The Other Side of NASA: Satellites for Climate Science

We all know that NASA launches rockets, robots, and astronauts into outer space. They study the different planets in the solar system with satellites and rovers. They make amazing telescopes like Hubble and JWST that teach us amazing things about our galaxy and the universe at large. But did you know that NASA has had an Earth Science Division since the 1980s, and it really started to study changes to the earth due to climate and land-use changes? Today, it is flying dozens of satellites that measure clouds, precipitation, gases and pollutants in the atmosphere, vegetation and rocks on land, plants in the ocean, and ice in glaciers and in the polar regions. One specific thing we recently learned how to do is to accurately measure greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane, so we can better understand and predict climate change. This talk will explain the how & why of the emerging field of greenhouse gas measurements with satellites.

About the Speaker: Dr. Chris O’Dell earned a Bachelors in physics at the University of Dayton in 1995 (so yes he’s really old), and his Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Wisconsin studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background) radiation, a key element of modern Big Bang theory. Because of his fascination with and concerns about climate change, Chris switched fields and took a research position in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, where he spent three years researching satellite-based measurements of clouds, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. He then did a brief internship at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, UK, helping to assimilate satellite data into the world-reknowned ECMWF forecast model. (While in Reading, the roof blew off his apartment, and he briefly moved in with a graduate student named Tom who would later become Eric Lingerfelt’s boss in Boulder.) He came to CSU in 2007, and currently leads the Carbon Research Group at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). His research focuses on making accurate measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations using satellite observations of the spectrum of earth-reflected sunlight in the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. In his spare time, Chris likes to swim in pools and lakes around town, spend time with his two kids and dog, and watch old episodes of The Witcher.

Host or Publisher The Cosmic Cowboys