NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Using Giovanni in Investigating the Links between Environmental Processes and Drought in Northern sub-Saharan AfricaThe northern sub-Saharan African (NSSA) region, bounded on the north and south by the Sahara 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.
Document ID
20180002444
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
Ichoku, Charles
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Gatebe, Charles
(Universities Space Research Association Boulder, CO, United States)
Lee, Jejung
(Missouri Univ. Kansas City, MO, United States)
Wang, Jun
(Nebraska Univ. Lincoln, NE, United States)
Bolten, John
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Policelli, Fritz
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Wilcox, Eric
(Desert Research Inst. Reno, NV, United States)
Adegoke, Jimmy
(Missouri Univ. Kansas City, MO, United States)
Habib, Shahid
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Babamaaji, Rakiya
(Missouri Univ. Kansas City, MO, United States)
Okonkwo, Churchill
(National Scientific Programmes Unit of the CSIR Pretoria, South Africa)
Ellison, Luke
(Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
April 17, 2018
Publication Date
February 22, 2013
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Geosciences (General)
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN7049
Meeting Information
Meeting: Online Giovanni Workshop
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Country: United States
Start Date: September 25, 2012
End Date: September 27, 2012
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
water resources
arid regions
remote sensing
No Preview Available