Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology

JCET Earth Science Explorers 2010

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:20:02 -0500

Click on Research for information on the 2010 JCET Earth Science Explorers program.

JCET Earth Science Explorers 2010

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:08:14 -0500

JCET Earth Science Explorers Program 2010

The 2010 JCET Earth Science Explorers Program provides undergraduate students the opportunity to engage in Earth science and atmospheric physics research. Students are matched with a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center researcher and/or UMBC faculty member and work on a research project at the UMBC campus in Baltimore or at NASA GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland. Topics of Earth science research may include:

Remote sensing of Earth
Hydrology
Global climate analysis and modeling
Vegetation and ecosystem monitoring
Tropical precipitation and storm systems
Coastal processes/sea level rise
Volcanic hazards and climate impacts
Remote sensing of planetary atmospheres
Space Geodesy, Geophysics, GPS, orbits

The program is open to all U.S. citizens and students holding the appropriate visa. Students are required to present a poster. Students receive $4,000 in support, local housing and travel expenses.

Deadline for Applications: February 19, 2010

Apply here.

For more information contact:

Valerie Casasanto
Program Coordinator, UMBC JCET
Ph: 301-286-6605
E-mail: VCasa@umbc.edu

(left)JCET Intern Collin Lawrence explains summer research at UMBC's Research Fest, August 2008
(right)Interns on tour of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, August 2008

JCET Newsletter online

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:02:02 -0500

Click on Media to view the Fall 2009 JCET newsletter.

JCET Summer Interns at UMBC's ResearchFest - UPDATED!

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:16:15 -0500

JCET's Summer Interns presented their summer research at UMBC's Twelfth Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF) at UMBC on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 in the First Floor Gallery of the Albin O. Kuhn Library. This event served as a culminating activity for many students in undergraduate research programs that are connected to UMBC and the College of Mathematics and Science. At the event, the JCET student researchers gave their poster presentations of their summer research to the UMBC community:

The presentations were followed by a Mentor Appreciation ceremony. Many thanks go out to JCET Faculty members Ruben Delgado, Meloe Kacenelenbogen, Ana Prados, Vanderlei Martins, and Manfredo Tabacniks for their participation in this year's program.

2010 Maryland Charity Campaign - UMBC 1000

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:06:00 -0500

October 15 marks the start to the 2010 Maryland Charity Campaign. Packets of pledge cards will be distributed by internal mail to all faculty. Please consult the letter for Dr. Hoff's request that you consider contributing this year. UMBC 1000 is the goal of having 1000 of our faculty and staff make contributions this year. You will need to search for your favorite charity or look for the Book #'s online as books are not being provided this year. Contact Dr. Hoff at (hoff at umbc.edu) for questions.

34th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Oct 5-9, 2009

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:20:25 -0500

Dr. Ali Tokay and Dr. Gerry Heymsfield (NASA-GSFC) will be co-chairs of the 34th Conference on Radar Meteorology. Organized by AMS, the conference will be held in Williamsburg, VA from October 5-9, 2009. Additionally, Dr. Tokay has been selected to be a member of the AMS radar meteorology committee. From more information on the conference, please visit www.amet.soc.org.

More Big News from JCET

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:37:35 -0500

Dr. Jeffrey Halverson was granted tenure at UMBC as Associate Professor in Geography. He will continue to serve a half-time appointment in that department, while remaining as Associate Director of JCET, a position he has held since 2006.

Additionally, Dr. Halverson was selected by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to serve as an Affiliate Scientist for the next three years. Under this appointment, he will work with NCAR scientists and engineers to pioneer an autonomous, high-altitude dropsonde system for the NASA-Northrup Grumman Global Hawk UAV. He will also guide the scientific analysis of a comprehensive dropsonde dataset (more than 12,000 dropsondes) released into tropical cyclones by various NASA, NOAA and USAF "hurricane hunter" aircraft.

Maryland's Place in Space 50th Anniversary Expo

Wed, 27 May 2009 16:01:48 -0500

Maryland's Place in Space 50th Anniversary Expo

Several JCET and GEST faculty members will be representing UMBC at the Baltimore Convention Center this Saturday, May 30th, as part of Maryland's Place in Space Expo. This free event will be held from 10am - 4pm. Additional information regarding this and related events can be found at http://mdplaceinspace.jhuapl.edu.

Erricos Pavlis selected by NASA as US PI for ASI's LARES mission

Mon, 18 May 2009 14:53:22 -0500

LARES, the LAser RElativity Satellite, a 14-inch diameter spherical satellite with a mass of 853 lbs., will be launched in late 2010, and will become the densest object in our solar system. Dr. Erricos C. Pavlis has been selected by NASA to be the US PI for the Italian Space Agency's (ASI) LARES satellite mission. He and his team will join their Italian counterpart led by Ignazio Ciufolini, University of Salento at Lecce, to form the International Science Team for LARES. The spacecraft has been been completed this fall (2009), and an analysis center is also being completed for the reduction of the tracking data once the satellite is launched. The satellite's surface will be studded with 92 prisms that will reflect incident light towards the incoming direction. In order to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity (GR), LARES' surface will be shot with laser pulses by ground-based laser tracking stations to measure the distance with mm-accuracy and determine its precise orbit. Validating GR through various tests will help us better understand how our world works and will eventually lead to an understanding of the nature of dark matter and the unification of various theories in physics. (Note, some information has been updated as of 11/20/09.)

David Lary's paper accepted for publication

Fri, 15 May 2009 16:06:25 -0500

David Lary's paper titled Machine Learning and Bias Correction of MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth has been accepted for publication by IEEE Trans. on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Ray Hoff and his team of Smog Bloggers

Fri, 08 May 2009 09:16:57 -0500

are featured in an article in Scientific American, 7 May 2009, which also includes an accompanying Slide Show.

Sasha Marshak, Tamás Várnai and Ilan Koren

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:57:07 -0500

are all featured in this online article in Nature, 3 April 2009

Sasha Marshak and Tamás Várnai's GRL paper featured in online magazine New Scientist

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:57:05 -0500

New Scientist, 30 March 2009

ESSI Workshop, Aug 3-5, 2009

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:54:04 -0500

Tom Narock, Research Analyst with GEST, is helping to organize a workshop in Earth and space science informatics to be held at UMBC's ITE building on August 3-5, 2009. The workshop will be hosted by the AGU informatics focus group along with UMBC's information systems department. The goal is to bring together graduate students and experienced researchers to present and discuss current research and future challenges in Earth and space science informatics. A special issue of the journal Earth Science Informatics will highlight papers from this workshop. Topic areas of interest, submission details, and logistics can be found at the workshop's website: http://essi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ or you can contact Tom directly at Thomas.W.Narock@nasa.gov.

2009 National Teach-in on Global Warming

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:17:14 -0500

On Thursday, February 5th, colleges and universities nationwide will participate in the 2009 National Teach-in on Global Warming. UMBC's Climate Change Task Force (CCTF) will sponsor activities throughout the campus. More information will be available at http://www.umbc.edu/sustainability. Additional information can be found at http://www.nationalteachin.org/about.php and http://www.umbc.edu/insights/2009/01/national_teachin_on_global_war.html.