NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

Fifth Annual DEVELOP Seminar. Space Science Auditorium 7/13/07 Three teams of students, ranging in educational level from high school to Ph.D. candidates, have been working on their projects since the middle of June and report their results and conclusions at the
 seminar.

One team has been studying air quality in the San Joqauin Valley using data from a variety of NASA missions and by using ground based measurements of aerosols and particulates. The science advisor for this project is Dr. Tony Strawa of SGG. The partner agencies for this study include the California Air Resources Board. A second team has been studying the correlation between ground based and and spaced based measurements of Leaf Area Index in Yosemite National Park. After two weeks of field work collecting LAI data using digital photography and several hand-held instruments, the team is using MODIS LAI data derived from the TOPS model for the comparison. The science advisors for this project are Forrest Melton and Dr. Rama Semani, both of SGE. The partner agency for this project is the National Park Service.

The third team is working with NOAA to produce historical tropical storm animations for NOAA’s Pacific Rim Integrated Climatology Products (PRICIP) Project. Precipitation, sea surface temperature and other variables have been extracted from satellite data for three storms specified by that agency. The animations will be placed on the NOAA storm portal.
DEVELOP is a NASA Internship Program promoting GIS and remote sensing in community, government and tribal organizations. DEVELOP is funded through the Applied Science Program of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
Mentors for the ARC DEVELOP Program are Cindy Schmidt and Dr. Jay Skiles, both of Code SGE. POC: J. Skiles, x4-3614