PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contacts: Stephanie R. Zeluck, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(818) 354-5011
Amy Seifers, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
(402) 472-0095
Greg Weiner, Office of U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey
(202) 224-6551
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 1997
POWERFUL NEW TOOL BRINGS NASA TECHNOLOGY, SPACE DATA TO CLASSROOMS
A new CD-ROM that combines technology, data, and resources
from JPL, the University of Nebraska, and several Earth-observing
spacecraft will help educators, students, and environmental
resource managers learn more about how to apply remotely-sensed
data in a variety of disciplines, including physics, geography,
and environmental monitoring.
Released by the Consortium for the Application of Space
Data to Education (CASDE), the CD-ROM contains images taken from
the Space Shuttle, aerial and satellite photography of Nebraska
and California, tools for analyzing and viewing, prototype
lessons and educational "Building Blocks." CASDE is a
partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the
University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and the Johns Hopkins
University.
Included on the CD-ROM is a prototype of state-wide
electronic snapshots called "Virtual Nebraska." Various types of
multispectral images can be accessed as a tool to help provide
comprehensive information about selected cities, including
vegetation indexes, census data, water boundary information, land
use, and other types of agricultural information. Virtual
Nebraska will serve as an example of how other states can
participate and develop their own virtual states, eventually
culminating in "Virtual America," which will include all 50
states.
Targeted to include all Nebraska cities with a population of
5,000 or more, the first CASDE CD-ROM includes data and images
from 12 cities of nearly 70 available at the CASDE World Wide Web
site. The disc will be sent to approximately 5,000 educators
nationwide.
Image processing technology created by researchers at JPL is
being used to help make image data easily accessible and
comprehensible. An innovative tool called a "DataSlate" allows
users to examine a geographic area by overlaying a window
displaying one image type, such as infrared, over a background
image of a different type, such as visible. The effect is that of
seeing through a window, allowing users to quickly compare and
interpret how optical imagery differs from imagery at other
wavelengths such as radar or infrared. DataSlate also can overlay
moveable maps, allowing users to easily navigate to areas of
interest.
The CD-ROM contains World-Wide-Web links to the CASDE home
page, which links to real-time weather-related images and data
from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-8
and -9). These images are updated nearly hourly. GOES-8 and -9
are the primary U.S. weather-forecasting satellites that provide
atmospheric images and temperature, humidity, wind velocity data
and severe storm coverage of Earth's western hemisphere. Those
images, combined with space shuttle, radar, aerial and Landsat
satellite images of Pasadena, California, and several cities in
Nebraska are used to help give users a current view of the
weather conditions affecting those cities.
Explanations of image processing, remote sensing, color
interpretation, and applications of aerial photography in
agriculture also are included. This will allow users to not only
reap the benefits of several kinds of data, but also learn the
science behind how the images were obtained and processed.
CASDE was formed two years ago in response to a challenge
made by Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska to find better, more
effective ways of disseminating and utilizing space data in
education. The Consortium is dedicated to integrating space data
into education, and includes scientists, researchers,
technologists, and educators from the partnering organizations,
in addition to high school teachers from Pasadena, CA, and Omaha,
NE.
"I am proud that the University of Nebraska at Lincoln is
pioneering the effort to use advanced technology as a stimulating
and challenging educational tool," said Senator Bob Kerrey of
Nebraska. "The CASDE CD-ROM which features 'Virtual Nebraska'
will be a national model that demonstrates how easy access to
technology can enhance the learning experience by providing new
ways for students to explore their environment."
"The CASDE CD-ROM will make things a lot more real to
educators and students," said Art Zygielbaum, Co-Investigator of
the CASDE project at JPL. "We're taking actual NASA products and
integrating them into student's lessons. These products are
enhancing the ability for students to learn and the excitement
they get out of learning."
Emergency resource managers also should benefit by using the
contents of the disc. "An amazingly small percentage of these
managers now use remotely sensed data," Zygielbaum added. "We're
going to show them how they can apply it, and we expect that they
will be able to do damage assessments much more quickly, and will
do a better job of predicting where they need to move their
resources to prepare themselves for emergencies."
Future plans for the CASDE team include expanding the base
of educators, students, and environmental resource managers
involved in the project. Virtual America will be expanded to
include Virtual California later this year and selected other
states in 1998.
CASDE is funded by NASA'S Mission to Planet Earth
enterprise, designed to study the Earth as a total environmental
system. Additional information is available on the CASDE World
Wide Web site:
http://www.casde.unl.edu/casde.html
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