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Sophisticated NASA Radar Aids EPA Ecosystem Services Research
Posted: October 8, 2009
EPA scientists recently initiated research to test the effectiveness of a new, advanced radar system’s ability to gather data to help EPA understand how wetlands control reactive nitrogen — a significant environmental stressor on the nation’s water quality.
In research led by Ross Lunetta of the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory, data was collected in August 2009 over portions of eastern North Carolina using a new UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) system. The SAR system was flown on a NASA Gulfstream-III aircraft equipped with onboard controls to simulate an unmanned data collection platform (i.e., drone aircraft).
The SAR is capable of providing observations of ecological condition 24/7, an advantage over other methods. It is also unaffected by bad weather, haze, cloud cover and other factors that can inhibit data analyses and interpretation.
Lunetta anticipates an additional benefit: the data will include variations in terrestrial textures (e.g., forest canopy) and wetland structural elements (e.g., stem densities). Furthermore, the UAV technology has the unique capability to provide EPA with spatially precise data, which can help researchers analyze how ecosystems change over time.The team includes Dorsey Worthy, David Williams, Jim Szykman and Drew Pilant of the National Exposure Research Laboratory and Darryl Keith, of the EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory. EPA researchers theorize that data provided by a satellite-based SAR, scheduled for launch in within a decade, may significantly improve EPA’s ability to provide measurement data for nutrient models that can better predict the availability of nitrogen under different sea level and climate change scenarios. The project is part of the EPA’s Ecosystem Services Research Program’s Coastal Carolinas Research Initiative. You can review a list of selected publications authored or co-authored by Ross Lunetta.