A Global Burned Area ESDR from MODIS and NPP VIIRS, Justice, C.O. (Principal Investigator at University of Maryland), Roy, D., Boschetti, L., Giglio, L. Funded by NASA NNH06ZDA001N-EOS program.

This proposal is to continue and expand upon the current MODIS Burned Area Product research, developing an Earth Science Data Record (ESDR) through the following six tasks: i) to maintain the MODIS Burned Area Product and implement code refinement based on product QA, validation and user feedback, ii) to undertake targeted Stage 2 validation of the product, following the CEOS LPV burned area validation protocol, iii) to develop and provide enhanced user products, iv) to generate a multiyear assessment of global burned area at a national and continental scale from MODIS Collection 5 data, v) to integrate an active fire component in the burned area product to be run in MODIS Collection 6, to improve product performance for small fires and agricultural burning, vi) to design and prototype a burned area ESDR, providing product continuity from MODIS and NPP VIIRS and to scope the feasibility and cost of extending the ESDR retrospectively using data from previous moderate resolution satellites.

Post Doctoral Remote Sensing Scientist: This individual will have a Ph.D. in fire remote sensing, or similar topic, and quantitative analysis skills. Experience using satellite time series data and familiarity with large volume data sets is preferred. They will assist Dr. Roy in developing, validating and publishing research concerning the MODIS burned area product in liaison with University of Maryland scientists. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 3 years of this project.

Earth Science Data Records of Global Forest Cover Change, Townshend, J.R.G. (Principal Investigator at University of Maryland), et al.. Funded by NASA NNH06ZDA001N Making Earth System data records for Use in Research Environments (MEASURES) program.

This proposal is to participate in the Earth Science Data Records of Global Forest Cover Change research project, developing a time-series of global forest cover change products for the period 2000 to 2010. The task involves the following activities: 1) implementing a global percent forest cover change algorithm by biome (humid tropical, dry tropical, temperate and boreal using 250 meter MODIS data, 2) integrating the MODIS biome-scale products with Landsat data to refine area estimates, 3) defining and implementing methods for both forest cover loss and gain.

Post Doctoral Remote Sensing Scientist: This individual will have a Ph.D. in geography or related field with a focus in terrestrial remote sensing. Expertise in the characterization of land cover and land cover change using remotely sensed data sets is required. Experience using satellite time series data and familiarity with large volume data sets is preferred. The selected candidate will assist Dr. Hansen in developing, validating and publishing research concerning the MODIS global change products in liaison with University of Maryland scientists. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 3 years of this project.

Enhanced Land Cover and Land Cover Change Products from MODIS, Townshend, J.R.G. (Principal Investigator at University of Maryland), et al.. Funded by NASA NNH06ZDA001N-EOS program.

This proposal is to continue and expand upon the current Enhanced Land Cover and Land Cover Change Products from MODIS research project, developing a global Vegetation Continuous Field product suite from 2000 to 2010. The task involves the following activities: 1) implementing the current VCF algorithm in creating annual tree cover, bare ground and other vegetation percent cover layers using 250 meter MODIS data, 2) studying their use in land cover monitoring, 3) developing methods for validating VCF products.

Post Doctoral Remote Sensing Scientist: This individual will have a Ph.D. in geography or related field with a focus in terrestrial remote sensing. Expertise in the characterization of land cover and land cover change using remotely sensed data sets is required. Experience using satellite time series data and familiarity with large volume data sets is preferred. The selected candidate will assist Dr. Hansen in developing, validating and publishing research concerning the MODIS VCF product in liaison with University of Maryland scientists. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 3 years of this project.

Integrating MODIS crop characterization capabilities with AWiFS and agricultural survey data, Hansen, M. (Principal Investigator), Mueller, R. and McCarty, J. Funded by NASA NNH07ZDA001N Decision Support through Earth Science Research Results program.

This proposal is to participate in the Integrating MODIS crop characterization capabilities with AWiFS and agricultural survey data research project, a collaboration with the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service Spatial Analysis Research Section. Goals include developing timely and accurate crop type maps for the primary crop production regions of the United States and include the following activities: 1) Using MODIS data to create rapid percent crop type maps, 2) Using MODIS data to pre-process and characterize AWiFS data for crop type mapping, 3) Comparing stand-alone models calibrated with past NASS Landsat products with current methods calibrated using data from the Farm Service Agency.

Post Doctoral Remote Sensing Scientist: This individual will have a Ph.D. in geography or related field with a focus in terrestrial remote sensing. Expertise in the characterization of land cover and land cover change using remotely sensed data sets is required. Experience using satellite time series data and familiarity with large volume data sets is preferred. The selected candidate will assist Dr. Hansen in developing, validating and publishing research concerning the MODIS/AWiFS crop type maps in liaison with NASS and University of Maryland scientists. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 3 years of this project.

Web-enabled Landsat data (WELD) - a consistent seamless near real time MODIS-Landsat data fusion for the terrestrial user community, Roy, D.P. (Principal Investigator), Hansen, M., Loveland, T., Vermote, E., Kline, K., Zhnag, C. Funded by NASA NNH06ZDA001N Making Earth System data records for Use in Research Environments (MEASURES) program.

The overall objective of MEaSUREs solicitations is to select projects providing Earth science data products and services driven by NASA.s Earth science goals and contributing to advancing NASA.s .missions to measurements. concept. This proposal contributes to the Land measurement theme; working at high spatial resolution and using state of the art and validated MODIS land products to systematically generate .seamless. consistent mosaiced Landsat ETM+ data sets with per-pixel quality assessment information and derived land cover characterization at monthly and longer time periods. This proposal will improve the consistency and quality of ETM+ SLC-off data through a fusion with MODIS land products. The resulting high spatial resolution mosaic products will be generated for the conterminous USA and Alaska for a 7 year period, and made freely available to the user community.

This proposal is a formal collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) and its academic partner, the recently inaugurated South Dakota State University Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence (GIScE). Through this partnership, the USGS Landsat project will commit to making all ETM+ SLC-off data acquired over the conterminous USA and Alaska, and later for select regions globally, available at no cost and regardless of cloud cover. The processing, based on heritage techniques and contemporaneous fusion of MODIS data, will be prototyped at the GIScE with systematic processing undertaken at EROS. Data products will be updated in near real time and made available to the user community through a modified EROS internet distribution interface. This is a 5 year proposal with an annual mean budget of approximately $660K and significant USGS cost sharing.

1 Senior Programmer: Software engineer with experience in developing satellite product generation systems in a Unix/Linux Environment and conversant in system engineering configuration management, documentation and testing protocols. Responsible for designing, developing, testing and maintaining a satellite processing system and refining an existing Internet satellite product distribution system. He/she will work in collaboration with Landsat engineers and will manage the Junior Programmer. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 5 years of this project. Commercially competitive salary.

1 Junior Programmer: Assist the sensor programmer, required Unix/Linux C-coding and shell scripting experience. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 5 years of this project.

Post Doctoral Remote Sensing Scientist: This individual will have a Ph.D. in quantitative remote sensing and Linux/UNIX computer programming experience. They will assist Dr. Roy in developing and publishing research concerning the mosaic processing, viewing and solar geometry normalization, BRDF and gap filling code, required to produce consistent seamless Landsat mosaics. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 5 years of this project.

Post Doctoral Remote Sensing Scientist: This individual will have a Ph.D. in remote sensing, preferably with land surface classification experience, and have computer programming experience. They will assist Dr Hansen in developing and implementing and publishing research concerning integrated Landsat-MODIS Land surface and change characterization algorithms. He/she will dedicate 100% of his/her time in all 5 years of this project.