Research

Research Activities

  • Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM)
    Home page for projects and information regarding the ACRIM projects and for downloading data from ACRIM II, ACRIMSAT and other related data.

  • Atmospheric Dynamics Group - Centre for Atmospheric Science
    Focuses on fluid dynamical problems of understanding the chemical-climatic environment. These range from the fine-scale mixing of aircraft emissions to global atmospheric circulation and its chemical and radiative consequences.

  • Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Project
    AIRS will measure air temperature, humidity, clouds, and surface temperature. Scientists will use AIRS data to better understand weather and climate. The National Weather Service and NOAA will use it to improve their weather and climate models. AIRS will fly aboard the AQUA spacecraft of the Earth Observing System (EOS), scheduled for launch early in this century.

  • Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions
    Investigates processes governing exchanges of energy, water, carbon and trace gases between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere, to model changes in climate and the carbon cycle over the next 50-100 years as Earth responds to changes in atmospheric composition and land use.

  • CalPhotos Image Retrieval
    CalPhotos is a system for content-based image retrieval. Users can query for photographs based on their location or the objects they contain. Includes land, air, and water images.

  • Center for Earth Observation (CEO) - Research Projects
    CEO supports a variety of Earth observation projects and brings together faculty interested in remote sensing with students trained in the technology.

  • Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) Scatterometry (ARI)
    Scatterometers are unique among satellite remote sensors in their ability to determine the wind direction over water. COAPS examines animations of scatterometer winds to get ideas for new scatterometry applications. They have generated wind animations for 37 overlapping regions spanning the global oceans.

  • CERES/ARM Validation Experiment
    Compilation of CERES and ARM data sets, initially created for the purposes of CERES SARB validation. With a few exceptions, the data sets, which contain radiation and meteorological data, are available to the scientific community.

  • Climate Analysis Section at Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research
    Empirical studies and diagnostic analyses of the atmosphere and its interactions with Earth's surface and oceans. Emphasis is on atmospheric general circulation, meteorological phenomena, and climate variations over several time scales. Catalog includes observational data sets and analyses from a variety of sources in support of modeling efforts and climate research.

  • Climate Prediction Center at NOAA
    Monitors short-term climate fluctuations. Diagnoses and predicts them to assist agencies both inside and outside the federal government in coping with climate related problems, such as food supply, energy allocation, and water resources.

  • Cloud and Aerosol Research Group (CARG)
    CARG is in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington. The data it gathers is used to increase understanding of aerosol-cloud-climate interactions in the Arctic.

  • Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES)
    CERES products include both solar-reflected and Earth-emitted radiation from the top of the atmosphere to the Earth's surface. Cloud properties are determined, using simultaneous measurements by other EOS instruments. Analyses of the CERES data will increase understanding of the role of clouds and the energy cycle in global climate change.

  • Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network
    Provides a wide range of information on ozone depletion and global change, including effects on human health. CIESIN's Thematic Guide resource provides overview documents and full-text access to peer-reviewed publications related to ozone depletion, potential impacts on human and ecosystem health, CFCs, and more.

  • Daily MOPITT Carbon Monoxide Validation
    Researcher's page with daily CO evaluations of the MOPITT instrument aboard the Terra satellite. For the Southern Great Plains, this site also provides the most recent quicklook CO retrievals, an archive of CO quicklook retrievals, and a map of sites.

  • Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland
    Site for College Park campus. Research areas include climate studies, Earth system science, atmospheric chemistry and climate diagnostics, glaciology, weather prediction and atmospheric dynamics, oceanography and air/sea interaction, remote sensing and data assimilation.

  • Earth Observing System (EOS)
    EOS is the centerpiece of NASA's study of the Earth. It consists of a science component and a data system supporting a coordinated series of polar-orbiting and low inclination satellites for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans.

  • Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center (EDC)
    Site for the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Mapping Division. It houses USGS digital cartographic data products (US GeoData) and the world's largest collection of civilian remotely sensed data covering the Earth's land masses, housing millions of satellite images and aerial photographs. EDC operates the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive, a high quality database of space-acquired images of the Earth for use in studying global change and other related issues.

  • Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center
    University of Maryland research and teaching activities in Earth Systems Science: satellite remote sensing of land, atmosphere and ocean; land surface and atmospheric modeling; dynamics of climate and tropical oceans; atmospheric aerosols; volcanology; glaciology; atmospheric chemistry; and biogeochemical cycling; and more.

  • EOS Interdisciplinary proposal - GSFC Code 916
    An interdisciplinary proposal funded under EOS, "Investigate the Chemical and Dynamical Changes in the Stratosphere Up to and During the EOS Observing Period."

  • EOS Land Validation Core Sites
    Status of Sunphotometer Deployment includes maps and descriptions of the sites and measurements.

  • EOS/ACRIM III Experiment
    The ACRIMSAT spacecraft will carry ACRIM III, state-of-the-art instrumentation for long-term solar-monitoring. This data is important because the total radiant energy from the Sun is not a constant, and small changes over a century or more may cause significant climatological changes on Earth, such as global warming.

  • GiST Indexing Project
    GIST studies the engineering and mathematics behind content-based indexing for massive amounts of complex content. The basis of the project is the Generalized Search Tree (GIST), a template indexing structure for indexing remote sensing databases and others.

  • Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
    Works to advance data assimilation, and produces research-quality assimilated global data sets for advancing the understanding of the Earth system and climate change.

  • Grassland PROVE (PROtotype Validation Exercise)
    Site related to the prototype validation exercise for EOS land and atmosphere products. This is an EOS coordinated test of validation data, instrumentation, and sampling strategies.

  • Harvard Forest Environmental Measurement Site
    Research in the Harvard Forest in Massachusetts is automated and monitors the concentration of a variety of chemical species, in addition to general environmental measurements. These species include NOy, NOx, CO2, H2O, O3, CO, and several different hydrocarbons.

  • Home Page of Atmospheric Researcher
    This researcher focuses on the fluid dynamics of the Earth's atmosphere, with emphasis on the stratosphere at altitudes between about 10 and 50 kilometers, which contains most of the ozone shield.

  • Index of NCAR Ice Crystal Replicator Data
    Summarizes profiles of microphysical properties of cirrus clouds, as measured by a balloon-borne Formvar replicator. The data consist of ice crystal images, calculated size distributions, and cloud properties derived from the size distributions.

  • Institute of Global Environment and Society
    The Institute is a non-profit organization, dedicated to basic research in climate variability, climate predictability and climate change. It was established to improve understanding and prediction of variations in Earth's climate through scientific research, and to share results and research tools with society as a whole.

  • Landsat/ARM Clear Sky and Cloud (LCSAC) Research
    Research is aimed at forging a link between Landsat and the number one unsolved problem in global climate modeling, the "role of clouds."

  • LBA - Seasonal-Interannual Climate Variability
    The proposed work will attempt to determine the local and remote influences of land and ocean on Amazonian climate variability; determine the contributions of land and ocean to climate predictability over Amazonia as well as the potential limits of predictability; and determine where observational monitoring may be most effective to aid forecasting of climate anomalies and associated risks (e.g., drought, fire, impacts to agriculture, transportation, etc.).

  • MODIS Atmosphere
    Home page for the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer) instrument, launched on 18 December 1999 onboard the Terra Platform. MODIS is uniquely designed (wide spectral range, high spatial resolution, and near daily global coverage) to observe and monitor changes in the Earth's atmosphere.

  • MODIS Land Team Validation (MODLAND)
    MODLAND will use several validation techniques to develop uncertainty information on its products. Techniques include collection of and comparison with field and aircraft data, and comparison with data and products from other satellites. Site explains relation to EOS land validation.

  • Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR)
    MISR collects global images of sunlit Earth in 4 colors, at 9 widely spaced angles. The images are calibrated to provide accurate measures of brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight. Comparing them gives information about aerosols, cloud forms, and land surface covers. The data can be used in creating 3-D models and in the study of climate.

  • NASA Ames Earth Science Division Project Office
    Contains links to various experiments and missions to study ozone and aerosols in the atmosphere, troposphere, and stratosphere.

  • NASA GSFC Code 920.1 Calibration Facility
    Facility that maintains instruments and NIST-traceable calibrated sources to calibrate, monitor, and assess the performance of satellite-, aircraft-, and ground-based remote sensing instrumentation. Their instruments, sources, and expertise are available to US government agencies, the international remote sensing community, and academic institutions.

  • NASA Langley Cloud and Radiation Research
    Site for a team that is developing and applying advanced data analysis techniques to interpret satellite measurements of clouds and radiative characteristics of the Earth. This includes developing a globally robust technique for retrieving cloud parameters and microphysical properties.

  • NASA Langley's Lidar Applications Group
    Part of the Atmospheric Sciences Division at the NASA Langley Research Center. Develops and applies advanced lidar systems to a broad range of atmospheric investigations, such as the development and application of airborne Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) systems for studies of O3, H2O, aerosols, and clouds.

  • NIST Optical Technology Division
    Source of national measurement standards and support services to advance the use and application of optical technologies spanning the ultraviolet through microwave spectral regions.

  • NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory
    The Earth System Research Laboratory's mission is to observe and understand the Earth system and to develop products through a commitment to research that will advance the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) environmental information and services on global-to-local scales.

  • NOAA-Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
    This program is designed to quantify the spatial and temporal distribution of natural and anthropogenic aerosols in the marine atmosphere and to determine the physical, meteorological and biogeochemical processes controlling their formation, evolution and properties.

  • Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Simulation of Climate Variability over Amazonia
    A research project of scientists at the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA) and the University of New Hampshire, in collaboration with colleagues at CPTEC and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, to investigate seasonal-to-interannual variability and predictability in the Amazonian climate system.

  • Oceanworld
    Includes questions and answers to topics related to the oceans, teacher aids and links to information about oceans, icebergs, ice ages, fisheries, El Nino, and explorations by satellites.

  • Ozone Hole Tour (ARI)
    Site of the Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Cambridge. The tour includes glossary, images, movies and virtual reality of the North Pole.

  • Radar Interferometry Group
    Radar interferometry uses synthetic aperture radar mapping satellites to form detailed images of geological surfaces. Site includes information about glaciers, volcanoes, earthquakes and other content. Research unit is affiliated with two departments at Stanford University: Electrical Engineering - STARLab and Geophysics.

  • Regional Land-Atmosphere Climate Simulation System (RELACS)
    A NASA EOS Interdisciplinary Science Investigation. Main subjects are the atmosphere, land, and water resources, with a focus on the effect of land-atmosphere interaction over the southeast Asian monsoon region.

  • Remote Sensing Research
    Beltsville Agricultural Center's site for remote sensing. They conduct research on remote sensing technologies of benefit to agriculture, forestry, environmental quality and global climate change concerns.

  • SAFARI 2000 Test Sites
    Maps showing EOS Land validation sites in Africa. Includes related data.

  • SeaDAS - SeaWiFS Data Analysis System
    SeaDAS is a comprehensive image analysis package for processing, displaying, analyzing, and quality control of all SeaWiFS data products and ancillary meteorological and ozone data.

  • Simulation - Seasonal-Interannual Climate Variability over Amazonia
    Site with summary and reports from research on "Coupled High-Resolution Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Simulation of Seasonal-Interannual Climate Variability over Amazonia."

  • University of Colorado Aerosol Research Group
    Covers both planetary and atmospheric science, including cloud and climate modifications due to aircraft exhaust, polar stratospheric clouds and ozone depletion, effects of ship tracks on cloud formation, aerosol particles in Earth's upper troposphere, and stratospheric and mineral aerosols.