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Schedule including this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, November 13, 2000
The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a space-based observing system comprising a series of sensors located in low Earth Orbit by which scientists and users can monitor the Earth, a Data and Information System (EOSDIS) enabling users worldwide to access the satellite data, and an algorithm development and interdisciplinary science research program to interpret the satellite data and validate the geophysical parameters derived from the global dataset. During the past year and a half, four EOS science missions were launched, representing observations of (i) total solar irradiance, (ii) Earth radiation budget, (iii) land cover & land use change, (iv) ocean processes (vector wind, sea surface temperature, and ocean color), (v) atmospheric processes (aerosol and cloud properties, water vapor, and temperature and moisture profiles), and (vi) tropospheric atmospheric chemistry. In succeeding years many more satellites will be launched that will contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the Earth's environment.
In this presentation Dr. King will review the key areas of scientific uncertainty in understanding climate and global change, and follow that with a description of the EOS goals, objectives, and scientific research elements that compose the program (instrument science teams and interdisciplinary investigations). He will describe how scientists and policy makers intend to use EOS data to improve our understanding of key global change uncertainties, focusing specifically on EOS missions currently in orbit (Landsat 7, QuikScat, Terra, and ACRIMSAT). Finally, he will provide an overall status of the spaceborne missions currently under development as part of the EOS program.
Dr. King is Senior Project Scientist for NASA's EOS. He is also the Principal Investigator and Team Leader of the Atmospheric Discipline Group of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and is a member of the science team for the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instrument. He received the BA degree in physics from Colorado College in 1971 and the MS and PhD degrees in atmospheric sciences from the University of Arizona in 1973 and 1977, respectively, and joined Goddard Space Flight Center as a Physical Scientist in the Climate and Radiation Branch, Laboratory for Atmospheres, in January 1978. Dr. King's research experience includes conceiving, developing, and operating multispectral scanning radiometers from a number of aircraft platforms in field experiments ranging from arctic stratus clouds, smoke from the Kuwait oil fires, and biomass burning in Brazil and southern Africa. He has lectured on global change on all seven continents. Earlier, he developed the Cloud Absorption Radiometer for studying the absorption properties of optically thick clouds as well as the bi-directional reflectance properties of many natural surfaces. Dr. King is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and is a recipient of the Verner E. Suomi Award of the AMS for fundamental contributions to remote sensing and radiative transfer. He received an honorary doctorate from Colorado College in 1995, and is a Goddard Senior Fellow and recipient of the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and Exceptional Service Medal.
Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Jeff Greenwell
Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov