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Please check back regularly to learn about the interesting activities
our team is involved with:
 Hot topics,
New scientific research results, and
Significant meetings and events.
November 2009
- EGSC Scientist participates in the Great American Teach-In: Barbara Poore of the EGSC will participate in the Great American Teach-In at Davidsen Middle School in Hillsborough County Florida. This event will occur on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. The teach-in coincides with Geography Awareness week and Barbara will be discussing maps and GIS applications with sixth seventh and eighth-grade students. (Barbara Poore, Saint Petersburg, FL., 727-803-8747 ext. 3095).
October 2009
- ARCHER Data collections successful: Hyperspectral Imagery data collections have been accomplished for Eastern Geographic Science Center by the Civil Air Patrol for sites in Roanoke, Salem and Winchester, Virginia. Two additional sites in Maryland are scheduled for October 29, 2009. Fifteen sites in Pennsylvania are currently being planned with the Pennsylvania Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. (Terry Slonecker, Reston, VA., 703-648-4289).
- EGSC Scientist to attend Joint Space Team Meeting: Terry Slonecker, EGSC, will attend the Joint Space Team Meeting on October 28, 2009. The meeting will be held at the Remote Sensing and Plasma Physics Division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The meeting will include presentations on passive microwave radiometry, coastal hyperspectral imagery applications, a tour of the Naval Research Lab's hyperspectral calibration facilities and space plasma simulations. (Terry Slonecker, Reston, VA., 703-648-4289).
- EGSC Scientist attends the GSA Annual Meeting Coral Roig-Silva attended the Geological Society of America meeting, October 18-21, 2009, in Portland, Oregon. She gave an oral presentation and poster on "The Northern Boquerón Bay-Punta Montalva Fault Zone; a through going active fault system in southwestern Puerto Rico." (Coral Roig-Silva, Guaynabo, PR).
The Shenandoah National Park Phenology Project was selected as one of the October USGS Science Picks and was written as follows:
Country Roads, Take Me … Online!
You don’t have to live near Shenandoah National Park to experience the beautiful fall foliage this year. The USGS and the National Park Service have set up a panoramic camera in the park, and you can see its scenic images online in real time! The camera is part of a project aimed at detecting evidence of climate change by tracking when leaves fall off and appear on trees. See images through the camera’s lens and learn about this climate science investigation online at the USGS Eastern Geographic Science Center site. You can also see slide shows of daily leaf and sky changes over time. For more information, contact John Jones or call (703) 648-5543.
About the project: The USGS is collecting and analyzing weather data from the Shenandoah National Park to uncover and understand potential impacts of climate change on eastern forests and Appalachian wildlife habitats. Current weather conditions are transmitted from 1 of 7 weather stations spread throughout the Park. Specific station locations were selected so that a variety of vegetation types, elevations, slopes, and aspects are represented. They were also placed to avoid impacting visitor views and hiking experiences in this important and sensitive national resource.
- October 16-17, 2009, workshop will be hosted by U.S. Geological Survey, Chesapeake Bay Program, James Madison University, and the Smithsonian Institute: Scientists from the USGS and the Chesapeake Bay Program are collaborating with James Madison University and the Smithsonian Institution Conservation and Research Center on planning for a workshop on the land use history of the Shenandoah Valley. Scientists, planners, and local stakeholders will explore techniques for measuring land cover and land cover trends, and particularly in understanding the role of landscape change in water quality and habitat. The workshop will explore such issues as understanding past and future landscapes, comparing cultural uses of the land, and trade-offs between development and environment. An important goal is developing a policy-relevant research agenda for land geographic science in the Shenandoah Valley (Lee De Cola, Reston, VA, 703-648-4178).
- EGSC Scientists to speak at the Northeast Region Advanced Technologies Workshop: Three EGSC Scientists will speak at the Northeast Region Advanced Technologies Workshop at the Leetown Science Center, October 7-8, 2009. Highlighting advanced modeling and remote sensing techniques they develop and employ in their research; Peter Claggett will speak on landscape model development, John Jones will illustrate field and lab-based technologies in geographic research and Terry Slonecker will highlight field and lab-based hyperspectral technologies. (Peter Claggett, 410-267-5771; John W. Jones, 703-648-5543; Terry Slonecker, 703-648-4289).
September 2009
- ARCHER Hyperspectral Imager update: The existing Interagency Agreement with the US Air Force/Civil Air Patrol (CAP) was recently modified to include sites in Pennsylvania. The first collect of hyperspectral imagery under this agreement using the CAP Airborne Real-time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced Reconnaissance (ARCHER) system was accomplished in Roanoke, Virginia on September 24, 2009. Anyone interested in learning more about this agreement and ARCHER should contact
Dave Kirtland, Reston, VA, 703-648-4712.
- EGSC collaborative Phenocam improvements and climate research:
John W. Jones met with Stephan de Wekker, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia (UVA) and Alan Williams, Ecologist with the Shenandoah National Park (SNP) to inspect and test the new installation of the USGS SNP Phenology Webcam. The camera has been relocated to the UVA tower to increase capacity, improve reliability, and allow for collaborative data collection and analysis. The UVA installation collects data on carbon/energy fluxes and aerosols that will be useful for EGSC remote sensing-based model development. The EGSC collects ground meteorological data throughout the Park and conducts vegetation and terrain characterization studies that will be useful for UVA boundary layer dynamics research and environmental science instruction (John W. Jones, Reston, VA, 703-648-5543).
- Eastern Geographic Science Center (EGSC) remote sensing scientists to visit U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA):
Several senior scientists from the EGSC will travel to the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, Maryland, on September 24, 2009, to discuss emerging remote sensing research for land surface characterization. Dave Kirtland, Paul Hearn, Peter Claggett, John W. Jones, and Terry Slonecker will discuss advanced remote sensing techniques, land change modeling, web-bases decision support tools, and land cover dynamics for process modeling with the ARS staff (Dave Kirtland, Reston, VA, 703-648-4712).
- EGSC Researcher briefs a research center on four new data sets for the Chesapeake Bay and their monitoring change in riparian forests:
On September 21, 2009, Peter Claggett, Eastern Geographic Science Center, briefed researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD, on "Multi-scale Land Change Monitoring in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed." The briefing included a discussion of four new Landsat-derived land cover datasets for the Chesapeake Bay watershed (1984, 1992, 2001, and 2006) and their work on monitoring change in riparian forests using a combination of Landsat-derived land cover data, aerial imagery, and a stratified sampling design (Peter Claggett, Reston, VA, 410-267-5771).
- USGS briefs Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on Chesapeake Bay Information Management Strategy:
USGS Chesapeake Bay Program Staff geographer John Wolf briefed representatives of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Tahoe Integrated Information Management System (TIIMS), the California Tahoe Conservancy, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, and USFS, USGS, and USEPA Tahoe Representatives on the current state and direction of Chesapeake Bay Program information management and accountability tools on September 14, 2009. TIIMS was modeled after the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Chesapeake Information Management System in the early 2000’s, and shares many similar monitoring, modeling, mapping and web information management challenges. TIIMS representatives followed up with a briefing to EPA’s Annual GIS Workgroup meeting on September 15, 2009
(John C. Wolf, Annapolis, MD, 410-267-5739).
August 2009
- August 11, 2009, Workshop Hosted by EGSC with External Partners: Dianna Hogan, EGSC, along with her partners from Montgomery County Department of Environmental Planning, USEPA Landscape Ecology Branch, and USGS Maryland Water Science Center will be hosting a workshop, "Clarksburg Integrated Ecological Study," to provide a review of ongoing work and focus future research efforts.
More about their previous workshop... (Dianna Hogan, Reston, VA, 703-648-7240).
- August 5, 2009, EGSC Scientist to Present at Civil Applications Committee Meeting: Terry Slonecker has been invited to present "The Basics of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing" to the Civil Application Committee at their August meeting. The presentation will review the history and development of hyperspectral technology, discuss new and planned sensors for acquiring data, and review applications of the technology in geography as well as a number of industries (Terry Slonecker, Reston, VA, 703-648-4289).
July 2009
April 2009
- Sally Ride Festival: Allison Paraham and Juan Rivera-Santiago of the EGSC represented the USGS at the Sally Ride Science Festival that was held at George Mason University on one of those very hot Saturdays in April. Paraham and Rivera-Santiago talked about careers in science, at the USGS. The audience was estimated to be between 400-500 girls 5th-8th grade girls, parents, and teachers.
Contact: Allison Paraham
May 2008
- Mapping and Monitoring Land Resource Change Conference for the State of Kentucky: May 20-21, 2008, USGS scientists presented on regional land change modeling at the University of Kentucky as part of a conference on Mapping and Monitoring Land Resource Change. With a unique focus on landscape change, this conference may serve as a prototype on how to integrate landscape change information into the decision-making processes of local governments and state resource agencies. USGS was a conference co-sponsor for this event and anticipates replicating it in Mid-Atlantic region in 2010. Peter Claggett presented the Chesapeake Bay Land Change Model as an example of the type of regional urban growth modeling that could be replicated for Kentucky and neighboring states in the Ohio River Basin.
More information....
Contact: Peter Claggett, or call 410-267-5771
- Workshop on Coupling Land Change with Water Quality Models: May 13-14, 2008, USGS hosted a workshop on Coupling Land Change with Water Quality Models at the 2008 Chesapeake Modeling Symposium in Annapolis, Maryland. Feedback from the workshop highlighted new activities to promote community land change modeling in the Chesapeake Region. USGS scientists and their partners from regional academic institutions discussed the need for creating a Chesapeake Land Data Repository, hosting an annual meeting on land cover change modeling, and the development of global and national scenarios of land cover change due to macro-scale drivers of change (e.g., increases in oil prices, biofuel development, and increased urban migration).
More information....
Contact: Peter Claggett, or call 410-267-5771
February 2008
- Land Use, Stormwater Runoff, and Best Management Practices Presentation for the Clarksburg Civic Association: February 25, 2008, USGS scientist Dianna Hogan, and Montgomery County scientists Keith Van Ness and Richard Gee were invited to present on land use, stormwater runoff, Best Management Practices (BMPs), and receiving stream health to the Clarksburg Civic Association in Maryland. The civic association wanted to raise awareness, ask questions about environmental and land use issues, and inspire action in their community with stream cleanups and property management to promote stream health.
More information.... (Dianna Hogan, Reston, VA, 703-648-7240).
December 2007
- Integrated Ecological Study Workshop: On Friday, December 14, 2007, Dr. Hogan, USGS, co-sponsored the Clarksburg Integrated Ecological Study Workshop with Keith Van Ness, Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Environmental Protection. The purpose of this workshop was to review the integrated studies being done in Clarksburg, MD, with a focus on increasing research collaboration and planning the direction of future research efforts. More information.... (Dianna Hogan, Reston, VA, 703-648-7240).
August 2007
- USGS Scientists Help Document Land Cover Change in the North Cascades: USGS scientists Tamara Wilson, Christopher Soulard, and Steve Kambly visited the North Cascades ecoregion, August 20-24, to document land cover change. This data will help identify the forces behind land cover change, understand the ecoregion’s characteristics, and interpret satellite imagery and aerial photography to determine land cover change from 1973 to 2000.
More information...
Contact: Thomas Moreland or call 703-648-5736).
- USGS scientist, Peter Claggett, recently met with Hedrick Smith Productions,
Inc., for a PBS documentary on the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound restoration
efforts. Mr. Claggett provided an overview of urban development trends
in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and discussed the relationships between
forest and farmland loss, impervious surfaces and erosion to water quality
in the Bay. The PBS documentary provides an opportunity to highlight
the contribution of USGS research towards improving the quality of life
of residents in the Mid-Atlantic region. More information...
Contact: Peter Claggett
or call 410-267-5771.
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