CCRI Graduate Student Research Assistant

The NASA GISS Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) is a year-long opportunity for Graduate Student Research Assistants to work directly with NASA scientists and lead research teams in a NASA research project associated with the science related to climate change. At the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in NYC. The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division (ESD) of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The ESD is part of GSFC's Sciences and Exploration Directorate.

Graduate Student Research Assistants must be willing to commit to the year-long fall, spring and summer program whose dates are defined below. This program is not available for a single term or session. This opportunity will not conflict with the graduate student’s coursework or class schedule during the fall and spring semesters and is considered to be a part-time position that supports the graduate student’s major area of study.

 

During the fall and spring term of CCRI the research team will consist of NASA Principal Investigators whom will lead Graduate Student Research Assistants and high school STEM educators to become immersed in a NASA science research area of study related to climate change. Fall and Spring sessions will have a time commitment of 10 hours per week for a period of 10 weeks.

 

During the summer session, the primary research team will add an undergraduate intern and high school intern to the CCRI research team. The Graduate Student Research Assistant works collaboratively for 40 hours per week for a period of eight weeks to complete the research project and to create a scientific research paper and a PowerPoint presentation; a scientific poster will also be presented at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and other regional sciences symposiums.

 

Applicants should reside within a 50-mile radius of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in NYC. Housing, relocation and travel expenses are not provided.

 

Fall: 10/7/19 -12/13/19: (10 hours per week / 10 weeks)

Spring: 02/03/20 – 04/10/20: (10 hours per week / 10 weeks)

Summer: 06/22/20 - 08/14/20: 40 hours per week / 8 weeks)

Graduate Student Research Assistant Stipend: $11,700

To apply for the CCRI Graduate Student Research Assistant position, please fax, mail or deliver a cover letter, resume, transcripts and letters of recommendation to:

Matthew Pearce

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

545 West 112th Street | New York, NY 10025

Fax: 212-678-5552

The cover letter should include the projects being applied to ranked in order of preference and a description of how the project being applied to aligns with the graduate students course of study.

Requirements:

·      Applicants must be in a graduate level degree program that aligns with the project that is being applied to

·      Must have US citizenship

Applications are considered upon receipt. For question regarding this opportunity, please contact Matthew Pearce at matthew.d.pearce@nasa.gov

Mentor: Dr. Reggie Blake; Dr. Hamid Norouzi

Duty Location: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; CUNY-City College of Technology;

In light of climate change, urban micro-climates, the urban heat island effect and other urban geophysical phenomena and processes, there is a new urgency to better study, understand, and characterize urban environments. Revolutionary and innovative ideas are being considered to transform the study of the urban landscape. Fundamental changes are taking place in geophysics and in engineering to aid in the adaptation and mitigation of the environmental challenges to which cities must respond.

-       Monitoring thermal characteristics of urban surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, rooftop, and vegetated surfaces at different seasons and times of the day by collecting data

-       Coordinating with community partners to receive skin temperature measurements from various surfaces in the local community.

-       Obtaining and analyzing satellite land surface temperature observations from geostationary and polar orbit satellites such as from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R), LandSat, Ecostress, Sentinel 2A, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), etc.

-       Analyzing the collected data to define and to develop a high spatial resolution (10 m) and high temporal resolution (every 5 min) skin temperature over the local community and over New York City using several statistical approaches by fusing satellite based and ground observations.

-       Developing an online interactive server platform to disseminate the data to the local community and to scientists. Data visualization and queries will be among important features of the proposed platform.

-       Working closely with the local community on the use of the collected data to interpret and predict the strength and extent of heat wave events.

Applied Math, Computer Science, Data Science, Environmental Sciences, Climate Science and Engineering are encouraged to apply.

Strong computer programming in environments such as JAVA, Python, Matlab, R, or experience with Google Earth Engine is preferred. 

Mentor: Dr. Dorothy Peteet (CS)

Duty Location: Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory; NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

The Hudson Estuary is comprised of key tidal marshes, which serve to provide many ecosystem services to the large population of this important coastal region, including NYC. These services include fish nurseries, coastal protection, water purification, paleoclimatic archives, and carbon sequestration repositories. We seek to understand the records of past droughts, cold intervals, floods, and vegetation shifts along with the past shifts in carbon storage. From this information we can better understand our present snapshot of climate/carbon, and predict future accumulation rates as climate warms and sea level rises.

Interest and desire to learn paleoclimatic skills, including field and lab research as well as data analysis. Field research includes plant identification, sediment coring, and sediment probing. Skills include processing samples including Loss-on-ignition, carbon content, x-ray fluorescence, and pollen and macrofossil identification. Botanical background a plus, along with past microscope experience and use of Excel.

Mentor: Dr. Christian Braneon

Duty Location: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

The history of Earth observation began in the 1840s, during the era of geographical exploration, when pictures were taken from cameras secured to the tethered balloons for the purpose of topographic mapping. It took another 100 years for earth observations to evolve to a platform based in space called satellites. Remote sensing is the science of obtaining information without physically being in contact with it. This process involves detection and measurement of radiation at different wavelengths reflected or emitted from distant objects or materials, by which they may be identified and categorized.

Through various remote sensing platforms such as satellites and aircraft, supplemented by surface and subsurface measurements as well as modeling and mapping, practical information about Earth’s physical, chemical, and biological systems can be obtained. We seek to help urban stakeholders, agricultural leaders, and conservationists respond to the challenges presented by a changing climate by transforming a wealth of NASA Earth observation data (e.g. Landsat, MODIS) into actionable information.

Applied Math, Computer Science, Data Science, Environmental Sciences, Climate Science, Earth Science and Engineering are encouraged to apply.

Mentor: Dr. Allegra LeGrande

Duty Location: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies