A two-day summer conference organized by UNL’s Jun Wang helped launch 19 middle- and high-school educators into orbit with NASA satellite data.

Wang, an assistant professor of geosciences, is the recipient of a New Investigator Program in Earth Sciences grant from NASA. Through the $306,000, three-year grant, Wang is studying the impacts of smoke from jungle-clearing fires in Central America on air quality, clouds and precipitation in the United States. The grant also includes the creation of education modules designed to help K-12 educators incorporate NASA satellites to view severe weather and atmospheric data into lesson plans.

The first step to creating the education modules was the conference, “View Atmosphere from Space,” held June 23-34 in Bessey Hall.

“We had a very positive response from the teachers,” said Wang. “The conference was designed to show teachers the resources available through NASA. Many of the teachers were unfamiliar with what NASA offers and you could tell they were excited to bring new information back to the classroom.”

Richard Kleidman, a professor with NASA, shows David and Gale Clement how to access data on atmosphere particulate matter from space. The two-day “View Atmopshere from Space” conference, organized by Jun Wang, assistant professor of geosciences, drew 19 teachers to campus. Photo by Troy Federson/University Communications.

Topics centered on remote satellite sensing – the focus on viewing clouds, winds, fires, snow/ice and trace gases from space. A final session combined topics to examine climate change. UNL professors and NASA researchers led sessions.

“The conference provided a wide variety of information and showed us what is available to teachers,” said Gale Clement, a middle school teacher from Lake Villa, Ill. “A lot of it was at a level higher than most of my students would understand. But, it offered some very good background information that I’ll incorporate into my lessons. I also have resources available now for my more advanced students.”

Wang said he plans to expand the conference to three days in 2010.

NASA’s New Investigator Program in Earth Sciences is designed to encourage the integration of Earth sciences research and education by scientist and engineers in the early years of their professional careers. The program encourages researchers to develop a broader sense of responsibility for expanding science education and literacy, develop partnerships, and communicate their research with teachers, students and the public. Emphasis is placed on using NASA’s space-based remote sensing technology.

Through the grant, Wang has published one paper and has funded two graduate students for three years.

The paper, published in Environmental Research Letters, outlined how smoke from Central American fires moves across the Gulf of Mexico and affects weather patterns in the United States.

“We’re looking at how the habits of our neighbors impact us,” said Wang. “To do this, we are using satellite data provided by NASA – the same kind of data we introduced to the teachers at the conference.”

Initial study suggests that the smoke that moves over the southern United States causes clouds to hold more water, making rainfall more intense. Wang and the two graduate students are continuing to probe the initial findings.

Wang also has two other NASA grants totaling nearly $900,000. Those grants focus on aerosols transport systems in the atmosphere.

“Aerosols are minute particles, generally those less than 10 micrometers in size, suspended in the atmosphere,” said Wang. “We are studying how these aerosols affect surface temperatures, precipitation and cloud properties.

“So much is unknown about aerosols and how they cool the planet. They are a wild card in the climate change picture.”

– By Troy Fedderson, University Communications

What I did this summer

The Scarlet is featuring the summer adventures of faculty, staff and students. The stories will be featured in the Aug. 27 print and online editions of the Scarlet. Submit stories by noon Aug. 20 to tfedderson2@unl.edu or 472-8515.