Presentation
Using Giovanni in Investigating the Links between Environmental Processes and Drought in Northern sub-Saharan Africa
Online Giovanni Workshop, Presentation (Greenbelt, MD, 09/25/2012 - 09/27/2012)
09/26/2012
Abstract
<p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54);">and the Equator, respectively, and stretching East-West across Africa, is very vulnerable because of the highly active environmental and meteorological processes associated with its unique location and human activities that adversely impact the regional water cycle. Over the years, this region has suffered frequent severe droughts that have caused tremendous hardship and loss of life to millions of its inhabitants due to the rapid depletion of the regional water resources, as exemplified by the dramatic drying of Lake Chad. On the other hand, the NSSA region shows one of the highest biomass-burning rates per unit land area among all regions of the world. Because of the high concentration and frequency of fires in this region, with the associated abundance of heat release and gaseous and particulate smoke emissions, biomass-burning activity is believed to be one of the drivers of the regional carbon and energy cycles, with serious implications for the water cycle. An interdisciplinary research effort funded by NASA is presently being focused on the NSSA region, to better understand possible connections between the intense biomass burning observed from satellite year after year across the region and the water cycle, through associated changes in land-cover, surface albedo, emissions, atmospheric processes, precipitation, soil moisture, surface evaporation and runoff, and groundwater recharge. A combination of remote sensing and modeling approaches is being utilized to investigate these multiple processes to clarify possible links between them. However, by using Giovanni, we are able to extract and jointly analyze some of the important relevant parameters to obtain a first insight into their relationships. In this presentation, we will discuss these preliminary results as well as the path toward improved understanding of the interrelationships and feedbacks between the water cycle components and the environmental change dynamics due to biomass burning and related processes in the NSSA region.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Using Giovanni in Investigating the Links between Environmental Processes and Drought in Northern sub-Saharan Africa
- Creators
- Charles Ichoku (Author) - University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyCharles Gatebe (Author)Jejung Lee (Author) - University of Missouri–Kansas CityJun Wang (Author) - University of Iowa, Chemical and Biochemical EngineeringJohn Bolten (Author)Fritz Policelli (Author)Eric M Wilcox (Author)Jimmy Adegoke (Author)Shahid Habib (Author)Rakiya Babamaaji (Author)Churchill Okonkwo (Author)Luke Ellison (Author)Rajesh Poudyal
- Resource Type
- Presentation
- Event
- Online Giovanni Workshop, Presentation (Greenbelt, MD, 09/25/2012 - 09/27/2012)
- Number of pages
- 22 slides
- Language
- English
- Date presented
- 09/26/2012
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984585856302771
Metrics
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