Congratulations to Eli Orland (617/UMBC), who has been promoted from Research Associate I to Research Associate II within GESTAR II! We asked him about the research he conducts as part of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory (Code 617) at NASA GSFC.

The first highlight, titled "The Hottest July on Earth as Analyzed by MERRA-2," is authored by Dr. Collow, Natalie Thomas (610.1/UMBC), Mike Bosilovich, and Peter Jacobs. The researchers "take this [MERRA-2] analysis a step further to identify regions that were large contributors to the record-breaking heat in July as well as the connection to heatwaves. This is of particular importance due to differing impacts of heat to ocean ecosystems and human populated land surfaces." 

The second highlight, titled "July - August 2024 Saharan Dust Transport," is authored by Dr. Collow, Janak Joshi (610.1/UMBC), and Bennett Erdman. Through the use of GMAO models (GEOS and GEOS-FP) along with satellite and ground-based measurements, the researchers can study the effects of the transport of the dust in the Saharan Air Layer, as it travels over the Atlantic to North and South America, and parts of the Caribbean. "Tracking this transport is crucial because the dust not only benefits marine life by supplying essential nutrients, but also harms humans by posing respiratory and cardiovascular health risks."

For the entire month of September, "the mission’s biggest validation campaign, called PACE Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX)" will consist of scientists taking measurements from ships and aircraft from three different locations in California. As Dr. Cetinic' states, "Understanding the accuracy of the view from the satellite is important, so we can use the data to answer important questions about climate change."

Join us for a virtual seminar by Dr. Jessica Scheick, University of New Hampshire. Her talk is titled "Transforming ICESat-2 Research through Collaboration and Learning." The link to Dr. Scheick's presentation is available here.

Date and Time: Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 11:00am EST

Join us via Teams Meeting

Abstract: 

"Writing code is a given for many modern students; research progress cannot happen without some form of data manipulation, and for those of us in the earth sciences, the data volumes may be large (>= terabyte) and may require specialized software to manipulate. This data volume challenge is a relatively new one, instigated by ever-higher data resolutions and our ability to not only measure but also store and transmit massive amounts of data. However, our need for managing and processing such large data volumes has not kept pace with our tools and expertise, and it's easy to fall back to old habits of downloading data and coding in relative isolation. Despite these challenges, a team of researchers, data scientists, and software engineers - brought together by the ICESat-2 mission - are demonstrating how collaboration and intentional opportunities for learning can transform research and make open science and cloud computing a reality. This talk will highlight two components of this paradigm: the icepyx community and software library and hackweeks. Hackweeks are a short-format training model developed by practitioners at the University of Washington's eScience Institute. The model emphasizes creating a positive learning environment in which to provide interactive tutorials and peer learning through project work. Learners of all levels collaborate to share their expertise while building technical and open science skills. From the first ICESat-2-themed Hackweek emerged icepyx, a community and software library aimed at improving ICESat-2 data access and computational workflows. As a community, icepyx provides opportunities for researchers to practice collaborative development in a beginner-friendly environment, which can increase the likelihood they will contribute their research software to a shared repository. As software, icepyx is used for over 40% of all ICESat-2 data downloads from NASA's NSIDC data archive center and is working to provide cloud-optimized data access for ICESat-2 data products. As part of a broader ecosystem of tools and people, hackweeks and icepyx are part of a collaborative, educational paradigm redefining the ways in which we enable successful scientific research." 

Biography:

Dr. Jessica Scheick is a glaciologist, open-source software developer and maintainer, remote sensing expert, open science advocate, and lifelong lover of snow, winter, and the outdoors. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire and Affiliate with the University of Washington's eScience Institute. Her background is in remote sensing, climate science, and glaciology, focusing on glacier dynamics, ice-ocean interactions, and icebergs. Jessica's current work centers on research-enabling, open-source software projects and collaborative development education across the earth sciences. She is the lead developer and maintainer for the icepyx library and community, and a member, contributor, and/or maintainer to multiple other open-source software packages and communities, including Xarray, earthaccess, CryoCloud, and Pangeo. Jessica regularly leads hackweeks with the UW eScience team, working as Community Lead for four ICESat-2-themed events. When she's not working, you can usually find Jessica enjoying the outdoors, skiing, dancing, or working on the foundation of an old building.

For more information on the GESTAR II Seminar Series, click here.

"From the far reaches of space, NASA scientists aim to expand their knowledge of how our ocean, atmosphere, and ecosystems interact with one another through the launch of the PACE satellite. By identifying and examining harmful algal blooms around the world, PACE will inform communities ranging from from local fishermen to large corporations on what is occurring in their backyard and beyond. From sea to space, the PACE satellite will take Earth’s pulse in astounding ways for decades to come." 

Join us for a virtual seminar by Dr. Yackar Mauzole, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD). Her talk is titled "Synergy of Satellite Observations and Ocean Dynamics in the Bay of Bengal."

Date and Time: Tuesday, August 27, 2024 at 1:00pm EST

Join us via Teams Meeting

Abstract: 

"The Bay of Bengal is a semi-enclosed basin located in the Northern Indian Ocean. The region is salinity-dominated and presents very complex and multi-scale dynamics, both on the oceanic and atmospheric side. One of the dominant features of the Bay of Bengal is the presence of monsoons, bringing large amount of rain seasonally. Monsoons are still poorly understood to this day, and more efforts are being led to fill in the puzzle they present through multi-institutions and multi-years initiatives, such as the Monsoon Intra-Seasonal Oscillation in the Bay of Bengal (MISO-BoB) project. Within the framework of the MISO-BoB project, a research cruise was conducted in summer 2019 in the Northwestern Bay of Bengal, and a coastal filament was observed during the month-long experiment. This observation raised several questions, namely 1) was this a one-time occurrence or a recurring event, 2) was this the only place to observe such process in the region, and 3) what caused this filament to appear. In addition to in-situ data, this study relied on satellite measurements of altimetry, and sea surface temperature, among other ocean variables to further the understanding of these features. Altimetry records from 1993 to 2023 highlight that coastal filaments were detected every year, but also that they could be seen off both the northwestern and southwestern coasts of the Bay, as well as south of Sri Lanka. The nature of these filaments, and their impact on the local ocean dynamics were also investigated." 

Biography:

Dr. Yackar Mauzole is currently an Assistant Project Scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD), working in the Marine Physical Lab. She is a physical oceanographer specialized in satellite observations and submesoscale processes (fronts, filaments, eddies…). She focuses on analyzing large datasets across ocean variables, such as sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS) or sea surface height (SSH). Originally from Paris - France, she moved to the US to attend grad school at the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island. During her PhD, she developed a tracking algorithm for persistent SST fronts, named FRODO (Frontal Delineation in the Ocean), and applied to global datasets to detect long-term frontal patterns. Before working at Scripps, Yackar was a postdoc at JPL, where she modified the FRODO method to apply it on the MITgcm output and study frontal patterns in the California Current System. She is now working on submesoscale features in the Northwestern Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean, to better understand coastal filaments and their potential impact on the regional ocean dynamics.

For more information on the GESTAR II Seminar Series, click here.

From August 4 - 8, 2024, PACE Hack Week was held at UMBC in the ILSB, with 41 participants (from 89 applicants). Ten people traveled from abroad, and six were associated with NOAA.  Per Jeremy Werdell (616/GSFC), "A group of early adopters were launched into rapid exploration of data products from the PACE observatory just 178 days into its mission. The event was supported by an award from the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program at WHOI (funded by NSF, NASA, and others)."

In addition to participation from GESTAR II's Ian Carroll (616/UMBC), Ivona Cetinic (616/MSU), Andy Sayer (616/UMBC), Susanne Craig (616/UMBC), Sean Foley (616/MSU), and James Allen (616/MSU), local support and participation included Pengwang Zhai, a guest lecture from Lorraine Remer, and tutorial prep by Meng Gao (616/SSAI).

Dr. Werdell (616/GSFC), Project Scientist for PACE, explains "The overarching goal was to accelerate (and continue democratizing) the use of PACE data (along with any other observatory), with a focus on Jupyter notebooks and cloud data access from a cloud computing environment. The desired outcome was a series of usable workflows to be hosted publicly online, plus a series of recorded tutorials. The website for the event has all our Jupyter notebooks and lectures, and recordings will be posted once videos are edited. Participants self-organized into nine group projects related to the use of PACE data to explore a science question."

He added that "The mornings proceeded as 1) projects’ rose/thorn/bud reporting, 2) a 45-minute science lecture, and 3) two hours of project time. The afternoons included 1) a pair of one-hour “coding” tutorials and 2) two hours of project time." Each evening included a social event: a Bob Ross painting night, a “fireside chat” with two generous NASA HQ Program Managers, a blue crab picnic at Patapsco State Park, a “nerd nite”/talent show, and a PACE trivia night.

Congratulations to all of the organizers, hosts, researchers, and participants on a successful event. Gratitude was also expressed for UMBC and Flat Tuesdays for being a terrific host site.

PACE Hack Week Group Photo, outside of UMBC's Physics Building. (Credit: Anna Windle, 616/SSAI)

PACE Hack Week participants in UMBC's ILSB. (Photo credit: Anna Windle, 616/SSAI)

Dr. Kirk Knobelspiesse (616/GSFC), PACE Project Science Team Polarimeter Lead, presenting to participants. (Photo credit: Margo Young)

PACE Hack Week - participant discussions. (Photo credit: Anna Windle, 616/SSAI)

One of the PACE Hack Week social events: Bob Ross Night! (Photo credit: Anna Windle, 616/SSAI)

The WATERHYPERNET is a growing network with stations worldwide that provide measurements of radiance and irradiance data over water bodies. In July 2023, a new WATERHYPERNET instrument station was installed in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, the first of its kind in North America. The station is set up to provide validation for the NASA Surface Biology and Geology mission, the NASA PACE mission, and ESA water observing missions. UMBC is responsible for station operation and maintenance as part of a collaboration with NASA GSFC, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and Flanders Marine Institute.  The installation, which started in July 2023, required several trips to the tower to become operational.

According to Dr. Kevin Turpie (616/UMBC) and team, “Water-leaving spectral reflectance data from the new station will also provide a wealth of information regarding water quality and the environmental and ecological conditions in the Upper Bay.”

This tower is also being used by GSFC for an AERONET-OC SeaPRISM radiometer, with Dr. Dirk Aurin (616/MSU) as PI. Dr. Aurin assisted with the initial installation of the system and the projects intend to share resources and collaborate where possible.

The location is a US Coast Guard navigation tower that is roughly the height of a 9-story building. Access was granted from the US Coast Guard, who requires that climbers have certification in tower climbing and no less than two climbers access the tower for safety. Climbers were provided by GSFC, WFF, NOAA, RBINS, and VLIZ. Ocean surface and weather conditions must be taken into consideration; the team also will consider the safety to wildlife (e.g., nesting ospreys).

Join us for a virtual seminar by Dr. Silvia Newell, Michigan Sea Grant and University of Michigan. Her talk is titled "Nitrogen as a Driver of Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms."

Date and Time: Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 11:00am EST

Join us via Webex.

Abstract: