Central America is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to natural disasters, including landslides and precipitation-driven flooding. In an effort to support disaster management and emergency response planning, this project developed a methodology that employed NASA Earth observations to...

threat of invasive species has impacted fragile forests across the globe; such impacts can be particularly damaging on island ecosystems where a loss in vegetation can lead to increased runoff. In 2017, a fungal pathogen outbreak of Puccinia psidii impacted...

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and National Park Service (NPS) are concerned by the increasing Kaibab Plateau bison population on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA). Currently, within the park's boundaries, the bison have no predators and hunting is prohibited, resulting...

Northern wild rice (Zizania palustris L.) and Texas wild rice (Zizania texana) provide valuable ecosystem services, food sources, economic development, and cultural resources to local populations in Minnesota and Texas. Research on crop wild relatives, wild plants closely related to cultivated plants, is imperative to...

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are genetically related to cultivated crops and function as repositories for genetic diversity. These plants have the potential to improve the yield, nutritional value, and resilience of crops, thereby buffering against widespread crop failure and supporting rural economic productivity. As such...

Approximately 11 million people reside in the Lake Ontario watershed. Extreme high water levels in the spring of 2017 caused severe flood damage to communities off the coast of Lake Ontario. Niagara Falls drainage infrastructure did not accommodate floodwater inundation...

The Plum Island Estuary (PIE) in Massachusetts is New England's largest salt marsh. This dynamic ecosystem plays an important role in the surrounding communities by providing ecosystem services and acting as a center for education, research, and recreation. However, marshes around the world are threatened...

Farmers across Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have access to accurate and ample phenological data for large-grain crops like corn and soybeans. These data are useful metrics that describe changes during different stages of crop growth which help farmers evaluate crop...

The Cloud-Aerosol LiDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite's CALIOP sensor generates vertical LiDAR profiles of the atmosphere at a global scale. Currently, the standard visualization tool for these data is written in Interactive Data Language (IDL), a proprietary language that does not support...

As flooding events in the United States grow in frequency and intensity, the use of technological advancements and applied science are increasingly necessary for effective flood monitoring and warning systems. The NASA DEVELOP Ellicott City Disasters II project investigated the...