Webinar 2: Earth's Water
March 14, 2024, 8 p.m. ET
Overview
On March 22 we celebrate World Water Day! For the next in our GPM 10-in-10 webinar series, join NASA scientists to learn all about freshwater, Earth’s most precious resource. Find out how and why NASA keeps track of Earth's limited freshwater resources and discover how you can monitor precipitation yourself as a citizen scientist working with CoCoRaHS and the GLOBE Program. Guest speakers include John Bolten, Chris Kidd, Noah Newman, Marilé Colón Robles, and Dorian Janney.
Resources
About the Speakers
John Bolten
John is Chief of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and he is serving as Associate Program Manager of Water Resources for the NASA Applied Sciences Program. He is also leading NASA's International Water Strategy. His research focuses on the application of satellite-based remote sensing and land surface hydrological modeling for improved ecological and water resource management. He is involved in several water resources management efforts addressing flood monitoring, flood damage assessment, and agriculture drought forecasting and mitigation. He is leading projects in the Middle East, Central and North Africa, Southeast Asia, and United States. He has served on the Panel on Global Hydrological Cycles and Water Resources for the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space. He is serving as NASA DEVELOP Program Lead Science Advisor for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He has served as the NASA GRACE Mission Applications Deputy Representative for Water and Coastal Resources, Chair of the American Geophysical Union’s Hydrology Remote Sensing Technical Committee, and Co-lead on the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS), Flood Disaster Pilot Risk Management Team. His most recent research includes the development of an improved hydrological decision support system for the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and Mekong River Commission, development of the operational global soil moisture product for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service crop forecasting system, and a deep learning-based system for improved satellite-based agricultural monitoring products. He has received multiple awards including the 2019 Arthur S. Flemming Award for Applied Science, the 2019 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the 2019 Department of State award for supporting the drafting and implementation of the US Global Water Strategy, the 2019 Robert H. Goddard Award for Science, as well as multiple NASA Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences annual awards for Outstanding Scientific Achievement, and Outreach. John is very involved in the scientific community and regularly gives invited keynote lectures, seminars, and tutorials on his research as well as the activities of NASA’s Applied Sciences Program related to water resources management around the globe. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geology with an emphasis in hydrology and remote sensing from the University of South Carolina.
Chris Kidd
Chris's research interests in lie the field of Earth Observation, particularly satellite meteorology and climatology. He has used remotely sensed data for a range of studies, from local vegetation classification from Landsat data, elevation retrieval and analysis from lidar, through to global precipitation from meteorological satellites. It is the latter that has been his main focus of research. He is currently working on multi-source precipitation retrievals using both satellite and surface data sets, including the utilization of cross-track sounding instruments to provide additional information of precipitation.
Marilé Colón Robles
Marilé Colón Robles is the project scientist for NASA GLOBE Clouds and an education outreach coordinator at NASA Langley Research Center with Science Systems and Applications, Inc. She engages with students and teachers through the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program, NASA’s largest and longest lasting citizen science project about the Earth, with participants from over 120 countries around the world. Mrs. Colón Robles is the recipient of the 2017 Women of Color STEM Award for Educational Leadership – Corporate Promotion of Education for her passion to expose as many students, particularly those in underserved communities, to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and has been recognized during multiple NASA Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. Marilé received her B.S. degree in chemistry from University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, her M.S. degree in atmospheric sciences from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and she completed the Endeavor STEM Teaching Certificate Program in STEM Education through the Teachers College of Columbia University. Mrs. Colón Robles was born and raised in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. She now lives in Yorktown, VA and is a wife and mother of two beautiful girls, an accomplished musician, and an avid volleyball player.
Noah Newman
Noah Newman is a Research Coordinator for the Colorado Climate Center and the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (https://www.cocorahs.org/). A third-generation native of Colorado, Noah loves water no matter where it is. In the winter, he has been a skier since he was 5, and in the summertime, he was a white-water rafting guide during his college years. Noah received his Bachelors Degree from Colorado State University in 1997 and began his career teaching informal science education in 2002. With experience teaching science - from astronomy to zoology with magnets and rocketry in-between - he currently enjoys teaching how to accurately measure precipitation to people of all ages and backgrounds. Noah has led professional development training sessions for teachers and class presentations for K-12 students since 2005. Noah has been interviewed multiple times on live TV and twice presented on-stage to 15,000 students at Coors Field’s annual Weather and Science Day. He continues to lead presentations, classes and webinars across Colorado and the nation.
Dorian Janney
Dorian Janney has a passion for sharing the wonders of NASA's science and exploration with others across all age levels! For over three decades she taught public school in both special and general education settings across all grade levels. She was an Einstein Fellow Finalist, achieved National Board Certification in Science Education, served on numerous education working groups, and has written science curriculum for the country. She now serves as the GPM Education and Outreach Coordinator, developing resources to help share the science, technology, and real-world applications of GPM with others. She is a Mentor GLOBE trainer, a member of the GLOBE Education Working Group, and supports the GLOBE field campaigns. Her most recent project is leading an effort to engage Lifelong Learners with The GLOBE Campaign’s Citizen Science efforts.