UM and NASA Announce Creation of New Center for Research and Education

COLLEGE PARK, MD The University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center announce the formation of a major center in the emerging, interdisciplinary field known as Earth system science. The goal of the new center is to produce the multi-disciplinary research and researchers that are needed to better understand the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment.

"The new center will take its research cue from NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Strategic Plan and emphasize results that lead to clear societal benefits," said Michael Brown, interim director for the center and chair of geology department at the University of Maryland.

Specific research projects will address issues in the following broad areas: ecosystems and the changing landscape; solid earth science and natural hazards; the hydrological cycle and ocean circulation; atmospheric chemistry, climate variability and prediction; and the use of computer science and information technologies for Earth system science.

"Educationally, the center will develop a graduate program in Earth system science that will train top students in the research methods appropriate to the new millennium," Brown said.

The new Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center is a collaboration among the university's

• College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences (departments of geology and meteorology primarily)

• its College of Behavioral and Social Sciences department of geography

• and NASA Goddard's Earth Sciences Directorate (Laboratories for Atmospheres, Terrestrial Physics and Hydrostatic Processes).

The university and NASA Goddard long have shared interests in earth science areas such as the study of atmospheric, oceanographic and land processes, and the interactions among them. Fundamental to much of this work is the application of advanced remote sensing methods and the use of new information technologies to manage the huge volume of remote sensing data being produced.

Leading remote sensing programs in which both institutions are involved include the Landsat 7 and the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) satellite missions.

The recently launched Landsat 7 satellite provides high resolution images, spectral light discrimination and precision light measurement for global change studies, land cover monitoring and assessment, and large area mapping. The mission is directed by NASA Goddard and has a science team headed by University of Maryland department of geography chair Samuel Goward.

The University of Maryland-led VCL mission is scheduled for launch in September of 2000. It will use safe, low-power lasers to create the first three-dimensional maps of the world's forests. The mission is headed by university geographer Ralph Dubayah and involves other scientists from the University Maryland as well as scientists from NASA Goddard.

The work of the new Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center also will draw from and be integrated with that of several established centers at the University of Maryland. These include:

• The Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This institute fosters collaborative research between NOAA and the university in studies of climatology, climate diagnostics, modeling and prediction.

• The Global Land Cover Facility, a NASA-supported center that provides land cover data products and information services through a creative collaboration between the university's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies and its geography department.

• The NASA-supported Earth Science Application Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region. This center is using NASA's earth science information and earth observing technologies to help resolve regional land use and environmental policy issues and to provide scientists, farmers, and business entrepreneurs with new "tools" for their work.

• The Laboratory for Global Remote Sensing Studies. The lab is a multi-disciplinary collaboration of Earth system science researchers using remote sensing data from satellites and other sources to study global land cover and vegetation dynamics, global ecology, climatology, climate change, and remote sensing science.

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