EEOS Professor Crystal Schaaf Part of NASA Climate-Change Research Mission

The Conway Daily Sun newspaper recently reported on a data acquisition by NASA's Cloud Airborne Radiometer (CAR), which was flying on NASA's P3 aircraft over Bartlett Forest, NH. The flight, part of NASA’s climate-change research mission, was acquiring data in support of the work of new EEOS Professor Crystal Barker Schaaf.

Schaaf works on the development and use of operational products from NASA's MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) which monitors the Earth's environments from the Terra and Aqua polar-orbiting space platforms. She is the principal investigator in charge of the MODIS albedo and surface anisotropy products and uses remote sensing data to reconstruct and monitor the reflectance characteristics of various land surfaces. The airborne CAR data, acquired in collaboration with NASA/Goddard colleagues Charles Gatebe and Miguel Roman, will be used to validate the MODIS remotely sensed products. A lot of people in the region noticed the large NASA plane overhead because it had to fly a series of slow circles over the forest to acquire the multi-angle data the researchers wanted.

The initial CAR imagery has been posted. Flight coverage included not only Harvard, Howland, and Bartlett Forests in New England but also a mangrove swamp in Florida that had suffered hurricane damage.