Research >> Projects

NASA Center for Remote Sensing Data Management

Back to List

NASA has funded a Center for Excellence in Remote Sensing. The center was funded based on

a proposal called, "Earth Observation Infrastructure for Integrated Regional Assessment in the Sonoran Desert Region". This is an interdisciplinary endeavor with many departments faculty members on campus, including: Electrical Computer Engineering , MIS , Institute for the Study of Planet Eart h , Arid Land Studies , Hydrology and Water Resources , and Optical Sciences . The faculty members involved in the center are: Robert Schowengerdt (ECE), Sudha Ram (MIS), Roger Bales (ISPE), Chuck Hutchinson (Arid Land Studies), S. Sorooshian (Hydrology), and Kurt Thome (Optical Sciences).

The proposal consists of three components that will focus our diverse research, instructional and outreach activities in remote sensing and spatial analysis on integrated regional assessments. The components are:

(a) An interdisciplinary resource system for digital image and map data for the Sonoran desert region. The The focus on regional information will provide a tangible link between our research and instructional programs in the earth science disciplines particularly as they relate to climate variability and change. The system is a large data server with 1.6 TB of CD jukebox storage that will allows to consolidate scattered data holdings at the UA and to manage large amounts of NASA EOS data anticipated over the next several years. 

(b) Internet Courseware modules for instruction and an upgrade of instructional image processing facilities for use in our graduate core remote sensing courses and for outreach within and beyond the UA. The modules will use common datasets stored in the resource system and the latest in distributed internet-based tools.

(c) Outreach to state and county agencies in our region to provide access to data from the Sonoran Desert Region and to foster new research projects on linkages between climate and response in ecosystems, regional economies, as well as social and political institutions. The Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico offers unique opportunities to examine the interactions of climate, ecosystem response, land management and policy over periods ranging from months to decades, in a variety of institutional settings.

The University of Arizona currently has numerous on-going research efforts in regional environmental assessments and we intend to expand these by focusing on one of the fundamental issues i.e. improving access to remote sensing data for the region.

For more information, please contact us.