Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future.

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Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future.

Cover Story

CU Boulder's Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future.

CU Boulder has been a leader in space research since before man walked on the moon. Now, baby直播app and students are using those 50+ years of hard-won expertise and cutting-edge technologies to solve pressing global problems like societal vulnerabilities to climate change. Our Space. Our Future. combines CU鈥檚 strengths in earth and space sciences with those of industry partners to forge solutions to environmental problems. Two grand and challenging projects have already emerged. The Integrated Remote and In-Situ Sensing (IRISS) project harnesses unmanned flight technology to collect real-time, location-based data from earth, sky and space, changing the way we respond to emergencies, predict severe weather and even receive mail. Data-obsessed Earth Lab, meanwhile, synthesizes the deluge of data we collect and generates insights to help us understand our changing planet, including projects that improve forest health, understand wildfire and even predict drought.

Before-and-After

CU Boulder鈥檚 Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future. tackles global challenges including drought, illustrated above and here in before-and-after images of drought-diminished Lake Shasta.

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High-resolution imagery provided by CU Boulder partner DigitalGlobe.听

High-resolution satellite images open possibilities for understanding in real-time how fire is spreading and how people and property are vulnerable. Earth Lab is integrating such imagery with data streams from other sources to inform broader questions about fire management and wildland-urban interface development.

This DigitalGlobe short-wave infrared image cuts through the smoke to show the details of the Fort McMurray fire in Canada. Blue indicates healthy vegetation, red shows burned areas and bright orange highlights active fires.

Catching Fire

Earth Lab and DigitalGlobe Partnership Sparks CU Boulder鈥檚 Grand Challenge

Principal听

Jennifer Balch

Collaboration/Support

CU Boulder's Grand Challenge;听Earth Lab;听DigitalGlobe

More than a thousand satellites orbit Earth, including remote sensing satellites collecting vast amounts of data about global temperature, forest health, ocean circulation, sea ice and erosion. Scientists increasingly have access to more information than they can digest. Now, wildfire expert Jennifer Balch, her Earth Lab team, and new partner DigitalGlobe are tapping into that information to transform our understanding of wildfires.

Earth Lab, part of CU Boulder鈥檚 Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future. is听an earth science data synthesis center designed to organize, interpret and integrate the observational data Earth receives every day. Earth Lab translates the university鈥檚 expertise in earth, space and social sciences into real-world solutions to global problems.

One such problem is exploring how people influence fire, particularly in transitional areas of wildland and human development. The stakes are sky-high: U.S. federal agencies alone spend $2 to $3 billion annually to fight fires. As more people migrate into wildland-urban interface areas around the world and the warmer, drier climate increases the frequency and severity of wildfires, the human and financial toll will continue to skyrocket.

Earth Lab already collaborates with federal agencies such as NASA labs collecting data about the water cycle, gravitational pull and cloud and snow cover. Earth Lab also uses data related to forestry, agriculture and geology from the U.S. Geological Survey鈥檚 Landsat satellite. Now, Earth Lab and DigitalGlobe, a world leader in satellite imagery, are introducing vastly enhanced imagery and analytics into the mix, including the global wildfire picture.

DigitalGlobe, located in nearby Westminster, baby直播app, is providing CU Boulder access to its extensive collection of high-resolution images and related tools in exchange for access to the university鈥檚 top-ranked science baby直播app and research staff.

鈥淭he partnership is 鈥榥ext level鈥�,鈥� says Emily CoBabe-Ammann, director of Strategic Projects and strategic lead for the Grand Challenge. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting because听it accelerates Earth Lab and the Grand Challenge. It鈥檚 transformational because it encourages collaborators like government agencies and other university partners to bring their data to the party and develop new products to solve global problems.鈥� 听

According to Earth Lab鈥檚 director, Jennifer Balch, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a unique and exciting time for fire-science. We now have high-resolution imagery and information from multiple sources, and the tools to integrate them to ask questions we鈥檝e never been able to consider before, and at a scale previously not possible.鈥�

鈥淲hat tools can we create for firefighters and homeowners who need real-time fire information? How can we inform insurers, developers and legislators who can shift infrastructure and policy planning to protect individuals, communities and our environment from the consequences of unenlightened practices and policies?鈥�

Earth Lab projects studying permafrost, erosion, forest loss, data harmonization and decision-making will eventually leverage DigitalGlobe resources. For now, Earth Lab is focused on integrating DigitalGlobe assets to help identify changing fire patterns and social vulnerabilities at a large scale.

One cutting-edge project, led by undergraduate Mollie Buckland, is even exploring the relationship between the speed and size of wildfires and the volume of social media activity concerned with those fires.

And like a social media topic 鈥済oing viral,鈥� there鈥檚 no telling how far such a transformational collaboration can take fire-science.

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