Hyperspectral and Thermal Remote Sensing for Environmental Justice
From June 10-13th, students, faculty, and early career scientists currently attending or affiliated with a Tribal College or University or affiliates of Native American Tribes joined NASA SBSG and ESIIL for HYR-SENSE: Hyperspectral and Thermal Remote Sensing for Environmental Justice!
Why HYR-SENSE?
Recent advances in remote sensing, as well as the upcoming NASA Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission, are providing transformative opportunities to solve a range of challenges related to environmental justice. ESIIL (NSF’s Environmental Data Science and Innovation and Inclusion Lab) holds inclusion as a core principle and method for diversifying environmental data science at a time when society needs all perspectives, and science needs to serve all. Participants in the HYR-SENSE (‘higher-sense’) summer program will gain the analytical, coding, and cloud-computing skills necessary to use groundbreaking hyperspectral and thermal imaging remote sensing to solve environmental issues impacting indigenous and underrepresented communities.
Data from NASA’s pathfinder satellite missions, such as EMIT and ECOSTRESS, will be used as the basis for jointly developing the technical skills needed to address a series of use cases related to environmental justice in areas such as water quality monitoring, fire detection, plant water stress and early disease detection, and invasive and culturally-relevant species mapping.
Agenda
Virtual Pre-training Events
This training program included virtual pre-training sessions that built the basis for the HYR-SENSE in-person, four-day collaborative event at the University of Colorado Boulder in June. The virtual pre-training included sessions on cultural intelligence and ethical space, cyberinfrastructure, and open data science.
In-person Events
Each day included a lecture and a lab for participants to gain hands-on technical experience with the skills needed to address issues related to environmental justice. Topics included invasive species, plant water stress, fire detection, data sovereignty, and water quality. Participants and facilitators also spent time getting to know one another and enjoyed time together outside of the workshop as well.
This training is funded by the NASA award #8ONSSC24KO328, and is subject to the NSF's and NASA's terms and conditions.