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NASA and CSIRO Australia: CORAL PROJECT
press release by Bryanna Reynolds
Interview with WILLIAM H MATEER from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory [ WEBSITE / WEBSITE ]
and ASAESJA.YOUNG, a Communication Advisor at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Queensland
As many of you already know NASA began to study Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef eco system in September 2016. NASA's COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) mission is designed to analyse and collect the data to further study this bio-giant.
We had a rare chance to speak with always on the go and very hard to catch, William Mateer from Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA who flew to Cairns to conduct the science flights for a NASA mission. The main purpose was: data collection in different forms including images. The work is planned with the high intention: to change our understanding of the planet's vital and ecologically delicate coral reefs. We managed to catch up with William (Bill) right after he completed this importnat two months project in Australia and was ready to head off back to the USA.
In a couple of weeks after our conversation with Bill, Bryanna has connected with CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Australia based team and spoke with Asaesja Young who answered our questions on the Australian scientists collaboration with NASA. Asaesja works in Brisbane and she shined some light on the coral conditions and the work the scientists are involved in studing NASA collected data from space, air, land and sea. The research is done with the purpose of understanding of our complex planet, improving the lives of humans and drafting the plans for our long-term future in order to save the environment (flora and fauna) of the reef for the generations to come.
Interview with WILLIAM H MATEER from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory [ WEBSITE / WEBSITE ]
and ASAESJA.YOUNG, a Communication Advisor at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Queensland
As many of you already know NASA began to study Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef eco system in September 2016. NASA's COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) mission is designed to analyse and collect the data to further study this bio-giant.
We had a rare chance to speak with always on the go and very hard to catch, William Mateer from Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA who flew to Cairns to conduct the science flights for a NASA mission. The main purpose was: data collection in different forms including images. The work is planned with the high intention: to change our understanding of the planet's vital and ecologically delicate coral reefs. We managed to catch up with William (Bill) right after he completed this importnat two months project in Australia and was ready to head off back to the USA.
In a couple of weeks after our conversation with Bill, Bryanna has connected with CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Australia based team and spoke with Asaesja Young who answered our questions on the Australian scientists collaboration with NASA. Asaesja works in Brisbane and she shined some light on the coral conditions and the work the scientists are involved in studing NASA collected data from space, air, land and sea. The research is done with the purpose of understanding of our complex planet, improving the lives of humans and drafting the plans for our long-term future in order to save the environment (flora and fauna) of the reef for the generations to come.
interviews by Bryanna Reynolds at Reynolds Sister Productions
Images crerdit: NASA, JPL
BR: How did you first start your career, was it something you always wanted to be a part of?
WM: The first indication that I might be an engineer came when I was still in college and I asked a friend about a certain major program that I was thinking of pursuing. It was called Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences (AMES); he described it as a physicist with a job. As it turns out, I had always tinkered (bikes, motorcycles, and cars) when I was growing up so, coupled with a desire to learn something new each day, engineering was a natural fit.
During college, I worked in a chemistry laboratory by performing low-level tasks that measured tritium migration, generated by atomic explosions and then abruptly terminated in 1963 per the Partial Test Ban Treaty. The concentrations were used as a trace marker for determining large scale currents in the Pacific Ocean. This was my first practical exposure to Earth science.
After college, I spent a dozen years designing and testing state-of-the-art aircraft. Later I went on to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, designing and testing spacecraft and space-flight instruments. I found that I enjoyed managing as well as engineering, that is leading teams of people, developing contracts, and being more involved in the programmatic (financial and schedule) side of things.
Ultimately I became the manager of the COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) project. It is a job that combines much of my past activities – earth science, aircraft, science quality instruments, engineering, and management.
BR: What does your job entail?
WM: As the CORAL Project Manager, I plan and report on all of the programmatic aspects (e.g., activity plans, accomplishments, spending, schedule, risks) to NASA program management. I write the contracts with Tempus Applied Solutions to modify and fly the plane which carries the Portable Remote Imaging SpectroMeter (PRISM) instrument. I negotiate with other engineering managers for the workforce necessary to support the field operations.
As the CORAL project executed with a small team, I need to be flexible enough to pitch in for every activity. Of course, we do have specially trained scientists, engineers, pilots, and technicians to call upon, but I am responsible for getting everyone working together. While on deployment I can be called upon to manage the day-to-day activities of the mission itself, i.e., make the weather calls, prepare and operate the instrument, and download and distribute the data after each science flight. I also act as the principle interface with all parties interested in the daily progress by providing written activity reports.
BR: Could you give me a day in the life?
WM: Every day is different. Between deployments, I am involved in typical project planning and reporting activities. I often have to balance competing priorities between technical activities, available personnel, and budgetary constraints.
However, once deployed into the field, e.g., Cairns, Queensland, the activities become much more focused. As the PRISM instrument requires sunlight to illuminate the coral reef, weather and time-of-day factor into our daily decision making.
We start the morning at around 6:00 am and conduct a weather call, with participation by local Australian reef and weather experts, to assess the conditions at our ten different, pre-planned areas of interest. If a particular area looks promising, we notify the pilots and prepare the instrument. Operating health checkout and thermal stabilization can take up to an hour. We generally take off at 7:30 – 8:30 am and arrive at our survey location an hour later. We spend another hour or two “mowing the lawn” by flying pre-planned lines over the coral reefs. At 8,500 meters (28,000 feet) altitude, our swath width is ~4.8 km. We collect data along that line for 20-80 km, then turn around and fly an adjacent path.
Once we have completed flying all of the lines, or the cloud or solar conditions are no longer suitable for data collection, we return to the Cairns airport, perform a quick post-flight instrument calibration, and download the data to our portable computer server; this is accessible by our main computer cluster in Pasadena. We process the data to ensure that it was properly collected and then head back to our respective hotels.
Later in the afternoon, we hold an afternoon weather briefing, describe the results of the day’s activities, and evaluate the weather conditions for the following day(s). Depending on the outcome, we either report to the airport in the morning to prepare for flight, maintain the instrument, or declare a pilot rest day.
BR: Can you tell us about your involvement with the CORAL mission in Australia?
WM: In a nutshell, it is to implement the Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) vision, given the temporal and fiscal (time and money) constraints. Eric Hochberg, the PI is the leader; I am the manager. As with any successful team, we need to make sure that our individual strengths are highlighted and our individual weaknesses are supported by other team members.
BR: Where does your job take you across the world, it seems you get to do a lot of travel?
WM: It all depends on the project. I was once involved with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), developing a shallow, subsurface sounding radar (SHARAD) for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO); this took me to Rome and Florence, Italy. The CORAL field campaign allowed me to work in Australia – the other side of the world. On the flip side, I have had the opportunity to work in the Mojave Desert on some very high tech aircraft projects. Sometimes I will stay within California for a year or more. Personally, I enjoy not only the travel, but also the opportunity to work with different groups of people and to see things from a different perspective.
BR: Where has been your most memorable place to work? Was this defined by a mission or goal that was achieved?
WM: I have been fortunate to have worked with very diverse groups of people. I would not want to single out any particular project or country as being the best, although Australia would definitely be near the top. I find that achieving the project goal, whether it is completing a field campaign or developing an interplanetary instrument, is the key to a feeling of accomplishment. I have found that engineers and scientists around the world are fundamentally the same, all with similar objectives, but sometimes approach the problem at hand in a different manner.
BR: What are your goals for the future in terms of awareness and how people can help and get involved?
WM: The CORAL project is designed to answer, at an unprecedented scale, the question:
What is the relationship between coral reef condition and biogeophysical forcing parameters?
Therefore, the CORAL project has very specific objectives and approach. Specifically:
Objective 1. Measure the condition of representative coral reefs across the global range of reef biogeophysical values. The primary indicators for coral reef condition are benthic cover (BC), productivity (P), and calcification (G).
Objective 2. Establish empirical models that relate reef condition to biogeophysical forcing parameters. Ten primary biogeophysical parameters are selected for their recognized influence on components of the reef system, including:
1. Coral species richness (biodiversity)
2. Sea surface temperature regime
3. Photosynthetically available radiation regime
4. Aragonite saturation state
5. Significant wave height
6. Coastal development threat level
7. Marine pollution threat level
8. Overfishing threat level
9. Watershed pollution threat level
10. Integrated local threat level
While our data is collected, and analyzed, but before our peer-reviewed journal papers are written, I would encourage your readers to visit the following websites, which are updated periodically.
https://coral.jpl.nasa.gov
http://prism.jpl.nasa.gov
http://coral.bios.edu
In terms of getting involved in global coral reef research, pursuing advanced education in the biological sciences is a good long term strategy. Actively engaging one of the many of the local Great Barrier Reef preservation organizations is a good approach for the near term.
BR: What piece of advice do you have for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?
WM: Always remain curious and continue to learn throughout your professional and personal life. Work hard and don’t give up at the first hint of difficulty.
BR: Thank you Bill for your time
WM: The first indication that I might be an engineer came when I was still in college and I asked a friend about a certain major program that I was thinking of pursuing. It was called Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences (AMES); he described it as a physicist with a job. As it turns out, I had always tinkered (bikes, motorcycles, and cars) when I was growing up so, coupled with a desire to learn something new each day, engineering was a natural fit.
During college, I worked in a chemistry laboratory by performing low-level tasks that measured tritium migration, generated by atomic explosions and then abruptly terminated in 1963 per the Partial Test Ban Treaty. The concentrations were used as a trace marker for determining large scale currents in the Pacific Ocean. This was my first practical exposure to Earth science.
After college, I spent a dozen years designing and testing state-of-the-art aircraft. Later I went on to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, designing and testing spacecraft and space-flight instruments. I found that I enjoyed managing as well as engineering, that is leading teams of people, developing contracts, and being more involved in the programmatic (financial and schedule) side of things.
Ultimately I became the manager of the COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) project. It is a job that combines much of my past activities – earth science, aircraft, science quality instruments, engineering, and management.
BR: What does your job entail?
WM: As the CORAL Project Manager, I plan and report on all of the programmatic aspects (e.g., activity plans, accomplishments, spending, schedule, risks) to NASA program management. I write the contracts with Tempus Applied Solutions to modify and fly the plane which carries the Portable Remote Imaging SpectroMeter (PRISM) instrument. I negotiate with other engineering managers for the workforce necessary to support the field operations.
As the CORAL project executed with a small team, I need to be flexible enough to pitch in for every activity. Of course, we do have specially trained scientists, engineers, pilots, and technicians to call upon, but I am responsible for getting everyone working together. While on deployment I can be called upon to manage the day-to-day activities of the mission itself, i.e., make the weather calls, prepare and operate the instrument, and download and distribute the data after each science flight. I also act as the principle interface with all parties interested in the daily progress by providing written activity reports.
BR: Could you give me a day in the life?
WM: Every day is different. Between deployments, I am involved in typical project planning and reporting activities. I often have to balance competing priorities between technical activities, available personnel, and budgetary constraints.
However, once deployed into the field, e.g., Cairns, Queensland, the activities become much more focused. As the PRISM instrument requires sunlight to illuminate the coral reef, weather and time-of-day factor into our daily decision making.
We start the morning at around 6:00 am and conduct a weather call, with participation by local Australian reef and weather experts, to assess the conditions at our ten different, pre-planned areas of interest. If a particular area looks promising, we notify the pilots and prepare the instrument. Operating health checkout and thermal stabilization can take up to an hour. We generally take off at 7:30 – 8:30 am and arrive at our survey location an hour later. We spend another hour or two “mowing the lawn” by flying pre-planned lines over the coral reefs. At 8,500 meters (28,000 feet) altitude, our swath width is ~4.8 km. We collect data along that line for 20-80 km, then turn around and fly an adjacent path.
Once we have completed flying all of the lines, or the cloud or solar conditions are no longer suitable for data collection, we return to the Cairns airport, perform a quick post-flight instrument calibration, and download the data to our portable computer server; this is accessible by our main computer cluster in Pasadena. We process the data to ensure that it was properly collected and then head back to our respective hotels.
Later in the afternoon, we hold an afternoon weather briefing, describe the results of the day’s activities, and evaluate the weather conditions for the following day(s). Depending on the outcome, we either report to the airport in the morning to prepare for flight, maintain the instrument, or declare a pilot rest day.
BR: Can you tell us about your involvement with the CORAL mission in Australia?
WM: In a nutshell, it is to implement the Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) vision, given the temporal and fiscal (time and money) constraints. Eric Hochberg, the PI is the leader; I am the manager. As with any successful team, we need to make sure that our individual strengths are highlighted and our individual weaknesses are supported by other team members.
BR: Where does your job take you across the world, it seems you get to do a lot of travel?
WM: It all depends on the project. I was once involved with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), developing a shallow, subsurface sounding radar (SHARAD) for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO); this took me to Rome and Florence, Italy. The CORAL field campaign allowed me to work in Australia – the other side of the world. On the flip side, I have had the opportunity to work in the Mojave Desert on some very high tech aircraft projects. Sometimes I will stay within California for a year or more. Personally, I enjoy not only the travel, but also the opportunity to work with different groups of people and to see things from a different perspective.
BR: Where has been your most memorable place to work? Was this defined by a mission or goal that was achieved?
WM: I have been fortunate to have worked with very diverse groups of people. I would not want to single out any particular project or country as being the best, although Australia would definitely be near the top. I find that achieving the project goal, whether it is completing a field campaign or developing an interplanetary instrument, is the key to a feeling of accomplishment. I have found that engineers and scientists around the world are fundamentally the same, all with similar objectives, but sometimes approach the problem at hand in a different manner.
BR: What are your goals for the future in terms of awareness and how people can help and get involved?
WM: The CORAL project is designed to answer, at an unprecedented scale, the question:
What is the relationship between coral reef condition and biogeophysical forcing parameters?
Therefore, the CORAL project has very specific objectives and approach. Specifically:
Objective 1. Measure the condition of representative coral reefs across the global range of reef biogeophysical values. The primary indicators for coral reef condition are benthic cover (BC), productivity (P), and calcification (G).
Objective 2. Establish empirical models that relate reef condition to biogeophysical forcing parameters. Ten primary biogeophysical parameters are selected for their recognized influence on components of the reef system, including:
1. Coral species richness (biodiversity)
2. Sea surface temperature regime
3. Photosynthetically available radiation regime
4. Aragonite saturation state
5. Significant wave height
6. Coastal development threat level
7. Marine pollution threat level
8. Overfishing threat level
9. Watershed pollution threat level
10. Integrated local threat level
While our data is collected, and analyzed, but before our peer-reviewed journal papers are written, I would encourage your readers to visit the following websites, which are updated periodically.
https://coral.jpl.nasa.gov
http://prism.jpl.nasa.gov
http://coral.bios.edu
In terms of getting involved in global coral reef research, pursuing advanced education in the biological sciences is a good long term strategy. Actively engaging one of the many of the local Great Barrier Reef preservation organizations is a good approach for the near term.
BR: What piece of advice do you have for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?
WM: Always remain curious and continue to learn throughout your professional and personal life. Work hard and don’t give up at the first hint of difficulty.
BR: Thank you Bill for your time
I read: "Thursday, October 27, 2016. The CORAL Australian Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Portable Remote Imaging SpectroMeter (PRISM) flight data collection campaign is now complete. All areas were covered, albeit some with weather conditions better than others. The Tempus Gulfstream-IV/PRISM team flew ~56 science hours, imaged over 100 flight lines, and performed a dozen ground health checks during the past six weeks in Australia. By rough calculations, we imaged over 30,000 square kilometers of reefs, and open ocean, at ~8 meter/pixel resolution. This results in over 500,000,000 oversampled pixels, each of which has 240 spectral bands to evaluate..."
Images crerdit: NASA, JPL
part of Asaesja Young's scientific team, CSIRO senior experimental scientist Janet Anstee, who was involved in the CORAL Mission is answering Bryanna's questions.
BR: Can you tell me a little bit about your job title?
JA: I am a senior experimental scientist and team leader of the Aquatic Remote Sensing team which is in CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere business unit.
BR: What would a typical day in the life be like for you?
JA: 25-30% administration and 70-75% science-related work. The science related work would include: processing and quality assessing field data and image data acquired from aircraft or satellites; analysis and interpretation of data; writing reports and publications; producing graphics of results for presentations and publications, and discussion of results with project team.
BR: How can someone start working in the field you specialise in?
JA: A good basis in oceanography, physics (especially optics) and remote sensing would be a great start. The Aquatic Remote Sensing team members are multidisciplinary with diverse skills sets, but using remote sensing data is something we all have in common.
BR: Do you have any advice for the younger generation in regards to chasing a dream career?
JA: Try to get some experience by writing to people publishing in the area of research you are interested in. Apply for one of the CSIRO summer programs for students to get 10 weeks experience. Alternatively, CSIRO may be interested in a student undertaking an industrial traineeship, if the work can be directly related back to their coursework. Postgraduate opportunities in overseas institutions can be extremely beneficial and there are several scholarship opportunities worth exploring (eg studyoverseas).
BR: How can people help/get involved and make a difference?
JA: Citizen-scientists are becoming increasing important in the assessment and early identification of processing that may be occurring. Through mobile phone applications such as HydroColor or Citclops – citizens can add to the knowledge of water quality in their region.
BR: What has been one of the biggest changes you have noticed throughout your career so far?
JA: Technological improvements! We can now process enormous datasets through the use of parallel processing and supercomputers like at the National Computing Infrastruture (NCI). This has enabled us to be able to use time-series of remote sensing data to see trends and processes previously unidentified.
BR: Thank you Janet and Asaesja
BR: Can you tell me a little bit about your job title?
JA: I am a senior experimental scientist and team leader of the Aquatic Remote Sensing team which is in CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere business unit.
BR: What would a typical day in the life be like for you?
JA: 25-30% administration and 70-75% science-related work. The science related work would include: processing and quality assessing field data and image data acquired from aircraft or satellites; analysis and interpretation of data; writing reports and publications; producing graphics of results for presentations and publications, and discussion of results with project team.
BR: How can someone start working in the field you specialise in?
JA: A good basis in oceanography, physics (especially optics) and remote sensing would be a great start. The Aquatic Remote Sensing team members are multidisciplinary with diverse skills sets, but using remote sensing data is something we all have in common.
BR: Do you have any advice for the younger generation in regards to chasing a dream career?
JA: Try to get some experience by writing to people publishing in the area of research you are interested in. Apply for one of the CSIRO summer programs for students to get 10 weeks experience. Alternatively, CSIRO may be interested in a student undertaking an industrial traineeship, if the work can be directly related back to their coursework. Postgraduate opportunities in overseas institutions can be extremely beneficial and there are several scholarship opportunities worth exploring (eg studyoverseas).
BR: How can people help/get involved and make a difference?
JA: Citizen-scientists are becoming increasing important in the assessment and early identification of processing that may be occurring. Through mobile phone applications such as HydroColor or Citclops – citizens can add to the knowledge of water quality in their region.
BR: What has been one of the biggest changes you have noticed throughout your career so far?
JA: Technological improvements! We can now process enormous datasets through the use of parallel processing and supercomputers like at the National Computing Infrastruture (NCI). This has enabled us to be able to use time-series of remote sensing data to see trends and processes previously unidentified.
BR: Thank you Janet and Asaesja
LINKS and CREDITS
Bohemian Rhapsody Club and Online Magazine is expressing its special thanks to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and personally to William Mateer , Asaesja Young at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Janet Anstee, the team leader of Aquatic Remote Sensing team, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Unit, Alan Buis at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Media Relations [and also Ali Hochberg at Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences , Chris Gerbing, Communication Manager at CSIRO and many others] for the opportunity to run this project and to Bryanna for this sensational press release.
Video and Interview by Bryanna Reynolds.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryannareynolds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReynoldsBri
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/breynolds91
Video and Interview by Bryanna Reynolds.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryannareynolds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReynoldsBri
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/breynolds91
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