NASA awards $1.5M in ecology grants to UNH space center

By Mass High Tech staff

Video Gallery

MHT's Jackie Noblett: VC funds run short in 2009

MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: Tech companies may have to wait for stimulus funds

Terrafugia's flying car simulation

Spin Transfer whips up $36M in first round [February 13, 2012]

Oxford Immunotec taps Altieri as CFO [February 13, 2012]

SeraCare selling to Linden for $82M [February 13, 2012]

UtiliData finds more funding from Braemer [February 13, 2012]

The University of New Hampshire Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space is one of 12 institutions selected by NASA for grants to study the Earth’s carbon cycle and ecosystems using space-based observations.

UNH was awarded two three-year projects totaling $1.5 million involving satellite-based investigations of North American forests. Both projects look at the impacts of the forests and human use of forests on climate.

Associate professor George Hurtt of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and director of CSRC is lead investigator for a $1.04 million project that will utilize satellite “remotely sensed” data as part of forest ecosystem modeling.

Associate professor Scott Ollinger, also of CSRC and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, heads up a team investigating the effects of disturbance and nitrogen deposition on aspects of forest productivity and land surface reflectivity. The $549K project is an extension to an earlier NASA-funded study.

In October 2008 the UNH Space Science Center opened a satellite test laboratory, a facility that is intended to allow a quicker, more economical turnaround in testing satellite components built at the center. The $1 million National Science Foundation-funded lab provides space scientists, students, and industrial partners with a thermal vacuum chamber to test satellite components in space-like conditions and a clean-room for assembly of small satellite payloads.

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.