Spring Creek Ecosystem Restoration
MATRIX Awarded Major Federal Contracts
FDR Presidential Library
Technical Update:
MATRIX develops Innovative Technology
Matrix Scientist Participates in NASA Sponsored Program
Recently, one of our ecologists, Rejina Sharma, [also a current graduate student of Montclair State University (MSU)] participated on a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sponsored program. The 2008 Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) Campaign was organized by a Professor and his students at MSU's Earth and Environmental Studies at the Jornada Experimental Range and Gila National Forest in New Mexico. The investigation involved MSU EAES faculty and students, and a number of scientists from NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) LVIS, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Forest Service, USDA-Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and University of Maryland. The fieldwork involved two main tasks -- measurements and geo-referencing of the woody shrub heights and geo-located photography of dunes vegetated with invasive shrub (honey mesquite) in the desert grassland, and field estimate of trees heights using geo-located photographic survey in the mountain range. The study also included the completion of a flight that acquired geospatial data over the entire study area.
The LVIS Campaign supported NASA's 2008 Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamic of Ice (DESDynI) mission over the southwestern desert grassland and forest. The Laser Imaging and field data acquired during the study will be used to quickly measure height and biomass of shrub and tree canopies, and refine the performance of NASA multi-angle remote sensing techniques that operate on larger regional scales. Future applications of this technology will be used in climate change evaluations on a regional scale.
