[ESIP-all] What's New on esipfed.org - Jan 2003

Hardin, Danny Danny.Hardin@msfc.nasa.gov
Fri, 10 Jan 2003 14:45:09 -0600


Happy New Year to all of you. Here is a summary of recent updates and
additions to the
Federation Website. If you gave a presentation or held a meeting at the 10th
Federation Assembly please forward you files to us so that we can keep a
full record of Federation activities. Also, please help keep Federation
accomplishments visible by sending us items from your ESIP to post on the
website.

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INSIDE The FEDERATION
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The Federation recently held its 10th Assembly meeting in Pasadena CA.
Information from the meeting will be posted to the website at the URL below.
Please send us any presentation files, meeting notes, photos, etc. for
posting to the meeting page.

http://www.esipfed.org/business/library/meetings/10th_fed_meeting/index.html


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PARTNER PROFILE - UMAC
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The partner in the spotlight this week is UMAC - The Upper Midwest Aerospace
Consortium led by Dr. George Seielstad. http://www.umac.org/ UMAC develops
products and services for Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, and K-12
Education, using satellite imagery and other spatial technologies. They also
provide information and educational outreach services to the general public
with respect to regional impacts of environmental and climatic change. Read
about the recent successes of UMAC here:
http://www.umac.org/success/success_index.html

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FEDERATION FEATURE
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UMAC to Offer Remote Sensing Training Seminar for Farming
The Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC) invites extension agents, crop
consultants, crop insurance agents and farmers to participate in a one day
training workshop at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. The
training will focus on the use of aerial and satellite imagery to make
management decisions. Sessions will include presentations by farmers who are
successfully using the technology. For more information click this link:
http://elm.aero.und.edu/speakers/training_seminar.html

Level I Training:
Friday Jan. 24, Feb. 14, Feb. 28 or Mar. 7
Level II Training:
Friday Feb. 7 or Mar. 28 

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IN THE NEWS
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ARCTIC SEA ICE SHRINKING, GREENLAND ICE SHEET MELTING, ACCORDING TO STUDY
Konrad Steffen and Russell Huff 
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES),
University of Colorado at Boulder, CO 80309-0216,
konrad.steffen@colorado.edu

The total area of surface melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet for 2002 broke all
known records for the island and the extent of Arctic sea ice reached the
lowest level in the satellite record, according to scientists at the
University of Colorado at Boulder. 
http://www.esipfed.org/news/newsitems/03-1_shrink_ice_nsidc.html

SHIFTS IN RICE FARMING PRACTICES IN CHINA REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS METHANE

Krishna Ramanujan, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Sharon
Keeler, University of New Hampshire News Bureau, Durham, N.H.
Changes to farming practices in rice paddies in China may have led to a
decrease in methane emissions, and an observed decline in the rate that
methane has entered the Earth's atmosphere over the last 20 years, a
NASA-funded study finds.
http://www.esipfed.org/news/newsitems/03-1_rice_china.html
CLIMATE SCIENTISTS TASTE EL NINO ON SOUTH POLE TREK - Reuters News Service
"We were very surprised how much more snow there was," said Paul Mayewski
the team's lead scientist, adding that the team's sleds sank in the deep
drifts and forced a return to base after the first 48 hours.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=1998702

We select Earth interest stories from NASA press releases, Federation
Partners and other science news sources for inclusion on the Federation news
pages.  Recent stories are listed above. Please send us any news items from
your ESIP. For more on these and other Earth Science related stories go to:
http://www.esipfed.org/news/ 

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EDUCATOR'S ITEM
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Thematic Guide on Social Science Applications of Remote Sensing Released by
SEDAC 
This guide provides an introduction to remote sensing for non-technical
audiences and reviews key issues in the application of remote sensing
techniques in social science research. The online guide provides examples of
the application of remote sensing in six different social science fields and
includes an extensive research bibliography and a listing of major satellite
systems and sensors. http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu:9080/tg/guide_main.jsp
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DATA YOU CAN USE
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Satellite Data: Images and Movies of Hurricanes and Special Events
>From the National Climatic Data Center
This NCDC site contains hundreds of satellite images and some movies of
major weather and geological events. These are in the public domain and
permission is granted to use them. On-line access if free. You may wish to
order a printed copy, or a custom, high resolution image for a fee.
http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/hsei/hsei.pl?directive=welcome

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OTHER  ITEMS
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Interactive MAP of the ESIPs now available. The web team has created an
interactive map of the ESIPs. This map of the United States shows the
geographic locations of all Federation Partners. Click on a location and get
the contact information for the ESIP(s) at that location. Give it a try at
this URL: http://www.esipfed.org/partners/map.html While you are there this
would be a good time to verify that your contact information is still
current.

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DID YOU HEAR FROM US? 
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Each week the web team contacts at least one ESIP of each type to solicit
news, product and service updates and any other information that the ESIP
may want on the Federation website. Our first contact is by telephone,
followed by e-mail. Please help us by responding with news from your ESIP.

Danny Hardin
Global Hydrology Resource Center
danny.hardin@msfc.nasa.gov
(256) 961-7792