NASA Applied Remote

Sensing Training Program (ARSET)

Dr. Ana. I. Prados Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)University of Maryland Baltimore County

NASA GSFCCode 614, Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory

NASA AQAST Meeting, June 13-15, 2012

Applied Sciences: Capacity Building

NASA sponsored activities and resources that build capability and skills to utilize NASA data for policy and environmental management in both the public and private sectors

NASA Applied Sciences: Capacity Building Programs

SERVIRDEVELOPGulf of Mexico InitiativeApplied Remote Sensing Training

GOAL:

Increase utilization of NASAobservational and modeldata for decision-support

Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET)

Objectives:

• Provide end-user communities and institutions with professional hands-on technical workshops

• Build long term partnerships with end-user communities and institutions in the public and private sectors

ARSET

DEVELOP

SERVIR

GOMI

NASA

Applied Sciences

PIs

NASA

Applied Research

NASA Data Centers

ARSET disseminates the usage of existing NASA data, web tools,

DecisionSupport Systems and applied research,in addition to collaborating with othercapacity building programs within

NASA

Health (Air Quality) (AQ) http://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/ • 2008 – present • 25 Trainings• +500 end-users

Water Resources and Disasters http://water.gsfc.nasa.gov/

• April 2011 – presentEcological Forecasting

• Est. 2013 Other Health and Disasters Application Areas • Est. 2014

ARSET Timeline

Air Quality 2008

2009 ARSET

Web Page Outreach

AQ ModelingFall 2009

Winter 2010

AQ Industry

West Coast

AQ Fall 2010

Fall 2011 First

Online

AQ/Health Fall 2011

Fall 2011

Water/Disaste

r

Snow/ET

2012

2013 Ecological Forecast.

Water (other)

Health/Disasters (other)

2014

Project LeadDr. Ana Prados (GSFC/UMBC)

Air Quality•Pawan Gupta (GSFC/GESTAR) •Richard Kleidman (GSFC/SSAI) •Yang Liu (Emory University)• Jacquie Witte (GSFC/SSAI)

Water & Disasters•Amita Mehta (GSFC/UMBC)•Tom Painter and Chris Mattmann (JPL/Caltech)

•Cindy Schmidt (AMES/Baeri)

Other Support •Marines Martins (GSFC/SSAI)•Annelise Carleton-Hug (Trillium A./Evaluation)

Students•Maria Stenborg (UMCP)•Alison Hoy (UMCP)

ARSET Team Members

ARSET Trainings at a Glance

Trainings have also been conducted in Costa Rica, Colombia, Canada, Italy, Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam

Number of NASA online or hands-on trainings per state.

ARSET Trainings at a Glance: International

Trainings have also been conducted in Costa Rica, Colombia, Canada, Italy, Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam and at the World Bank (Washington D.C)

ARSET Trainings by Societal Benefit Area

Health/Air Quality Water Resources Disasters 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

3532

8

1

Series1

Nu

mb

er

of

Tra

inin

gs

2009 – March 2013

ARSET Program Logic Model

ARSET Program Logic Model

ARSET Program Logic Model

ARSET Program Logic Model

Different language, expectations, and sometimes technical capacity

On Different Sides of the Fence

NASA Earth Science

Decision

Support

ARSETARSET

Knowledge gaps• Cost: Not aware that NASA data are

free• Data Access: Not aware of resources

available for easy access(e.g. web to order data)

• Benefits: Not aware of potential applications of NASA data to environmental management activities

Lack of institutional capacity:

Prioritization, lack of man-power and needed technical expertise

Barriers to NASA Data Utilization

Question 1

ARSET Best Practices

1. Trainers first: Skill building for NASA Scientists 2. Leveraging of multiple NASA resources - Applied Sciences Program PIs and applied research - NASA Data Centers - Other Capacity Building Programs 3. Gradual learning approach - ABCs of NASA Data: What and what for ? - Access and analysis - Application to decision-support 4. Heavily focused hands-on learning 5. Continued/ongoing interaction with end-users 6. Workshop Surveys 7. Ongoing Project Evaluation Plan

Basic Training:

•Individuals and institutions new to remote sensing•Trainings at professional conferences

Online Training (WebEx)• Overview of products to prepare for

advanced training Advanced Trainings

• Focused on a specific application/problem: for example impact of snow melt in California on stream flow

• Requires Base of WebEx training

Gradual Learning ApproachARSET Applied Sciences Workshops

• Public Sector: U.S EPA, USDA, BLM, NOAA, regional, state, county agencies, Tribal Nations, water resources managers, watershed and reservoir managers

• Private Sector: Industry, agricultural sector, NGOs • Attendees at Professional Conferences• Participants of NASA Campaigns

End-User Feedback:

• Positive reviews from ‘Training customer satisfaction surveys’.

• Continued requests for follow-up trainings: California Air Resources Board, LADCO

• Increase in number of end-users trained per year since 2008

• Students Becoming Teachers as trainers !

NASA Training for California Air Resources Board, Sacramento, CA December 2011

Seeking to better engage the NGO community, industry and

Tribal Nations in 2012+

Who is ARSET Training ?

ARSET Training for Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO)

NASA training in progress at the University of Wisconsin Madison facility. The course had 20 attendees from the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO), Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Idaho DEQ, Oklahoma DEQ, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5, Michigan Tech Research Institute and Environment Canada. End-user feedback from a NASA air quality online course held in February 2012 was used to tailor this training event to mid-western environmental management issues and to refine the agenda to focus on 1) less NASA products in greater detail and 2) inter-comparisons between NASA data and air quality model output.

• A three day in-person training on the use of NASA satellite data for air quality applications reached 20 attendees from federal agencies in the U.S and Canada and 6 state agencies in the U the mid western and central

• Co-sponsored by the NASA Applied Sciences Program and the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO)

• Attendees learned how to apply NASA satellite data, imagery and web tools to air quality management problems in their region.

• Collaboration between LADCO member

states and AQAST: AQAST presentations held during the training.

• The workshop built basic skills on image access and interpretation.

• Participants prepared and presented air quality case studies of their choosing and provided feedback to NASA instructors on the utility of NASA resources.

Publicly available Modules

Case Studies

http://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Upcoming trainings

Identify Host Institution

End-user Needs Assessment

Adapt training modules

Conduct Training : Online

PresentationsHands-on activities

Case Studies

Project Evaluation: Surveys and Feedback

• Advertise via list-serv and Webpage

• Collaborate with NASA Applied Science PIs

• Collaborate with NASA Data Centers

• Work with Advisory Group

• Attend professional conferences

ARSET Training Workshop Lifecycle

Objectives: Provide the NASA Applied Sciences Program with ongoing feedback on:

1) ARSET project impact on end-user decision-making activities and changes in data utilization

2) End-user needs and barriers to utilization of NASA resources (in conjunction with parallel NASA AQAST project- Bryan Duncan/Ana Prados).

3) Type of environmental management activities where NASA resources are being integrated

NASA Remote Sensing Training Program Evaluation

Question 7 & 10

ARSET/AQAST Collaborations

ARSET can bring help you (AQAST PIs) disseminate appliedresearch results and methodologies.

Get involved in the planning of future ARSET trainings

Other ideas ?

Creating an Objective “AQAST Recommendations for Air Quality Satellite

Missions” Document for NASA Mission Planners

Bryan Duncan, PINASA GSFCCode 614, Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory

Ana. I. Prados, co-IJoint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)University of Maryland Baltimore County andNASA GSFCCode 614, Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory

AQAST Tiger Team Project (Duncan)

Tiger Team Project Overview

Long Term Objective

Inform a NASA AQAST mission recommendations document by leveraging ARSET end-user interactions and program evaluation surveys

Identify Host Institution

End-user Needs Assessment

Adapt training modules

Conduct Training : Online

PresentationsHands-on activities

Case Studies

Project Evaluation: Surveys and Feedback

• Advertise via list-serv and Webpage

• Collaborate with NASA Applied Science PIs

• Collaborate with NASA Data Centers

• Work with Advisory Group

• Attend professional conferences

ARSET Training Workshop Lifecycle

Tiger Team: Missions Recommendations

Document

NASA PI Surveys

ARSET Program Logic Model

Tiger Team Project Overview

Short Term Objectives

• Identify Data Needs: What do end-users see as their most pressing near-immediate data needs for:

regulatory activities health applications other policy formulation

NOx, ozone or PM2.5 monitoring, better emissions inventories, model evaluation ?

• Identify Barriers to Data Utilization: why are NASA resources not being used or why weren’t they used in the recent past (prior to ARSET or another intervention)

Possible barriers Lack of knowledge of data availability

Problems with data access dataLack of suitability of data for applicationsInstitutional/organizational barriers that inhibit use of NASA data

Recommendations for overcoming noted barriers

Methodology and Timeline 1) Establish end-user parameters (Summer 2012): Defining the population sample (include ARSET advisory group members).

Federal/state/local/Tribal Private sector (for profit) NGOs

2) Identify +8 key informants (Summer 2012) (OMB restriction) Both end users who ARE and who ARE NOT using NASA

resources Interviews with informants will be conducted by ARSET

external evaluator Annelise Carleton-Hug Interview responses will be used to inform subsequent

online survey questions for ARSET and Tiger Team project

3) Prepare interview guide and conduct interviews (Summer 2012) Both end-users and NASA scientists4) Provide interim report to AQAST (Fall 2012).

Methodology and Timeline

5) Develop online survey (Fall 2012)

6) Survey +500 ARSET attendees after OMB approval (Winter 2013)

7) Final report to AQAST (Winter/Spring 2013).

Methodology: Sample End-users QuestionsConducted by external evaluator

Are there critical data missing? Describe the kind of data you would like to have available that would help you do your job more efficiently and effectively. Now let’s focus on your experience with the NASA data products. Can you describe for me how you (or others in your office/agency) are currently using NASA data products?

[for interviewees who are not using NASA data] If you’re not currently using NASA data, please explain the reasons for not using the data. We are very interested in learning about the barriers or challenges that prevent you from using the data, so please be specific.

Do some AQ professionals consider that the NASA data is not suitable for their applications? Can you explain in what ways the data might not be suitable? What are some suggestions to improve the suitability of the data?

Interview key NASA civil servants** involved with satellite dataproduct development and mission planning (e.g. Aura, Earth

Venture).

***No OMB limit for civil servants !!! ****

Potential questions:1) What are the key challenges in using satellite data for AQ

applications?2) What are the barriers/impediments to utilization of NASA data

products among AQ applications end-users ?3) Are the current planned missions (NASA, ESA, or other)

adequate for meeting the needs of the AQ applications end-users ?

 

Methodology: Sample Scientist QuestionsConducted by Bryan Duncan and Ana Prados

ARSET or

Questions ?

Collaboration with other Tiger Teams

DISCUSSION ?

Back up slides

3) Utilization of image analysis tools

1) Access to NASA imagery2) Access to other data: model,

in-situ, etc.

4) Assessment: Precipitation propagation and its geographical impacts.

Case Studies and Hands-On ActivitiesExercises with Step-by-Step Instructions

Question 1: scientific/technological & question 3

GEOSS Hydrological and Space network of Information for Latin American and the Caribbean

(CIEHLYC) )

• Representatives from South and Central America and the Caribbean.

• Colombian Floods in May 2011: TRMM rain rate, AIRS clouds, MERA winds.

• Climate variability and El Niño/Niña over south America: TRMM rain rate, AIRS Sea Surface Temperature (SST).

• Access to snow cover imagery in Chile and Argentina from MODIS and MERRA (model).

Cartagena, Colombia Water TrainingNovember 28-29, 2011