Our project for SEES 2024 was "Creating a Model to Identify
High-Risk Areas for Flash Flooding in Houston, Texas." In this
blog, I will discuss how we calculated which areas are "high-risk."
There are many ways to identify the most at-risk points of flooding
in a given region. Such points are commonly identified in a flood map,
such as the one here:
For our...
SEES 2024 Experience
Getting the opportunity to participate in the NASA SEES Earth System
Explorers program has positively impacted my educational and career
journey in more ways than I could've imagined. Throughout this
internship, I gained an immense amount of knowledge in Earth science,
utilizing the GLOBE Observer app, ArcGIS, Collect Earth Online,
Python, and many other tools...
In this blog post, I will go through every step of the internship and
outline my experience!
Before I do that, first of all, I would like to say that I am so
happy that I got to spend my summer with SEES! This program was so
amazing and helped guide me a bit more on what I want to do in my
future career and in college! I am very grateful for all of our
mentors who guided us through...
If you had asked me what “citizen science” was before this internship
with the NASA SEES (STEM Enhancement in Earth Science) Earth System
Explorers, I most likely would have conjured a description that
involved studying the human body. Now, however, I feel confident in
saying that citizen science is a dynamic, extraordinary meaningful
process by which everyday citizens contribute to...
The wildfire data analysis journey began with a dataset comprising
over 1200 points located in the California region. To uncover the
correlation between land cover types and wildfire risk, we first
needed to determine the wildfire risk for each point using the FEMA
Wildfire Risk Map. This step involved entering coordinates into the
software to obtain the wildfire risk index for each...
My group’s project focused on using land cover data and GLOBE
Observer images to create a machine learning model that can predict
land surface temperature - a measure of how hot the surface of the
Earth feels in a given location. For context, GLOBE is short for
“Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment”. It’s an
app that lets volunteers across the world take...
Roboflow is an open-source dataset management platform, where users
can import data, label it, and then have a model train on it. For my
group's project, CS-FLARE, we used Roboflow to label brush, grass,
trees, and leaf litter in our NESW Images as shown below.
When I initially began labeling images, I tried
using bounding boxes for each picture like the leaf litter in the
image...
Adopt-a-Pixel | Where does water meet land in my community?
Scanning the Area
As our first assignment as part of the Earth System Explorers team, we've been tasked with making our first observations using the GLOBE Observer App. The goal was to make 12 total observations (6 Potential Mosquito Habitat & 6 Land Cover).
To be more efficient, I decided to make all of my observations...
I built my mosquito traps on June 20th and ran the experiment until July 15th. I collected a total of 15 observations during this period. To construct the traps I used three identical pots to hold water. The goal of my experiment was to find which type of mosquito bait would be the most effective at attracting and sheltering mosquitos. For the three baits I used dried leaves, grass clippings,...
AOI Fieldwork
At first, collecting land cover data for 37 points within my area of interest felt like a daunting task. However, after only a few "expeditions" in the past week, I was able to complete all 37 observations.
To make my work easier and more accurate, I intentionally choose an AOI that would contain as many points as possible within a nearby park. This was to ensure that I could...
On May 1, 2021, I did a lot of things. Most of them involved staying home, logging in to Microsoft Teams for virtual school, and doing my homework. Little did I know that my life would change that very evening. I logged off from school and opened Outlook to check my email, and I saw it immediately: “Congratulations on your NASA virtual internship!”
For the next five months, I was immersed in...
My experiment aims to test how two variables impact the likelihood of mosquitoes breeding. The first variable is the water type, and I am testing with tap water, filtered water, and muddy water from a local pond. The second variable is the food in which mosquitos will breed. Therefore, I will add rice water and sugarcane juice to the three water types. So, I will end up with nine...
In October, our SEES research team presented at the 2022 MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference (MIT URTC), becoming the first SEES team ever to be selected to present a paper at this competition. We wanted to share our experience with MIT URTC, from the starting point of our SEES research project to developing a publishable manuscript and presenting our paper at the conference.
At...
I have 5 identical buckets placed in shady areas around my yard. Two of these buckets (Buckets 1 and 2) are filled with equivalent amounts of water, grasses, leaves, and dirt, while another bucket (Bucket 3) contains everything but the dirt. I wanted to examine how dirtier water could attribute to a more habitable microenvironment for mosquitoes.
My two other buckets contain equivalent...
First Post:
For my project, I wanted to see how CO2 emissions could affect mosquito activity. To do this, I set up 4 water bottle traps. 2 of the traps contained a solution of tap water (1 cup), sugar (1/4 cup), and yeast (1 gram). The yeast and the sugar react to release carbon dioxide. (Fermentation) The other two bottles contained a basic solution of tap water and grass. One bottle of...
For my experiment, I decided to see which fruits or foods in general that mosquitos would be attracted to. From left to right, it was the cantaloupe, watermelon, control(which is nothing), and a pineapple in the last one. I wanted to test whether different fruits or foods affected the amount of larvae and mosquitos that are born. For the first week of testing, I did not spot anything or any...
For my mosquito habitat experiment, I decided to approach it from the perspective of the size of containers. I had 5 different containers, each of which is a different size, from a small bottle to a soap bottle to the largest, a gallon jug. For the first week of testing, I was able to set up the traps in their selective locations, however, was not able to check them till week the end of week 2...
For my mosquito habitat experiment, I decided to study the depth of container. I had a large bucket, a medium bucket, and a small bucket. For the first week, I decided to add fish food, but I am thinking about adding different types of baits throughout the weeks!
Here was my original set up, with it being placed under a tree in my backyard.
Additionally, I had placed two...
