NASA Presents at the 2007 American Geophysical Union Meeting

WASHINGTON - NASA researchers will present findings on a variety of Earth and space science topics at the 2007 Joint Assembly Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The meeting runs May 22-25 at the Acapulco Convention Center, Acapulco, Mexico. Sessions are open to registered news media.

Following are noteworthy NASA presentations, in chronological order (all times CDT):

Using Time Series of Impervious Cover and Tree Cover to Study Urban Dynamics in the Upper Delaware River Basin
TIME: Tuesday, May 22, 11:40 a.m., Room ACC 04
SESSION: H22B-06
Scientists using satellite data to examine recent urban growth patterns in the Upper Delaware River Basin will discuss results that are helping to simulate future urban growth, an important tool for urban planning in the watershed.

Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Real-Time Ocean Forecasting System off the California Coast
TIME: Tuesday, May 22, 2:30 p.m., Room ACC 07
SESSION: OS23H-03
Scientists will discuss ongoing work to develop and implement a real-time ocean forecast system based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System off the coast of California.

Intercontinental Transport of Aerosols: Implication for Regional Air Quality
TIME: Tuesday, May 22, 4:50 p.m., Room ACC 02
SESSION: A24A-03
Researchers will discuss findings from a NASA computer model that estimates the hemispheric impact of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols and dust from major air pollution sources.

Mars News from Ground Level and From Orbit
TIME: Wednesday, May 23, 10:20 a.m. and 11:20 a.m., Room ACC 13
SESSION: P32A and P32A-05
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission science team members will present initial results from the orbiter’s composition-mapping spectrometer and its high-resolution camera, including information about layers of minerals that form under wet conditions. NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers science team will discuss past environmental conditions from exposed layers of bedrock viewed by Opportunity at Victoria Crater and from soil and rocks examined by Spirit in Gusev Crater.

Insights into Mega-City Ozone Pollution from the INTEX Ozonesonde Network Study, 2004 and 2006
TIME: Wednesday, May 23, 11:35 a.m., Room ACC 02
SESSION: A32A-06
NASA-led field campaigns have observed highly variable levels of ozone throughout the lower atmosphere. Researchers will show how this variability is due to complex interactions between weather and chemistry and natural and human-made contributions to ozone.

Linking Aerosol Source Activities to Present and Future Climate Effects
TIME: Thursday, May 24, 5:00 p.m., Room ACC 03
SESSION: A44A-03
NASA’s Dorothy Koch discusses a global model to connect specific aerosol emission sectors (transport, power, industry, residential, biomass burning) to climate effects for recent and future special reports on emission scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

A Trend in the Northward Transport of Saharan Dust and its Links to the Trend in North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Energy
TIME: Friday, May 25, 12:05 p.m., Room ACC 02
SESSION: A52A-08
NASA computer simulations show how a decline in Saharan dust during the past two decades, combined with warming sea surface temperatures related to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, may be working in concert to increase tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic.

The Role of Irrigation in North American Hydroclimates
TIME: Friday, May 25, 3:15 p.m., Room ACC 05
SESSION: H53F-06
Researchers will discuss new insights in improving weather and climate predictions by including land irrigation in operational prediction systems, using advanced computer simulations.

Drought, Wetland and Flood Monitoring with Satellite Scatterometer
TIME: Friday, May 25, 3:20 p.m., Room ACC 01
SESSION: U53B-05
NASA’s QuikScat satellite detects surface soil moisture changes and corresponding changes in vegetation. Scientists will show how QuikScat data are being used to monitor droughts, wetlands and floods.

Mechanistic Response of Terrestrial Plant Productivity and Surface Energy Budget to Routine Aerosol Loading over the Eastern United States
TIME: Friday, May 25, 4:35 p.m., Room ACC 02
SESSION: A54B-02
Aerosols created from air pollution and other human-made and natural sources can act to cool or warm Earth. Researchers will present findings suggesting that moderate air pollution may help reduce greenhouse warming by trapping more carbon dioxide in forests.

For more information about the 2007 Joint Assembly Meeting, visit:


http://www.agu.org/meetings/ja07/