The United States has entered a new era of increasing wildfire frequency and intensity, which has culminated in a number of devastating wildfire seasons over the past decade. This fire-prone landscape is also more densely settled and developed than in previous years, resulting in steeply rising fire-suppression...
Identifying drought-prone areas and developing an early warning system for crop damage. Protecting biologically diverse areas of the National Park System with a trail monitoring tool. Confirming flooded areas to better inform decision-makers during a disaster.
Each program area supports a variety of projects that utilize Earth observations to identify challenges around the world and create innovative solutions. Our portfolio demonstrates the benefits of using NASA Earth observations to enhance decision-making and improve life on Earth.
Sort by program area to find specific projects or explore them all below.
Principal Investigator
Jim Nelson
Advances in cloud computing offer a unique opportunity to facilitate better use of water resource models as decision-making tools. Modeling software can be hosted on a cloud-based server and operated by multiple remote users via a web interface. This eliminates the need for users to...
Principal Investigator
Kyle Hilburn
Principal Investigator
Francis Monaldo
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is responsible for monitoring coastal U.S. waters for accidental and deliberate oil spills, as well as for the emergency response and environmental assessment and restoration following such events. In addition, in the aftermath of severe storms, NOAA assesses the...
Principal Investigator
Franz Meyer
Weather-related hazards are ubiquitous in the United States, including: 1) hurricane storm surges impacting coastal areas, 2) rapid snowmelt and heavy rainfall causing basin-scale flooding, 3) severe weather leading to flash floods and tornadoes, and 4) seasonal freeze and thaw of rivers that may lead...
Principal Investigator
Brauman Kate
Integrating ecosystem services (ES), the benefits provided by nature to people, into decision-making is becoming widespread. ES language and frameworks are widely used in decision settings including watershed management, infrastructure development, investment, planning, and disaster-management and have been integrated into mandates from governments worldwide. ES...
Principal Investigator
Diego Melgar
Compared to other natural hazards such as hurricanes or forest fires that annually propagate, large tsunamis are infrequent. As a result, over the last 50 years as digital geophysical instrumentation has matured, local tsunami warning systems that alert the coastlines immediately adjacent to a large event have not...
Principal Investigator
Sean Healey
Storage of atmospheric carbon is an important ecosystem service of healthy forests and woodlands because it mitigates the effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. International reporting of this service places a premium on the specificity and precision of monitoring data used to estimate carbon storage...
Principal Investigator
Charon Birkett
Description: This project provides a range of surface water products related to lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands in a near real time framework. It also offers a longer-term set of observations via integration of historical data sets. Products include water level, water extent, hypsometry and bathymetry...
Principal Investigator
Augusto Getirana
In this proposal we seek to partner with the SERVIR-West Africa hub AGRHYMET in Niamey, Niger to provide improved estimation and predictability of water resources for integrated water management in the areas of the AGRHYMET member nations, with a focus on (1) hydrologic modeling to...
Principal Investigator
Hyongki Lee
Low-lying deltas in Indochina are vulnerable to water resources availability due to dense population and extensive irrigation. Inhabitants of the deltas depend heavily on groundwater to supplement surface water stocks for irrigation and domestic use, especially during the dry season. Over-exploitation of groundwater has led...