Committee on Earth Studies

The committee provides oversight on civil Earth observation space activities in the general areas of Earth sciences and other remote sensing applications. The scope of its oversight includes applicable technology, as well as all Earth science disciplines that can be addressed from space: the study of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, geology and geophysics, global biology and ecology, and their interactions. The committee oversees ad hoc studies that identify policy issues and offer advice concerning priorities for civilian federal agencies with responsibility for Earth sciences research and operations.

Membership

CHAIR Berrien Moore III, University of New Hampshire

VICE CHAIR Ruth S. DeFries, University of Maryland

Ocean Sciences
	Mark R. Abbott, Oregon State University
	Antonio J. Busalacchi, Jr., University of Maryland
	Heidi M. Dierssen , University of Connecticut
Atmospheric Sciences
	Richard A. Anthes, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
	Thomas H. Vonder Haar, Colorado State University
	Hung-Lung Allen Huang, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Space Systems and Technology/Remote Sensing
	Philip E. Ardanuy, Raytheon Information Solutions and Remote Sensing Applications
	Steven J. Battel, Battel Engineering
	Jay S. Pearlman, Boeing Company
Land Observations
	Anne W. Nolin, Oregon State University

Staff

To view the most recent reports by SSB discipline study committees, go to: REPORTS

BERRIEN MOORE III is a professor and the director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire. A professor of systems research, he received the university's 1993 Excellence in Research Award and was named University Distinguished Professor in 1997. Dr. Moore's research focuses on the carbon cycle, global biogeochemical cycles, and global change as well as policy issues in the area of the global environment. He has served on several NASA advisory committees, and in 1987 he chaired the NASA Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee. Dr. Moore led the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Task Force on Global Analysis, Interpretation, and Modeling prior to serving as chair of the overarching Scientific Committee of the IGBP (SC-IGBP). Dr. Moore has contributed actively to committees at the NRC and currently serves as co-chair of the NRC Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future Survey Steering Committee. He is also a member of the Space Studies Board, Panel on Options to Ensure the Climate Record from the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft, and the Committee on a Strategy to Mitigate the Impact of Sensor Descopes and De-manifests on the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft.

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RUTH S. DEFRIES (NAS) is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland. Dr. De Fries is an environmental geographer who uses remotely sensed satellite imagery to explore the relationship between the Earth’s vegetative cover, human modifications of the landscape, and the biochemical processes that regulate the Earth’s habitability. She and a team of collaborators developed a more precise approach to mapping land cover that views the landscape as a continuum of land cover characteristics rather than as discrete classes of forests. With this method, Dr.DeFries has compiled datasets that have significantly changed the scale and focus of ecosystem research. Her work has also enhanced efforts to make more plausible projections of future climate change, and to better understand how human activities are altering habitat needed to conserve biodiversity. Dr. DeFries is the recipient of the 2007 MacArthur Fellow Program Award. She has served on numerous NRC committee that cover Earth studies, including the most recent NRC Earth science decadal survey.

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MARK R. ABBOTT is dean of the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University where he has been a professor since 1988. His research focuses on the interaction of biological and physical processes in the upper ocean and relies on both remote-sensing and field observations. He deployed the first array of bio-optical moorings in the Southern Ocean as part of the United States Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. Dr. Abbott chairs the U.S. JGOFS Science Steering Committee and he is also a member of the MODIS and SeaWiFS science teams. He was a member of the NRC Space Studies Board and chaired its Committee on Earth Studies (1996-2000). He also served on the Committee on NASA NOAA Transition from Research to Operations, and most recently served on the Panel on Land-Use Change, Ecosystem Dynamics and Biodiversity of the Committee for Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future.

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ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI, JR., is the director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center and a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at the University of Maryland. His research interests include tropical ocean circulation and its role in the coupled climate system and climate variability and predictability. Dr. Busalacchi has been involved in the activities of the World Climate Research Program for many years and currently is co-chair of the scientific steering group for its subprogram on climate variability and predictability. Dr. Busalacchi has extensive NRC experience, including serving on the Climate Research Committee and its associated Panel on the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Program, as well as the Committee on Earth Studies. He currently chairs the Committee on a Strategy to Mitigate the Impact of Sensor Descopes and De-manifests on the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft.

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RICHARD A. ANTHES is president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder, CO. His research has focused on the understanding of tropical cyclones and mesoscale meteorology and on the radio occultation technique for sounding Earth's atmosphere. Dr. Anthes is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Geophysical Society, and is a recipient of the AMS Clarence I. Meisinger Award and the Jule G. Charney Award. In 2003 he was awarded the Friendship Award by the Chinese government, the most prestigious award given to foreigners, for his contributions over the years to atmospheric sciences and weather-forecasting in China. His NRC service includes chairing the National Weather Service Modernization Committee and the Committee on NASA NOAA Transition of Research to Operations. Dr. Anthes also co-chaired the Survey Steering Committee for Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future.

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THOMAS H. VONDER HAAR (NAE) is the director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere and University Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. His research includes work on the Earth's radiation budget and fundamental relationships with the climate system and incorporates some of the first results of direct solar irradiance measurements from satellites and the exchange of energy between Earth and space. Dr. Vonder Haar is also director of the Center for Geosciences, a Department of Defense sponsored research center that focuses on the study of weather patterns and how they affect military operations including investigations of fog, cloud layering, cloud drift winds, and dynamics of cloud persistence as detected from satellites. He currently serves on the NRC Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. He was also the vice chair of the NRC Panel on Weather of the Committee for Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future and served on the Panel on Options to Ensure the Climate Record from the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft.

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HUNG-LUNG ALLEN HUANG is a distinguished scientist of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Huang has been with the University’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) since 1989, where he conducts remote sensing research in the areas of atmospheric sounding retrieval, information content analysis, satellite and aircraft high-spectral resolution sounding instrument data processing, data compression, instrument design and performance analysis, cloud-clearing, cloud property characterization, synergistic imaging, and sounding data processing and algorithm development.  Dr. Huang is the U.S. director of China-America Cooperative Remote Sensing Center, Nanjing, University of Information Science and Technology. He is also the principal investigator (PI) of the NASA-funded International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package (IMAPP) project and the PI of the NOAA NPOESS IPO International Polar Orbiter Processing Package. He is also the program manager and lead scientist of algorithm development for the NOAA GOES-R risk reduction project and he is the PI of the NOAA GOES-R Algorithm Working Group program. In 2007, Dr. Huang was elected as a fellow of International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) for his significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of remote sensing. Dr. Huang served as chair for the NRC Committee on Utilization of Environmental Satellite Data: A Vision for 2010 and Beyond.

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PHILIP E. ARDANUY is chief scientist and director for Remote Sensing Applications at Raytheon Information Solutions. Dr. Ardanuy has 31 years of professional experience participating in NOAA, NASA, NSF, and DoD environmental applications programs. He specializes in developing integrated mission concepts through government-industry-academic partnerships. Dr. Ardanuy’s research and development career extends across net-centric and system-of-systems concepts, telepresence-telescience-telerobotics, tropical meteorology, the Earth’s radiation budget and climate, satellite instrument calibration and characterization, remote sensing applications and systems engineering, scientific applications research-to-operational transition, and validation of environmental observations. Dr. Ardanuy has authored over 50 publications on environmental and weather monitoring and modeling; sustainable exploration; utilization of operational environmental satellite data; environmental sensing; and applications development and refinement approaches. He participates in numerous public service activities, including serving as associate editor for the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, chair of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, and organizing and science planning committees for AMS and SPIE. Dr. Ardanuy is currently a member of the NRC Committee on a Strategy to Mitigate the Impact of Sensor De-scopes and De-manifests on the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft. He previously served on the NRC Committee on Environmental Satellite Data Utilization and on two panels of the Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space: Panel on Earth Science Applications and Societal Objectives and Panel on Options to Ensure the Climate Record from the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft. 

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STEVEN J. BATTEL is president of Battel Engineering, which provides engineering, development and review services to NASA, DOD, and university and industrial clients. His areas of specialization include program management, systems engineering, advanced technology development, spacecraft avionics, power systems, high voltage systems, precision electronics and scientific instrument design. He was a member of the Hubble Space Telescope External Readiness Review Team for SM-2, SM3A and SM3B, the AXAF/Chandra Independent Assessment Team, the TDRS-H/I/J Independent Review Team, the Mars Polar Lander Failure Review Board and JPL Genesis Failure Review Board, and he has served on review teams for many other space missions. He has worked as an engineer, researcher and manager at the University of Michigan, Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, UC Berkeley, and the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory prior to becoming President of Battel Engineering. Mr. Battel served on the NRC Committee on Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope and he is a member of the Space Studies Board.

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JAY S. PEARLMAN is the chief engineer of Network Centric Operations (NCO) Programs and Technologies at the Boeing Company. Dr. Pearlman’s background includes research program management and development of sensors, remote sensing, and information systems. He was Boeing’s chief architect for the NOAA GOES-R study contract and the chief scientist for the Landsat Data Continuity contract. He was also deputy principal investigator for the NASA Hyperion Program. Dr. Pearlman is a Boeing technical fellow and leads the NCO research and technology coordination. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and chair of the IEEE Committee on Earth Observation, and principal IEEE delegate to the Group on Earth Observation. He is active in promoting systems architecture and information system development for large-scale national and global applications, including advancing ocean and coastal information systems. Dr. Pearlman served on the NRC Panel on Enabling Concepts and Technologies of the Committee for the Review of NASA's Pioneering Revolutionary Technology Program and the Space Applications and Commercialization Steering Committee. He is currently a member of the Ocean Studies Board and the Panel on Options to Ensure the Climate Record from the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft.

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HEIDI M. DIERSSEN is an assistant professor in the Department of Marine Sciences and Geography and head of the Coastal Ocean Laboratory for Optics and Remote Sensing at the University of Connecticut. Prior to joining the University of Connecticut, Dr. Dierssen was a post-doctoral fellow at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. She is an interdisciplinary oceanographer who uses optics and remote sensing to address biological and physical processes in the oceans. She works on a variety of ecosystems from tropical seagrasses to glacial meltwater with current projects involving optics and remote sensing in ecosystems ranging from Long Island Sound to the Southern Ocean. Dr. Dierssen is a member of a NASA MODIS Science Team and NOAA's Coastal Ocean Applications and Science Team, and she has served on NASA working groups that include the Advance Planning Team for Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry, Phytoplankton Physiology and Functional Types. Dr. Dierssen was also an organizer of the Coastal Habitat Data Management Workshop.

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ANNE W. NOLIN is an associate professor of remote sensing and physical geography at Oregon State University (OSU). Prior to her appointment at OSU, Dr. Nolin was a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research interests include snow hydrology, polar climatology, the martian polar ice caps, and remote sensing of snow and ice from airborne and space-borne sensors. She is currently a member of the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Science Team and was a NASA principal investigator for the validation of snow albedo retrievals from MISR and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer). Dr. Nolin served as vice chair of the NRC Panel on Water Resources and the Global Hydrologic Cycle of the Committee for Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future. She currently serves on the Committee on a Strategy to Mitigate the Impact of Sensor De-scopes and De-manifests on the NPOESS and GOES-R Spacecraft.

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Last update 03/31/08