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Logging operations are widespread across the Oregon Coast Range and conventional logging practices pose a risk of contamination to surface water quality. The NASA DEVELOP Oregon Coast Ecological Conservation team partnered with nonprofit Oregon Wild to quantify the extent of clearcutting and commercial thinning in 80 Coast Range drinking watersheds between 2000 and 2022. This project used all available Landsat data from 1997 through June 2023 in Google Earth Engine. Sensors used include Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper, Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, and Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager-2. The Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) algorithm was used with Landsat observations to identify clearcutting patches. Percent change in summer median Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images were used to identify areas of forest disturbance including commercial thinning. The team concluded that logging, including both clearcutting and commercial thinning, impacted 31% of forested area in drinking watersheds and the intensity of logging remained consistent from year to year. Clearcutting occurred primarily on private land while commercial thinning occurred primarily on state and federal lands. This study showed that CCDC effectively identifies clearcutting, and percent change in NDVI successfully identifies disturbances including commercial thinning. Key constraints included the lack of field validation data and the inability to attribute disturbances to logging with certainty. Ultimately, this study identified the drinking watersheds and communities most likely to be impacted by logging activity. These results can inform legislation aimed at balancing the commercial and environmental benefits of forestlands.
The Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) is a unique not-for-profit network that focuses on transferring Exploration and Production (E&P) technology to the domestic oil and natural gas producing industry. PTTC connects producers, technology providers and innovators, academia, research and development (R&D) consortiums and governments. Local affordable workshops delivered by Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs), which are typically a university or geological survey, are a primary tool. PTTC also maintains a website network, issues a national newsletter, provides a column in a major trade publication, and exhibits at major industry events. It also encourages industry to ask technology-related questions, striving to find relevant answers that will save questioners significant time. Working since late 1993, the PTTC network has a proven track record of providing industry with technology insights they can apply. Volunteers at the regional and national level provide key guidance regarding where to focus technical effort and help connect PTTC with industry. At historical funding levels, PTTC had been able to hold well more than 100 workshops per year, drawing 6,000+ attendees. As funding decreased in the early 2000s, the level of activity decreased and PTTC sought a merger with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), becoming an AAPG-managed organization at the start of FY08. This relationship with AAPG was terminated by mutual consent in May 2011 and PTTC once again operates independently. Chris Hall, California continued to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors until December 2013. At the time PTTC reorganized into a RLO led organization with Mary Carr and Jeremy Viscomi as co-Executive Directors. Jerry Anderson became the Chairman of the PTTC Board of Directors and Chris Hall continues to serve on the Board. Workshop activity stabilized at 55-65 workshops per year averaging 3,100 attendees. FY14 represented the fifth year in a multi-year contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) for providing technology transfer services. This report summarizes activity and results during for five years, FY10 through FY14. In FY12 changes occurred in responsibilities of consultants serving HQ, because funding was reduced below the threshold level of $500,000 audits were no longer required and consultant time was reduced on the primary contract. Contracts for Permian Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) training, and providing tech transfer services to the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) provided work that enabled HQ to retain services of regular consultants. Both CCUS and RPSEA were five year contracts with PTTC, and providing services for these DOE funded contracts provided synergy for PTTC and the oil and gas industry. With further decreases in DOE funding the regions conducted workshops with no PTTC funding starting in June FY11. Since 2011 the number of workshops has declined from 79 in FY10 and FY11 to 49 in FY12, and risen to 54 in FY13 and 63 in FY14. The attendee's numbers dipped slightly below 3,000 per year in FY 10, FY12, and FY13, but rose to over 3,800 in FY 11 and 3105 in FY14. Quantitative accomplishments: PTTC has maintained its unique structure of a national organization working through Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs) to deliver local, affordable workshops. During the contract period PTTC consolidated from 10 to five regions to increase efficiency, and because no active RLO's would be maintained in the Central and Eastern Gulf Coast regions. RLO's for the regions are located at: Eastern - West Virginia University, (Illinois Geol. Survey., W. Michigan Univ. FY10-12); Midwest created in FY13 - Illinois Geological Survey, W. Michigan University; Midcontinent - University of Kansas, expanded to Houston, TX (2013-14); Rocky Mountain - Colorado School of Mines; Texas/SE New Mexico (FY10-FY11) - Bureau of Economic Geology, Univ. of Texas at Austin; West Coast - Conservation Committee of California O&G Producers.
The Presidents' Day cyclone of 18-19 February, 1979 is analyzed based on conventional radiosonde data, infrared and visible satellite imagery, water vapor images and ozone measurement. The well-known synoptic-scale characteristics of the PJ-trough system are described, and evidence for the development of the tropopause fold are presented. Processes contributing to the formation of the fold are discussed in terms of an evaluation of the Sawyer-Eliassen circulation equation and a diagnostic evaluation of the ageostrophic winds and vertical motion near the polar jet streak. The documentation of stratospheric extrusions and their possible role in cyclogenesis is reviewed, and Eulerian and Lagrangian diagnostics are used to establish a connection between the tropopause fold associated with the polar jet streak and rapid cyclogenesis along the East Coast. Conservation of potential vorticity expressed in isentropic coordinates is used as a constraint from which to view cyclogenesis.
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Book review of Coastal Conservation Edited by Brooke Maslo and Julie L. Lockwood Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2014, 382 pages ISBN 978-1-107-60674-6,
Florida scrub-jays are a species listed under the Endangered Species Act. The NASA Ecology program has been a partner for conservation, recovery, and translocation across the species range. The objectives of this talk are to update members of the Archie Carr Working Group recovery, conservation, and translocation activities and describe how the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge and nearby conservation lands relate to species recovery actions.
New data, tools, and capabilities for decision making are significant needs in the northern Gulf of Mexico and other coastal areas. The goal of this project is to support NASA s Earth Science Mission Directorate and its Applied Science Program and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance by producing and providing NASA data and products that will benefit decision making by coastal resource managers and other end users in the Gulf region. Data and research products are being developed to assist coastal resource managers adapt and plan for changing conditions by evaluating how climate changes and urban expansion will impact land cover/land use (LCLU), hydrodynamics, water properties, and shallow water habitats; to identify priority areas for conservation and restoration; and to distribute datasets to end-users and facilitating user interaction with models. The proposed host sites for data products are NOAA s National Coastal Data Development Center Regional Ecosystem Data Management, and Mississippi-Alabama Habitat Database. Tools will be available on the Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaborative website with links to data portals to enable end users to employ models and datasets to develop and evaluate LCLU and climate scenarios of particular interest. These data will benefit the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program in ongoing efforts to protect and restore the Fish River watershed and around Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The usefulness of data products and tools will be demonstrated at an end-user workshop.
Contents include the following: Monitoring the Ancient Countryside: Remote Sensing and GIS at the Chora of Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraine). Integration of Remote Sensing and GIS for Management Decision Support in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve (Republic of Benin). Monitoring of deforestation invasion in natural reserves of northern Madagascar based on space imagery. Cartography of Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Cartography and Land Use Change of World Heritage Areas and the Benefits of Remote Sensing and GIS for Conservation. Assessing and Monitoring Vegetation in Nabq Protected Area, South Sinai, Egypt, using combine approach of Satellite Imagery and Land Surveys. Evaluation of forage resources in semi-arid savannah environments with satellite imagery: contribution to the management of a protected area (Nakuru National Park) in Kenya. SOGHA, the Surveillance of Gorilla Habitat in World Heritage sites using Space Technologies. Application of Remote Sensing to monitor the Mont-Saint-Michel Bay (France). Application of Remote Sensing & GIS for the Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage Sites of the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Social and Environmental monitoring of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve: Case Study over the Vosges du Nord and Pfalzerwald Parks using Corona and Spot Imagery. Satellite Remote Sensing as tool to Monitor Indian Reservation in the Brazilian Amazonia. Remote Sensing and GIS Technology for Monitoring UNESCO World Heritage Sites - A Pilot Project. Urban Green Spaces: Modern Heritage. Monitoring of the technical condition of the St. Sophia Cathedral and related monastic buildings in Kiev with Space Applications, geo-positioning systems and GIS tools. The Murghab delta palaeochannel Reconstruction on the Basis of Remote Sensing from Space. Acquisition, Registration and Application of IKONOS Space Imagery for the cultural World Heritage site at Mew, Turkmenistan. Remote Sensing and VR applications for the reconstruction of archaeological landscapes. Archaeology through Space: Experience in Indian Subcontinent. The creation of a GIS Archaeological Site Location Catalogue in Yucatan: A Tool to preserve its Cultural Heritage. Mapping the Ancient Anasazi Roads of Southeast Utah. Remote Sensing and GIS Technology for Identification of Conservation and Heritage sites in Urban Planning. Mapping Angkor: For a new appraisal of the Angkor region. Angkor and radar imaging: seeing a vast pre-industrial low-density, dispersed urban complex. Technical and methodological aspects of archaeological CRM integrating high resolution satellite imagery. The contribution of satellite imagery to archaeological survey: an example from western Syria. The use of satellite images, digital elevation models and ground truth for the monitoring of land degradation in the "Cinque Terre" National park. Remote Sensing and GIS Applications for Protection and Conservation of World Heritage Site on the coast - Case Study of Tamil Nadu Coast, India. Multispectral high resolution satellite imagery in combination with "traditional" remote sensing and ground survey methods to the study of archaeological landscapes. The case study of Tuscany. Use of Remotely-Sensed Imagery in Cultural Landscape. Characterisation at Fort Hood, Texas. Heritage Learning and Data Collection: Biodiversity & Heritage Conservation through Collaborative Monitoring & Research. A collaborative project by UNESCO's WHC (World Heritage Center) & The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment). Practical Remote Sensing Activities in an Interdisciplinary Master-Level Space Course.
The southeastern beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris, hereafter SEBM), a federally threatened species was identified by Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR) as one of the top five priorities for management. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Environmental Management Branch was asked to provide support in the form of population monitoring for SEBM on KSC and the surrounding properties. When we began the project, the SEBM was known to occupy sites ranging from Volusia through Brevard and Indian River Counties, but the exact distribution within the Federal lands encompassing the Cape Canaveral Barrier Island Complex (CCBIC) was not well known. The broad range of habitat conditions encompassing the species’ historical range and the diversity of sites historically known to contain SEBM required a landscape-scale approach for both monitoring the population and for investigating species habitat relationships. We designed a monitoring plan for the SEBM with the goal of estimating the habitat occupancy of beach mice annually each winter/spring throughout the entire area of suitable coastal habitat (approximately 72 km linear distance along the beach). Methods were tested in a 2008 pilot study, and during 2010-2018 we monitored the proportion of coastal habitat occupied by the SEBM on the CCBIC. Monitoring was focused on using dynamic habitat occupancy surveys with data collected with rapid assessment techniques (i.e., track tubes or live-traps) to detect SEBM occurrence at sampling stations. An important component of the study design was the use of repeated samples that provided the information needed to estimate detectability. Measuring detectability was required to account for the fact that surveys could fail to detect animals at sites at which they were actually present (Mackenzie et al., 2002). This monitoring framework is very flexible, allowing numerous hypothesis to be tested about how various factors influence beach mouse occupancy using habitat, geographic, and environmental covariates. Our survey has been the longest survey conducted for any of the seven extant beach mouse subspecies and has encompassed nearly the entire remaining range of the SEBM. Although occupancy surveys of other beach mouse subspecies via track tubes have been conducted on the Gulf coast of Florida by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and various universities, we expanded previous methods to fit unique aspects of the SEBM, and thus our study was very different from any of the previous studies. To achieve this specificity, we employed an adaptive approach throughout the study, with all activities aimed at providing managers with information related to environmental compliance and natural resource management on KSC and the surrounding Federal lands.
Awareness of the significant benefits of mangroves to human lives and their role in regulating environmental processes has increased during the recent decades. Yet there remains significant uncertainty about the mangrove change trajectories and the drivers of change at national scales. In Colombia, the absence of historical satellite imagery and persistent cloud cover have impeded the accurate mapping of mangrove extent and change over time. We create a temporally consistent Landsat-derived dataset using the LandTrendr algorithm to track the historical land cover and mangrove conversion from 1984-2020 across Colombia. Over this period, mangrove extent decreased by ~48.000ha (14% of total mangrove area). We find a gradual reduction of mangrove extent along the Pacific coast since 2004, whereas, in the Caribbean, mangrove cover declined around during 1984-1988 and also after 2012. Our time-series analysis matches with drivers of mangrove change at three local sites. For instance, hydroclimatic events, dredging activities, and high sediment loads transported by the rivers have collectively improved mangrove recovery in some sites. In contrast, human activities pressure linked to agricultural expansion and road construction have degraded mangroves. The transition from dense mangrove to other vegetation types is the most significant conversion affecting mangrove cover in Colombia, impacting an area of 38,469 ± 2,829 ha. We anticipate increased mangrove loss, especially along the Pacific coast, resulting from intensified human activity. Prioritization of conservation areas is needed to support local institutions, maintain currently protected areas, and develop strategies (e.g. payment for ecosystem services) to preserve one of the most pristine mangrove regions in the Western Hemisphere.
America Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Space Coast Section - Our presenter will be Jennifer Hill, PE, LEED AP, Energy Manager for NASA at Kennedy Space Center. Ms. Hill will present on the NASA KSC Energy Program, providing an overview of KSC’s energy program and of projects that have been implemented to reduce energy and water intensity, increase renewable energy usage, and to improve resilience in support of the NASA KSC Mission.
Dawn is NASA's ninth Discovery class mission. The Dawn spacecraft was designed to orbit both the giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres in succession, a mission only made possible by the high efficiency of ion propulsion. While the same spacecraft visited both bodies, the mission planning and maneuver execution at the two bodies were necessarily very different. The mission at Vesta benefited from at least three functioningreaction control wheels. At Ceres, all maneuvering and coasting during transfers was done without reaction wheel control due to the loss of the second of four wheels while departing Vesta. Loss of the second wheel made conserving attitude control propellant (hydrazine) critical to achieving mission success at Ceres. To save hydrazine, avoiding unnecessary coasting and attitude turns became essential during the interplanetary cruise to Ceres and for all transfers once at Ceres. In contrast, operations at Vesta did not need to avoid coasting. Operating at Ceres requires being farther from the Sun. Greaterheliocentric distances (approaching 3 AU (Astronomical Units) make Dawn's attitude control constraints while maneuvering more restrictive as a result of reduced control authority.
The needs of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMGS), National Weather Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard for locational, biological, and environmental data were assessed. The fisheries conservation zones and the yellowfin tuna jurisdiction of the NMFS operates observer programs on foreign and domestic fishing vessels. Data input terminal and data transfer and processing technology are reviewed to establish available capability. A matrix of implementation options is generated to identify the benefits of each option, and preliminary cost estimates are made. Recommendations are made for incremental application of available off the shelf hardware to obtain improved performance and benefits within a well bounded cost. Terminal recommendations are made for three interdependent shipboard units emphasizing: (1) the determination of location and fishing activity; (2) hand held data inputting and formatting in the fishing work areas; and (3) data manipulation, merging, and editing.
Coastal wetlands, including seagrass meadows, emergent marshes, mangroves, and temperate tidal swamps, can efficiently sequester and store large quantities of sediment organic carbon (SOC). However, SOC stocks may vary by ecosystem type and along environmental or climate gradients at different scales. Quantifying such variability is needed to improve blue carbon accounting, conservation effectiveness, and restoration planning. We analyzed SOC stocks in 1,284 sediment cores along >6,500 km of the Pacific coast of North America that included large environmental gradients and multiple ecosystem types. Tidal wetlands with woody vegetation (mangroves and swamps) had the highest mean stocks to 1 m depth (357 and 355 Mg ha −1 , respectively), 45% higher than marshes (245 Mg ha −1 ), and more than 500% higher than seagrass (68 Mg ha −1 ). Unvegetated tideflats, though not often considered a blue carbon ecosystem, had noteworthy stocks (148 Mg ha −1 ). Stocks increased with tidal elevation and with fine (<63 μm) sediment content in several ecosystems. Stocks also varied by dominant plant species within individual ecosystem types. At larger scales, marsh stocks were lowest in the Sonoran Desert region of Mexico, and swamp stocks differed among climate zones; otherwise stocks showed little correlation with ecoregion or latitude. More variability in SOC occurred among ecosystem types, and at smaller spatial scales (such as individual estuaries), than across regional climate gradients. These patterns can inform coastal conservation and restoration priorities across scales where preserving stored carbon and enhancing sequestration helps avert greenhouse gas emissions and maintains other vital ecosystem services.
PK-12 schools lag in upgrading fluorescent lighting. Surprised? So were we; spurring a journey to understand the reasons for lagging adoption of LED. During conversations with school facility managers and other lighting professionals the reasons became clearer. What follows is a synopsis of what has been uncovered so far, yet there remains much to learn. Here, these stories are not the product of imagination; they represent real experiences, real decisions, and real concerns from 9 school districts in 7 states from coast to coast.
The Electrify Monterey Bay project, delivered by Central Coast Energy Services (CCES) under DOE Weatherization Assistance Program Enhancement & Innovation (E&I) funding, was designed to demonstrate scalable, low-income residential electrification across the Monterey Bay region over a 36-month performance period. The original production goal was to electrify at least 50 households; CCES exceeded this benchmark by completing electrification work in 86 households. Targeting criteria prioritized households located in disadvantaged communities and/or with an energy burden >6.5% (defined as average household energy costs divided by average household countable income). Across participating households, the average energy burden was 28%, indicating a high-need population and supporting the program’s equity and affordability objectives.