NASA ABoVE Airborne Campaign Data Fusion – Virtual
Internship Description: Climate change in Arctic and Boreal regions is unfolding faster than anywhere else on Earth, resulting in reduced Arctic sea ice, thawing of permafrost soils, decomposition of long-frozen organic matter, widespread changes to lakes, rivers, coastlines, and alterations of ecosystem structure and function. NASA's Terrestrial Ecology Program is conducting a major field campaign, the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE, https://above.nasa.gov/), which seeks a better understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of ecosystems and society to this changing environment through the intersection of field, remote sensing (airborne and satellite), and modeling research. Over the past three years, the ABoVE Airborne Campaign (AAC) surveyed over 4 million km2 in Alaska and northwestern Canada with instruments aboard multiple aircraft. The science strategy included coupling domain-wide sampling with L-band and P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), imaging spectroscopy (AVIRIS-NG), full waveform lidar (LVIS) and atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane (ArcticCAP) with more spatially and temporally focused studies using Ka-band SAR and solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence (CFIS). Additional measurements were coordinated with the NEON Airborne Observing Platform, the ASCENDS instrument development suite, the ATOM EV-S2 investigation, and G-LiHT (Goddard's LiDAR, Hyperspectral & Thermal Imager). Find links to available data, and maps of coverage, here: https://above.nasa.gov/
airborne_2017.html. In addition to ground and airborne measurements, ABoVE has been active in tasking and making available high resolution optical imagery for researchers involved in the campaign (DigitalGlobe and Planet imagery). The ABoVE campaign seeks a highly motivated and organized individual working towards an undergraduate or graduate degree in an environmental/earth science discipline (or related field) to complete a data fusion project using at least two or more of the airborne and optical imagery data sets available from the summer 2017, 2018, or 2019 campaigns. Datasets will be made available to the student in the ABoVE Science Cloud (https://above.nasa.gov/ sciencecloud.html), and the student will be able to use the processing capabilities provided in this high performance-computing environment during the internship. Possible projects should address some of the science questions and objectives for ABoVE (https://above.nasa.gov/about. html?#questions) and can be tailored to the research interests of the successful candidate. The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, experience with data manipulation, and experience with at least two of the types of data collected during the ABoVE campaign. The student should have experience with Linux and Windows systems, as well as open source analysis tools such as python, gdal, or R. Additionally, familiarity with geographic information systems (GIS) is desired, such as ArcGIS Desktop/Pro, QGIS, and/or IDL/ENVI. The student will create and present a poster showcasing their results at the annual GSFC Internship Poster Day, however additional opportunities to present research could also be possible.
Interested candidates can learn more at https://intern.nasa.gov/, and apply here: https://nasa.force.com/s/
login/. The deadline for consideration is March 5th, 2021
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----------------------- Elizabeth Hoy, PhD
Senior Support Scientist
Global Science & Technology, Inc.
NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Office: 301-614-6494Cell: 410-279-8623
