days.

Mission Profile: Aquarius

On June 10, 2011, NASA and Argentina’s CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales or National Commission for Space Activities) launched the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite.

Though NASA and other space agencies have launched dozens of Earth observation satellites over the years, the Aquarius instrument fills an important gap in Earth observation data: the measurement of ocean salinity.