Senate passes bipartisan ocean monitoring and research act

On January 8, the Senate unanimously passed Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) Coordinated Ocean Monitoring and Research Act (S.1425). The bipartisan bill revises and reauthorizes the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System (ICOOS) Act of 2009, which established the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) to consolidate and coordinate the efforts of hundreds of federal, state, and local observing programs through fiscal year (FY) 2021. In addition to reauthorizing the ICOOS Act, S.1425 promotes best practices regarding data sharing for public use, investment in autonomous unmanned underwater and surface ocean research vehicles, closing gaps in high frequency radar, and assisting Coast Guard search and rescue operations.

House Subcommittee on Space holds hearing on commercial remote sensing

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Space held a hearing on September 7, which assessed how previous legislation has impacted the private sector’s ability to obtain licenses and data for commercial remote sensing purposes.

AAPG: Getting Results with Drones

American Association of Petroleum Geologists

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists published an article in their LEARN! Blog with Jason Pederson of Space City Drones.

EARTH: Observers at the Edge of the Ice - Smaller, Cheaper Machines Can Safely Go Where Humans Can't

The September issue of EARTH Magazine introduces readers to the newest technologies on the front lines of glacial research.

NSF, NGA Release First Unclassified Digital Elevation Models of Alaska

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) announced that they have publicly released new, unclassified, three-dimensional topographic maps of Alaska as part of the White House initiative to inform better decision-making in the Arctic.

EARTH: Seeing the Seafloor in High Definition

As the U.S. celebrates National Oceans Month in June, scientists who study the seafloor are excited because they believe that humans will end this century with a far better view of our seafloor than at any other time in human history. Geoscientists have been mapping land on Earth, and even other planets in our solar system, in high definition for years, but the picture of the ocean floor has remained blurry for the most part. But with advances in engineering, what lies beneath is starting to come into much better focus.

EARTH: How to Feed 11 Billion People

The challenge of feeding our planet's growing population is one of critical importance - it will perhaps be the most important challenge of the 21st century. As the human population continues to rise, geoscience is informimg experts, suggesting major shifts in agriculture must be taken to prevent rampant food insecurity by the year 2050.

Drones and Geoscience - The Challenges of Regulation

Geoscience drones and navigating FAA regulations

EARTH Magazine: Are slow-slip earthquakes under Tokyo stressing faults?

New research examining plate movements under Tokyo has found that since the massive magnitude-9 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, recurrence intervals for nondamaging slow-slip quakes beneath Japan’s capital have shortened. That has left seismologists wondering if this aseismic creep could be signaling a countdown to Tokyo’s next “big one.” Read more about scientists’ estimations of Tokyo’s seismic risk in the August issue of EARTH Magazine.

EARTH Magazine: Precise to a fault: How GPS revolutionized seismic research

Prior to the quake, geoscientists had placed GPS markers in and around the San Francisco area. Immediately after the quake, researchers converged on the area to collect and compare the pre- and post-quake GPS data, which revealed the direction and speed of surface movements, allowing scientists to infer the pattern of slip on the fault plane that had ruptured far underground.

American Geosciences Institute

remote sensing