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Secretary Salazar Says Interior-NASA Partnership Provides Model for New Strategy to Strengthen Science Education and CareersVANDENBERG AFB, CA – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today joined NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science Anne Castle, United States Geological Survey (USGS) Director Dr. Marcia McNutt and other Interior and NASA officials to launch the nation's newest Earth-observing satellite into space. Launched by NASA from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the satellite is expected to transmit images and data about the Earth within 100 days. Landsat data from more than 3 million current and archived images of Earth – available free of charge through the Interior Department’s USGS – have spurred extensive research and innovations, ranging from scientific investigations around the globe to the development of applications like Google Earth. "Landsat has been delivering invaluable scientific information about our planet for more than forty years," said Salazar. "It's an honor to be a part of today's launch to ensure that this critical data will continue to help us better understand our natural resources and help people like water managers, farmers, and resource managers make informed decisions." "Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA's Earth Science program, and today's successful launch will extend the longest continuous data record of Earth's surface as seen from space," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "This data is a key tool for monitoring climate change and has led to the improvement of human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture monitoring – all resulting in incalculable benefits to the U.S. and world economy." The Landsat program is a joint partnership between NASA and the USGS. NASA develops the remote-sensing instruments and spacecraft, launches satellites, and validates their performance. The USGS then assumes ownership and operation of the satellites, in addition to managing ground-data reception, archiving, product generation, and distribution. The result is a long-term, impartial register of natural and human-induced changes on the global landscape. "Seeing the world from a birds-eye view has been a primal desire since the earliest days of our civilization, in order to gain a better understand of how the world operates," said Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle. "In an era of rapid world population growth, climate change, and increased competition for natural resources, we can't afford not to have the long-term, objective perspective that Landsat's eyes on the Earth provide." From a distance of more than 400 miles above the earth surface, a single Landsat scene can record the condition of hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland, agricultural crops, or forests. Each Landsat image gives a view as broad as 12,000 square miles per scene while describing land cover in units the size of a baseball diamond. The Landsat program also offers substantial economic benefits, including an estimated $100 million per year in management of water for irrigated agriculture in western states. Federal, state and local agencies rely on Landsat as a data source on wildfires, consumptive water use, land cover change, crop conditions, rangeland status and wildlife habitat. Landsat images can show where vegetation is thriving and where it is stressed, where droughts are occurring, where wildland fire is a danger, and where erosion has altered coastlines or river course. "Over the last 40 years, students, land managers, scientists, relief workers, water managers, and ordinary citizens from nearly 200 nations have come to rely on Landsat as the authoritative source of unbiased information on changes in our planet's solid surface," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "The launch of Landsat 8, in the nick of time as Landsat 5 is decommissioned and Landsat 7 is experiencing continued hardware failures, allows us to continue to provide this vital information to the world." Salazar today also released a new strategy to strengthen and inspire education and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Interior's STEM strategic plan is designed to provide a five-year framework for engaging the American public—particularly youth underrepresented in STEM fields—to become scientifically literate stewards of our natural and cultural resources while building a future workforce that fully represents the diversity of America for the 21st century. "We need to make sure that there's a next generation of cutting edge scientists to design and run Landsat 9, 10, 11 and beyond," said Salazar. "This new plan will pave the way for our youth to choose the innovative and technical careers that are increasingly needed in federal service and in managing increasingly complex natural and cultural resource challenges." STEM careers can be found at all of Interior's nine agencies including not only USGS—the nation's premier science agency in various disciplines—but also the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and others. Interior employs nearly 15,000 scientists and engineers, many of whom will be retiring in the coming decade. By emphasizing fields of study in STEM, the Department is better positioned to fill in these critical gaps. Over the next five years, Interior plans to engage more partners in science education, to better coordinate access to the Department's educational resources, to engage students and other citizens in place-based learning and service opportunities, and to strengthen career training and workforce development. The five-year STEM plan is available online. ]]>
The Architect of the USGS Coastal Program
USGS scientist and renowned coastal hazards expert Dr. Asbury "Abby" Sallenger, 63, died at home on the evening of February 5. He was a distinguished research scientist, a skilled communicator, and a mentor throughout his career. Seen as a leader in scientific response to coastal storms, Sallenger served as the voice of the USGS on hurricanes and coastal change since the USGS stood up its first scientific storm response team in the mid-1990s. "The untimely loss of any truly inspirational scientist is always a cause for mourning, but it is particularly difficult to lose this giant in coastal science just as he was advising on how to protect coastal communities in the post-Superstorm Sandy era," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "I can think of no better way to honor his legacy than to use science to build more resilient coastal communities in the face of changing climate." Sallenger was a pioneer in recognizing the growing need for science to protect coastal communities from the hazards of coastal change. He envisioned a national coastal research program that supported scientific excellence in response to societal needs. "Abby's contributions to the USGS, to the Coastal and Marine Program, and to many of us personally cannot be briefly captured. He was the architect of our Coastal Program," said USGS scientist John Haines. "At the heart of our response to hurricanes, you'll find Abby's vision, Abby's science, and Abby's leadership. He insisted that science comes first," said Haines. Sallenger built the USGS coastal program around these values, through a tireless dedication to research, and a talent for explaining complex science and why it mattered. He garnered support among fellow scientists and leaders in the USGS, partners in research, administration officials, on Capitol Hill, and with the public. His work with extreme storm impacts on coasts and his skill in explaining them made him a sought-after expert by many. He was regularly interviewed and quoted by national news media outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, and The Weather Channel. He was one of the first to recognize the value of Lidar to quickly map coastlines. Baseline surveys of much of the U.S. coast were completed in large measure from Sallenger's efforts and his ability to establish effective partnerships to share resources with other science agencies. He developed an experimental product to forecast coastal change prior to hurricane landfall, to inform the evacuation of barrier islands, emergency response, recovery, and future land management. Sallenger led the USGS National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards, which investigates how coasts change over the long term and during extreme storms. His recent research focused on Louisiana's barrier islands where rapid land subsidence simulates the long term sea-level rise that could impact the world's coasts in the next century. Last summer, Sallenger published research that the rate of sea-level rise has increased three or four times faster along much of the U.S. East Coast than globally. He was recently named as a lead author on the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, publication expected in 2014. Having written scientific papers for many years, Sallenger tried his hand at creative writing. His book, Island in a Storm, published in 2009, recounts the effect of a severe hurricane that destroyed one of Louisiana’s barrier islands in the mid-1800s and tells the story of a young survivor. Sallenger received many professional awards throughout his federal career for his excellence in science, his communication skills, and his leadership. ]]>
Calling for abstracts in support of the The National Map Users Conference and the USGS Community for Data Integration Workshop.The joint 2013 The National Map Users Conference and Community for Data Integration Workshop will be held on May 20 – 24, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. The event will bring together scientists, partners, managers, and data users to share relevant accomplishments and progress through presentations, workshops, training, posters, and informal gatherings. Invited guests and representatives from the Department of the Interior (DOI), USGS, and other organizations will provide perspectives on goals, strategic direction, science needs, and training on geospatial science and related activities. Please consider participating by submitting an abstract that addresses one of the Conference or Workshop session themes. Abstracts should address (1) experiences based on use of The National Map data theme or application and (2) data integration issues, planning, and execution in support of science, including products and tools to help users find, get, and use data for conducting interdisciplinary studies. Abstract Instructions and Schedule
Submit today, and we hope to see you in Denver. Questions? ]]>
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Page Last Modified: Tuesday, 11-Dec-2012 17:31:32
