Students who were part of the 2022 SaSa program had the opportunity "to receive professional development training including scientific abstract writing, comprehensive literature review, networking and professional presentations (oral and poster)." On Friday, July 29, 2022, interns with the first year of SaSa presented in-person and virtual three-minute flash talks on their posters related to the science they conducted over the summer. Research locations included Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, northern California, Puerto Rico, and others. Students shared the motivation for their research topics, the methodology, which included the use of the NASA P-3 aircraft, various NASA satellites and studies (e.g., MODIS, MERRA, OMI aboard TRMM and GPM, etc.), federal websites (e.g., EPA, CDC, and the US Census Bureau for population data), and next steps, plus the relevance of each study to NASA. Topics ranged from algal blooms' effect on ozone, heat islands, lead in water, contrails, and other topics related to climate, ozone, air quality, storms, and more. Additional information about SaSa is available here. Congratulations to the students who presented and participated in this year's program. (Photo: Dr. Belay Demoz (UMBC), SaSa Co-PI with Dr. Ruben Delgado (UMBC).)

On July 23, 2022, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Landsat program, which acquires satellite images of all of Earth's land areas. On July 26, 2022, Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and fellow co-sponsors in the Maryland Senate introduced S. Res. 721: "A resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of the inaugural launch of the Landsat series of Earth Observation satellites, a joint mission of the United States Geological Survey and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration." (Note: Senate resolutions are not binding law; rather, they express the collective sentiment of the Senate on a particular issue, person, or event.)

Glaciologist and UMBC researcher Christopher Shuman (NASA Code 615/UMBC) is one of many scientists who utilizes Landsat data and informs others of the discoveries from Landsat; he also contributes to outreach events and stories related to or derived from Landsat data.

From the August 1st edition of the National Snow & Ice Data Center's (NSIDC) Greenland Ice Sheet Today, "Heat Ripple", researchers discussed different aspects of the 2022 melt surge in Greenland. Dr. Shuman contributed to the discussion of the heat ripple, specifically the "excessive melt event across northern Greenland." His contributed image details NOAA Observatory's "preliminary air temperature, dew point, and air pressure reading from Summit, Greenland from July 21 - July 24, 2022," as "the melt runoff reached 10 billion tons per day on July 22." (Based on the Greenland Today article and the examination of available Landsat 8 and 9 scenes, Dr. Shuman also could support a recent Earth Observatory story regarding late July conditions over Svalbard, Norway's far north, ice-capped archipelago.) Additionally, Dr. Shuman recently gave a talk titled "Earth's Ice: Changing Now; 50 Years Of Landsat" to a group organized by the NASA Glenn Research Center's Office of STEM Engagement for the MUREP Precollege Summer Institute's (PSI) Career Connection on Climate Change.

Last September, Dr. Shuman and Valerie Casasanto (610/UMBC), ICESat-2 Mission Outreach Lead, supported outreach activities at the Landsat 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Landsat is the longest civilian Earth Observation Program, with data freely available to the public, anywhere in the world. Peruse NASA's Landsat 9: Continuing 50 Years of Eyes on our Changing Planet for more information on the Landsat 9 satellite, and check out the article "A Planetary Sage: Landsat at 50" by Laura Rocchio to appreciate the vast abundance of all that the Landsat program has provided and will continue to contribute to our understanding of our planet. (You can also follow the latest news about and from Landsat on Twitter.)

According to Dr. Shuman, "A special aspect of the Landsat 9 launch was being able to meet Virginia (Ginger) Norwood who led the team that developed and flew the 'experimental' Multispectral Scanner (MSS) on the first Landsat among other notable career achievements. The MSS exceeded expectations and became the primary sensor and basis for digital Earth remote sensing on all subsequent Landsat platforms." In November 2021, Virginia Norwood was awarded the USGS John Wesley Powell Award for her contributions to USGS. Further, she inspired the Ladies of Landsat, "scientists, entrepreneurs, leaders, mothers, authors, and Landsat fans," who held a post-launch event in Lompoc, CA.  Become a Landsat fan and check in with Landsat Science to see what's going on in your world, all over the planet.

The original article can be found here: Yuan, T., H. Song, R. Wood, C. Wang, L. Oreopoulos, S. Platnick, S. Von Hippel, K. Meyer, S. Light, and E. Wilcox (2022), Global reduction in ship-tracks from sulfur regulations for shipping fuel, Science Advances, 8(29), https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn7988.

On July 14, 2022, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's recipients of the 2022 Robert H. Goddard (RHG) Honor Award were announced. Robert H. Goddard is universally recognized as "the father of the U.S. space program," and this award recognizes an individual's hard work and dedication to the success of work at Goddard.

Jackson Tan (613/UMBC) received a Science award: "For exceptional scientific insight and rigor in characterizing the Earth's cloud and precipitation regimes."

Jan Dominik Cieslak (613/UMBC) received an award for Engineering (by Code 599, the Mission Systems Engineering Branch): "For outstanding grit, creativity, and steady hands in solving the HARP instrument prism vibration problem."  

On behalf of UMBC, GESTAR II, and JCET, congratulations to you all.

Lee, J. (613/UMBC) and D. L. Wu (613/GSFC) (2022), Non-Gaussian distributions of TOA SW flux as observed by MISR and CERES, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 127 (14), https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD036636.

Also, Eunjee Lee published a 2022 paper in Geophys. Res. Lett.:

Lee, E. (610.1/UMBC), R. Koster (610.1/GSFC), L. Ott (610.1/GSFC), J. Joiner (614/GSFC), F. Zeng (610.1/SSAI), J. Kolassa (610.1/SSAI), R. H. Reichle (610.1/GSFC), K. Arsenault (617/SAIC), A. Hazra (617/UMCP), and S. Shukla (UC-SB) (2022), Skillful Seasonal Forecasts of Land Carbon Uptake in Northern Mid- and High Latitudes, Geophysical Research Letters, 49 (6), https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097117.

The Students Airborne Science Activation (SaSa) began its inaugural year in 2022. In Kiswahili, sasa means "now"; as a mission, SaSa means research experiences for 25 students from MSIs. It has four main objectives, the fourth being "to provide research, mentoring, and networking opportunities for early-career undergraduates to address the shortage of individuals from historically underrepresented groups graduating with STEM degrees from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and a need to prepare these students to enter STEM graduate programs as well as the NASA and research workforce." Students from MSI partners Howard University, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Coppin State University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Hampton University are participating in the first SaSa class. To learn more about SaSa's objectives and opportunities, visit https://www.nasa.gov/welcome-to-sasa as well as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFRIA_C-l2c.

In January 2021, NASA selected nine proposals for funding as part of its "next phase of Science Activation to connect NASA science with learners of all ages." Among those awarded was Student Airborne Science Activation for MSI (SaSa), PI: Charles Gatebe, Atmospheric Science Branch Chief, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA: "The SaSa project will work to address minority representation in geosciences (comprised of ocean, atmosphere, and Earth sciences) by engaging students through NASA-related airborne campaigns." (Check out Dr. Gatebe's interview with Storycorps.org.) At UMBC, Ruben Delgado, Assistant Research Professor with GESTAR II and UMBC's Physics Department, and Belay Demoz, Director of GESTAR II and Professor in UMBC's Physics Department, are both Co-PIs on SaSa. Additionally, of SaSa's five Graduate Student Mentors, Emily Faber, Kylie Hoffman, and Maurice Roots are pursuing their doctoral degrees at UMBC in Atmospheric Physics. Alicia Hoffman, a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and David Moore, a first-year Ph.D. student at UCLA, are the other two mentors. Meet the 2022 SaSa class here. 

The first part of the summer of SaSa brought students to UMBC for a two-week introductory summer workshop plus hands-on training at Hampton University. While at UMBC, they met with UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski, who presented an inspiring talk. Presently, during the second part of the program, the students are immersed in a research field campaign. As reported in several media outlets, a NASA P3 from Wallops Flight Facility is being used for SaSa to "conduct atmospheric studies over DC to Baltimore" (see photo below). The third step will be to process and analyze the data and present the research results. This invaluable experience provides insight to what is involved in being a research scientist as well as the opportunity to develop analytical, collaboration and presentation skills. 

Make note of these upcoming dates! On Thursday, July 14, WRC-DC, the NBC4 channel in Washington, DC, aired a story on SaSa during its newscasts in the morning (4 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m., and 11 a.m.) and the afternoon. Additionally, for those who are onsite at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, on Friday, July 29, there will be a Student Airborne Science Activation (SaSa) Internship Poster Showcase in the NASA GSFC Building 33 lobby from 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Please stop by and talk with the students.

Be sure to bookmark and revisit https://www.nasa.gov/sasa for the ongoing events and accomplishments of this exciting mission and to follow the students' experiences. 

In mid-May 2022, the Sun-Climate Symposium 2022 was held in Madison, WI. Since 2002, this symposium has been a NASA-sponsored multidisciplinary, international science meeting. This year, the science theme was "Improved Climate-Record Reconstructions from Solar Variability and Earth System Observations". 

Presenters from JCET, GPHI, and GSFC included Jae Lee (UMBC/613), Sergio DeSouza-Machado (UMBC), Vanderlei Martins (UMBC), Bob Leamon (UMBC/672), and Steve Platnick (GSFC/610). Dr. Martins and Dr. Platnick both presented invited talks. Each scientist gave an oral presentation and showed strong support of climate data records and future missions on solar and terrestrial measurements.

Jae Lee: "Non-Gaussian Distribution of TOA SW Flux as Observed by MISR and CERES";

Robert Leamon: "The Solar Cycle Clock: Prediction of F10.7, EUV Irradiance, and the Last X-flare of Solar Cycle 25";

Sergio DeSouza-Machado: "Satellite Hyperspectral Infrared Climate Time Series Combining AIRS and CrIS";

Vanderlei Martins: "Current and future measurements of aerosol and cloud properties with the HARP family of Multi-Angle Imaging Polarimeters", invited talk; and,

Steve Platnick: "Time Series Analysis of the NASA MODIS and VIIRS Cloud Products", invited talk.