EastFIRE in the News
ESTC team attended SPIE 2009 Optics + Photonics Conference, San Diego, CA,
August 2-6.
The ESTC group, led by Prof. John J. Qu, the director of ESTC, attended SPIE 2009 Optics + Photonics Conference in San Diego, CA, August 2-6, 2009. Dr. Qu chaired the session of "Ecological Remote Sensing Theory, Techniques, and Applications III" and gave a presentation entitled "Real-time fuel moisture and fire danger monitoring with satellite remote sensing measurements". ESTC research scientists, Dr. Xianjun Hao and Dr. Lingli Wang, and graduate students, Ms. Min Li and Mr. Di Wu, presented their works in three different sessions. Dr. Raymond Hunt, Jr., one of the ESTC partners, chaired the session of "Ecological Remote Sensing Theory, Techniques, and Applications II" and presented an invited talk on "Remote sensing of canopy water content: scaling from leaf area to MODIS", which was co-authored with ESTC members.
(Pictured are, from left, Dr. Xianjun Hao, Dr. Lingli Wang, Dr. Raymond Hunt, Jr., Mr. Di Wu, and Ms. Min Li in the SPIE conference break)
EastFIRE Lab/ESTC team had a field experiment at USDA/ARS in Beltsville, Maryland During July 21-23 2009
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Meteorologist from USDA-Forest Service visited ESTC
Dr. Yongqiang Liu, a research meteorologist from Southern Research Station, USDA-Forest Service visited ESTC, EastFIRE Lab during April 6-10, 2009. Dr. Liu's research focuses on smoke management and air quality. During his visit, Dr. Liu was impressed by the ESTC achievements in monitoring forest disturbances caused by hurricanes and wildland fires, and smoke and dust aerosol using satellite remote sensing. As one of Ph.D. committee members, he attended Ms. Wanting Wang's Ph.D. defense on April 9, 2009. He also discussed the potential cooperation between Southern Research Station and ESTC with Dr. John Qu, the Director of ESTC.
COS Started A New Environmental Science and Technology Center (ESTC) with China during November 2008. EastFIRE Lab was one of funding partners
George Mason University, Tsinghua University and China's Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) established a new "Environmental Science and Technology Center (ESTC)". The ESTC is a joint interdisciplinary center focusing on the fields of global environmental and climate monitoring, flood forecasting and defense, water resources management, ecological protection and restoration, remote sensing of environment and Earth observations.
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EastFIRE Team Involves in Field Sampling (SMAPVEX08) to Validate Future Satellite SMAP Products
EastFIRE team has supported the USDA/ARS Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Validation Experiment 2008 (SMAPVEX08, leading by Dr. Tom Jackson) during September 26-Octocber 14, 2008. It is the first SMAP validation experiment for addressing numerous issues related to the SMAP L3 soil moisture retrieval algorithms. The EastFIRE team (Prof. John Qu, Dr. Xianjun Hao, Dr. Lingli Wang, Wanting Wang, Min Li, Di Wu and Melissa Soriano) attends the six day soil moisture sampling experiments in the East Short Maryland.
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EastFIRE Lab Field Experiment in Georgia and Tennessee
During July 13-18 2008, EastFIRE Lab had a field trip to Atlanta, Okefenokee, GA, and Knoxville, TN, led by Dr. John Qu, the co-director, and Dr. Xianjun Hao, the technical leader of EastFIRE Lab at College of Science, George Mason University. The primary objective of this field experiment was to collect field data and typical leaf/stem/soil samples in southern-eastern states and visit the 2002 and 2007 wildfire burned areas, so as to validate satellite remote sensing products.
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Ms. Lingli Wang was selected as the recipient of the 2008 Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences Award for Academic Excellence.
Ms. L. Wang is the candidate for the graduate student award. In the time period of 2006-2008, Ms. Wang has senior authored five open literature publications in many of the first tier journals. Her scholarly achievements are indicative of a committed, bright, and entrepreneurial young scientist and worthy of the award.
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EastFIRE Lab has been accepted for membership in FAO sponsored FMAA.
The EastFIRE Laboratory has been accepted for membership in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sponsored Fire Management Actions Alliance (FMAA).
You can learn more about the alliance at:
Fire Management Actions Alliance
Dr. William Sommers, Director of EastFIRE Lab was on U.S. News.
William Sommers, director of George Mason University's EastFIRE Laboratory, faults the growing "wildland-urban interface" as one of two major drivers of growing wildfires. San Diego is a worst-case example: flammable homes encroaching on chaparral, the term given to this region's frequently dry shrubs, brush, and trees. The second is climatechange, which is propelling droughts in some areas and raising temperatures.
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The JFSP 2008 Request for Applications (RFA) (formerly Announcements for Proposals or AFP) has been posted at Grants.gov and JFSP Web Page since October 1, 2007. Full proposals are due on Nov. 16, 2007.
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Dr. John J. Qu gave an invited talk for PGS
Dr. John J. Qu, Co-Director of the EastFIRE Lab, gave an invited talk entitled "Fuel Moisture and Soil Moisture Detecting from Space with NASA EOS Measurements in the Eastern States: for the Potomac Geophysical Society (PGS).
Dr. Sommers gave a lecture in Science & Society Brown Bag Seminar
Dr. William T. Sommers, Director of the EastFIRE Lab, gave
a lecture entiled "Wildland fire: global process, ecosystem disturbance, and natural hazard" in Science & Society Brown Bag Seminar on September 13, 2007 .
Wildfires a Hot Topic at EastFIRE Conference
So far this year, more than 475,000 acres of land have already burned in the eastern United States, which encompasses states east of the Mississippi River valley, and forecasters predict annual trends to worsen over the next 50 years.In an effort to educate the next generation of fire experts and scientists on the growing need for research to prevent, fight and control wildfires, Mason hosted the 2007 EastFIRE Conference from June 5 to June 8 in the Johnson Center and Research I on the Fairfax Campus.
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RSE EastFIRE special issue
The EastFIRE Special Issue on Remote Sensing of Environment
(RSE 108:2) has been published. It includes selected papers from
the First EastFIRE Conference on the Application of Remote
Sensing to Fire Research in the Eastern United States.
Prof. John J. Qu and Prof. Christopher O. Justice are
guest editors of the RSE EastFIRE Special Issue.
EastFIRE Lab Special Seminar
Dr. WeiMin Hao from USDA Forest Service, Fire Sciences Laboratory and Dr.
Al Riebau from USDA/FS visited EastFIRE Lab on Feb 16. 2007. Dr. Hao gave
a talk entiled "Forecasting Smoke Emissions, Dispersion, and Air Quality
in the U.S. Using Real-time MODIS Data and Meteorology".
Dr. Sommers Elected to International Association of
Wildland Fire (IAWF) Board of Directors
Dr. William T. Sommers, Director of the EastFIRE Lab, College of Science, George Mason University has been elected to serve a three year term on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) commencing January 1, 2007. The IAWF is a non-profit, professional association representing members of the global wildland fire community. The purpose of the association is to facilitate communication and provide leadership for the wildland fire community. The International Journal of Wildland Fire (IJWF) is published on behalf of the IAWF by CSIRO PUBLISHING. The Journal publishes new and significant papers that advance basic and applied research concerning wildland fire. The Journal has an international perspective, since wildland fire plays a major social, economic, and ecological role around the globe. IAWF also publishes Wildfire Magazine which addresses issues at the local, state and federal levels and also provides a unique international perspective.
Book Publication
The book, named Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing, is edited by Prof. John J. Qu, Dr. Wei Gao, Prof. Menas Kafatos, Dr. Robert E. Murphy, and Dr. Vincent V. Salomonson.
Book cover: Volume 1, Volum2
Book Discription: Satellite remote sensing for Earth science data has been rapidly expanding during the last decade. Volume 1 of this two volume monograph covers missions/sensors, such as Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU). It also discusses the NPOESS and NPP missions. Emphasis was placed on the recently launched Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board of both Terra and Aqua. Some key MODIS science team members were invited to contribute several chapters. The core of this monograph arose from the workshop for Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing held at George Mason University (GMU) in October 2002. Both volumes are designed to give scientists and graduate students with limited remote sensing background a thorough introduction to current and future NASA, NOAA and other Earth science remote sensing missions.
Order Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Science-Satellite-Remote-
Sensing/dp
/3540356061/sr=1-1/qid=1165591073/ref=sr_1_1/102-5309647-8024168?ie=UTF8&s=books
Prof. Qu elected as associate editor for the Journal of
Applied Remote
Sensing (JARS), SPIE new journal.
This online-only e-journal will cover the concepts, information, and
progress of the remote sensing community, including past, current, and
future remote sensing programs and experiments; coverage of remote sensing
user requirements for programs and experiments; methodologies for the
optimal utilization of remote sensing data; measurement characterization;
satellite mission requirements and implementation; and much more.
NASA Earth Systems
Sciences Fellowship
Mr. Swarvanu Dasgupta at the EastFIRE Laboratory received the NASA Earth Systems Sciences Fellowship.
His research title is "Multi-Sensor Approach for Monitoring Fire Risk in
the Wildland Urban Interface".
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- March 13 , 2006 (The Mason Gazette)
Prescribed Fire at Wildlife Refuge Fuels Research
for Computational Sciences Students
By Tara Laskowski
Normally, if a fire breaks out during a field trip, it's a bad sign.
Last month, however, graduate students studying wildland fire management found that fire illuminated their research. Traveling to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Cambridge, MD., the students were able to witness a prescribed burn of 300 acres of marchland.
The team, members of the EastFIRE Lab established at George Mason last year to research wildland fires in the Eastern United States, donned bright yellow fire safety suits and went on-site to watch the controlled burn. As the flames licked the sky, students observed the dispersion of the smoke plume and learned about safety measures from Refuge GIS Biologist Roger Stone.
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GMU Graduate Students Involved in Prescribed Burn at
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
EastFIRE group picture during Blackwater Field Trip
Mason graduate students and faculty from the School of Computational Sciences EastFIRE Laboratory (http://eastfire.gmu.edu) put their research and learning to practice during a February 10th Prescribed Burn at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (BNWR) near Cambridge, MD. The EastFIRE team , led by GMU faculty member Dr. John Qu, were invited to participate in the prescribed fire exercise by Roger Stone, BNWR GIS expert.
Prescribed Fire in Action
Fire has been used for over 60 years to manage Blackwater’s wetlands by stimulating growth of vegetation beneficial to wildlife, reducing the risk of loss of human life and property due to wildfires, and by increasing the overall health of the wetlands. Fire managers burned over 300 acres of marshland in the southern areas of the Refuge last Friday as part of their annual fuel load reduction efforts.
GMU Team Observing the Fire
As an enhancement to BNWR ground data, the GMU team will estimate the extent of the burned areas by using satellite remote sensing images. The students will also simulate smoke plume models based on fuel types, local wind speed data, and area burned. The satellite images and smoke plume models will help fire managers track annual burns and quantify the effectiveness of the burn area rotation methods as well as predict smoke plume dispersion.
Close to the Flames
This GMU - BNWR partnership will help our students to test their research findings and BNWR managers improve future prescribed fire effectiveness regarding hazard reduction, air quality, and overall wetlands ecosystem health. The GMU students now have a lifetime memory of personally observing an actual prescribed burn exercise for the first time.
Conference Addresses Wildfires in Eastern United States (Mason
Gazette)
Educating the next generation of fire scientists and associated technical
experts was the goal of the Conference hosted
by George May
11-13. Attended by 150 experts from federal and state agencies, academics from
across the nation, and selected commercial providers, the conference featured
several faculty members and researchers from School of
Computational Sciences (SCS) and its Center for Earth Observing and Space
Research (CEOSR), including John Qu, principal research scientist, who was
general chair... Read More »
