Blog - Dorian Wood Janney

We have all been dismayed to see the extent of the damage done during the recent landslides that occurred after forest fires had destroyed much of the vegetation, and then intense rain caused a horrific landslide to occur in Montecito. You can read more here about how NASA's Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 was able to acquire natural color imagery of the affected region both before...

As many of us have seen on the news recently, a great many people in southern California were impacted by mudslides last night. We know these dangerous natural disasters occur all over the world. Scientists globally are working hard to be able to better predict these devastating events. You can learn more about the use of NASA's satellite data to detect potential landslides...

The ENSO Phase III Field Measurement Campaign is focusing on “Water in Our Environment” during the 2017-2018 school year. Each month we have a webinar using Zoom, and we like to spotlight a different region each time. Our Feb. 8th spotlight will shine on the Near East and Africa. On February 8th, we would like to shine this spotlight on the wonderful GLOBE scientists, teachers, and students...

  It turns out that we are most likely entering another mild La Niña winter across the globe. This article, “La Nina Makes a Quiet Return”, describes how scientists are able to use data on sea surface temperatures from were made by altimeters on the Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites, and show averaged sea surface height anomalies. Climatologists are predicting...

Too much water can have devastating consequences when it falls too quickly on Earth's surface. On January 9th, the "Water in Our Environment" webinar will spotlight the experiences of our GLOBE community in Asia and the Pacific.  Earlier this week in the Philippines, tropical cyclone Kai-Tak wrecked havoc on this region as it caused extreme flooding and landslides. On December 4th and...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a hearing entitled "Gravity Never Sleeps: Landslide Risk Across the Country"at the Rayburn House Office Building that was intended to inform our lawmakers and government officials about the impacts of landslides in many parts of the United States. As the topic is related to our guiding investigative question for the ENSO Student Research Campaign- "What...

Many of us are so used to having clean freshwater that is easily accessible that we don't often stop to marvel at the fact that we are incredibly fortunate. The majority of our freshwater comes from our water cycle, and precipitation is unevenly distributed across the globe. You can learn more about the importance of clean freshwater resources in this "one-pager" entitled "Precious...

Just when you think that perhaps the weather systems are settling down- our amazing scientific instruments are able to detect a potential change! I never cease to be amazed at what we are able to learn about Earth's systems- both from the ground and from space!  This article from the New York Times just came across my newsfeed- "It's Like it Never Left: Another El Nino May be on the Way"....

There will be a special Google hangout for GLOBE teachers and scientists on Feb 15 at 7pm (ET).  During this event, we will learn about the results of the research from several scientists who were onboard the research vessel, and will have a chance to ask questions about this work and results.  http://bit.ly/2lL4Kgd No registration required- open to any GLOBE teacher and/or...

One of NASA's scientists, Dr. Stephanie Uz, has been working closely with the GLOBE ENSO Campaign throughout its beginning. She is an oceanographer who studies the response of ocean biology to physical forcing through remotely sensed satellite data, in situ measurements, model output and statistical reconstructions using proxies. Her research focuses on variability in global ocean color or...