Friday, November 20, 2020
12 PM (Noon) US Pacific Time
8 PM UTC
3 PM US Eastern Time
Speaker: Dr. David Thompson, NASA JPL and CalTech, USA
Sponsored by GRSS
GRSS Webinar: NASA’s EMIT Imaging Spectroscopy Mission
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, EMIT, is a Visible-Shortwave Infrared imaging spectrometer that will launch to the International Space Station in 2022. EMIT aims to map the surface composition of Earth’s mineral dust forming regions, improving our knowledge of mineral dust composition and its effects on global radiative forcing. EMIT incorporates unique innovations including: a Dyson optical design with only five components between the aperture and detector, high photon throughput and spectral uniformity; automatic onboard cloud recognition providing a 50% increase in mission data yield; and an open source science data system with quantified uncertainties delivered at every product level. This talk will describe the mission objectives, measurement method, data analysis, and anticipated products.
SPEAKER’S BIO:
Dr. David Thompson is a principal research technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, He is a Technical Group Lead of the JPL Imaging Spectroscopy Group, Instrument Scientist for NASA’s EMIT Mission, and Investigation Scientist for NASA’s Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) project. His research uses spectroscopic data to characterize Earth and other planetary bodies, with additional emphasis on real-time applications. His algorithms have guided autonomous robots and sensors fielded in North America, South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Airborne campaigns, Low Earth Orbit, and the surface of Mars. He is recipient of the NASA Early Career Achievement Medal, the Lew Allen Award for Excellence, and the NASA Software of the Year Award.