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The Earth Observer: Jan - Feb, 2015

Volume 27, Issue 1

In This Issue

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  • Editor’s Corner Front Cover
  • Feature Articles
  • 15@15: 15 Things Terra has Taught Us in Its 15 Years4
  • SMAP: Mapping Soil Moisture and Freeze/Thaw State from Space14
  • NASA’s Hyperwall: Around the World in 201420
  • Meeting/Workshop Summaries
  • The SMAP Early Adopters Program and the Impact on Prelaunch Research24
  • Summary of 2014 GOFC-GOLD Fire Implementation Team Meeting29
  • Joint CERES, ScaRaB, and GERB Science Team Meeting34
  • NASA Sounder Science Team Meeting39
  • Kudos
  • Congratulations William T. Pecora Award Winners!41
  • In The News
  • NASA’s Spaceborne Carbon Counter Maps New Details42
  • NASA Satellites Measure Increase of Sun’s Energy Absorbed in the Arctic44
  • NASA Analysis: 11 Trillion Gallons to Replenish California Drought Losses45
  • Snow in the Northeastern U.S.46
  • Regular Features
  • NASA Earth Science in the News 48
  • NASA Science Mission Directorate – Science Education and Public Outreach Update 50
  • Science Calendars 51

Editor’s Corner

Steve Platnick, EOS Senior Project Scientist

NASA’s Earth Science Division is off to a roaring start in 2015! Two new Earth Science missions have already launched, and a third joint mission with NOAA and the U.S. Air Force, which includes two Earth observing instruments that will view the Earth from a never-before-seen perspective, is planned for early February.

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully carried the Cloud Aerosol Transport System (CATS) payload (along with other cargo) to the International Space Station onboard a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:47 AM EST on January 10, 2015. On January 22, CATS was installed on the space station’s Japanese Experiment Module – Exposed Facility (JEM-EF)—the first NASA-developed payload to ever fly on the JEM-EF. Systems have been powered up and preliminary indications are that everything is functioning nominally. The plan moving forward is...

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