Message from our Program Manager - January 2025

 

Dear LCLUCers, friends of LCLUC, and international colleagues and friends,

This past year has not brought more peace or normality to the world. The continuing war situation in Ukraine and in the Middle East keeps the Earth’s inhabitants under more tension than before, with a potential nuclear threat more serious than ever since the Caribbean crisis 62 years ago. In addition, this was our election year, and the United States are going through a change in the federal government, with many repercussions affecting all aspects of our life both in the USA and internationally.

In keeping with the LCLUC tradition, herein I will summarize Program’s achievements in the past year with some personal remarks and convey my best wishes to the LCLUC family and our friends around the world.

Solicitations: Past, Present and Future. 

LCLUC-24 selections brought in many new investigators to the program, especially researchers working with weather forecast and climate models, as a response to the call to enhance current models by incorporating land-use datasets in efforts towards developing Earth System Digital Twins. The LCLUC-2024 solicitation was prepared jointly with the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), particularly its Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program, who was led by Jacqueline Lemoigne-Stewart, Program Manager at ESTO. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Jacqueline on this solicitation. We converged very quickly on important points for advancing the development of Land-Digital Twins by incorporating LCLUC datasets in weather forecast and climate models. The 13 selected projects, including three projects picked up by ESTO for funding support, encompass diverse subjects on urban environment and agriculture, all aimed at better understanding the Earth system processes with remote sensing-derived land-use data products as non-stationary and spatially varying boundary conditions in model simulations.  At the first stage, we limited consideration of the LCLUC data use to physical variables only, leaving the incorporation of socio-economic aspects in models for the next solicitation. Most of the selected projects are led by researchers new to the LCLUC program, so I extend my warm welcome to them on behalf of the LCLUC family.

 

ROSES-2025 will be announced as usual around Valentine’s Day (mid-Feb). This call will continue our efforts to contribute to the NASA’s undertaking in the development of Earth System Digital Twins. This time it is directed at the assessment of the impacts of seasonal to interannual climate oscillations and extreme weather events on land use, and their accompanied socioeconomic effects, which implies that the current call will require a socio-economic component. There will be two steps – please watch the website and the announcement of ROSES-2025 for the due dates, which will be around the same time as in ROSES-2024 (step1 end of March and step 2 end of May). The European project DestinE is an advanced multi-institutional initiative on developing Earth System Digital Twins, from which we can learn a lot for our own projects. To those interested in the development of Digital Twins I recommend checking out the presentations at the 3rd DestinE User Exchange conference, which was held last October in Germany: https://destination-earth.eu/event/3rd-destination-earth-user-exchange/. There you can find plenty of material relevant to the topic in the LCLUC solicitation.

 A new challenge for proposers will be preparing step-2 proposals for Dual-Anonymous Peer Review (DAPR) (the first step will not be anonymized). A summary of the key requirements for anonymized proposals is listed on the following website (in the text of the call): https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/dual-anonymous-peer-review/

Here's my traditional reminder to all LCLUCers to pay attention to non-LCLUC ROSES elements, such as the Carbon Cycle program, Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) Program, the Terrestrial Ecology, Terrestrial Hydrology, Climate variability and Atmospheric composition programs, as well as those for students (FINESST) and Early Career Investigator Program in Earth Science (ECIP; formerly NIP - New Investigator Program). Recall that the LCLUC Science Team includes not only projects that are funded through the LCLUC solicitations but also those LCLUC-related projects that are funded through some of the above-mentioned Earth Science programs. Some selections from those programs are sometimes supported by the LCLUC program base funds when very good proposals are picked up from those other programs, depending on flexibility. All PIs from LCLUC-related projects mentioned above are invited to our annual Science Team meetings.

 Science Team Meetings. The recent ST meeting, held last April in Gaithersburg, MD proved once again, that compared to virtual meetings in-person meetings provide better opportunities for fruitful interactions between participants during breaks and after the sessions. This is especially important for younger researchers who have a chance to meet veteran LCLUCers, have informal conversations, as well as form new teams and develop new ideas for future projects. Moreover, having our meetings in DC area allows NASA managers attending the meeting and learning about the program. In fact, I heard nice compliments made by Tom Wagner, the Director of the Earth Action Division, at the HQ staff meeting about his impressions of our meeting last April. It’s always pleasant to know that the Program achievements are appreciated. Jack Kaye, the Director of the Research and Analysis Division (my boss), tries to attend each ST meeting to provide his views on the role of LCLUC in Earth Sciences and plans for the near future. His efforts to find time in his busy schedule to meet LCLUCers are indeed appreciated.

 The next LCLUC Science Team meeting is scheduled for March 24-26 in North Bethesda, MD (detailed information is available on the website). The venue is walking distance from the North Bethesda metro station, which may be important for local participants. Hopefully the spring blossoms will be blooming by then. The last year meeting was right amid the blossoms:

Publications. I am always grateful to PIs for consistently keeping us posted on their achievements regarding published results in books, special issues, peer-reviewed journals, and press releases. Please submit these updates to our website curator Meghavi (with cc to me and Krishna). Your updates on achievements provide the LCLUC leadership with material to showcase your projects on our website and in our quarterly e-newsletter. Furthermore, they facilitate promoting your projects to NASA upper management, particularly when I am called upon to highlight the scientific achievements of the year. Also, your submissions make your achievements visible to other discipline program managers in both R&A and Earth Action Divisions, as well as the upper management.

 I’d like to draw your attention again to a new remote sensing journal "Recent Advances in Remote Sensing" (RARS), where I have been invited to be an Associate Editor in the Editorial Board by my friend and colleague José Sobrino (U. Valencia, Spain). RARS has its origins in the Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing (RAQRS) Symposia, the first one held in 2002 in Valencia, Spain. I had the privilege of participating in both the first RAQRS symposium as well as the “20-Year After” symposium two years ago. I encourage LCLUCers, especially those in the MuSLI projects, to consider submitting future publications to RARS. The theme for the journal’s Special Issue is on the impacts of natural disasters on LCLUC, with the due date extended for submissions to December 2026, i.e. two years from now (https://www.recentadvancesin.com/remote-sensing/research-topics/advanced-remote-sensing-methods-for-monitoring-and-analyzing-impacts-of-natural-disasters-on-land-cover-and-land-use/. I foresee that the current solicitation may yield some projects that could publish their preliminary results in this issue as they will be in the middle of their project performance. PIs from the Earth Action Disasters program, managed by Shanna McClain will be invited to submit too.

International Programs and Activities. In October 2024, OIIR (our international relations office) signed a Letter of Intent with the Vietnamese Space Agency (VNSC) and the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) for cooperation on LCLUC theme. This collaboration came to fruition owing to the LCLUC-funded Synthesis study on Southeast Asia and strong interest from VNSC for working jointly with NASA scientists.
In May, a small delegation from NASA consisting of Sid Boukabara, Kayla Rillo, and myself from NASA HQ, and Krishna Vadrevu from NASA MSFC visited Algiers, Algeria. The goal of the visit was to build collaborations with Algerian institutions, including Algerian Space Agency (ASAL). The US Embassy in Algeria facilitated the visit in coordination with the Directorate-General for Scientific Research and Technological Development of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Algeria. The delegation visited three Algerian ministries, the University of Science and Technology, and the Space Agency of Algeria. U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Aubin invited us to the Embassy (left photo, center) and participated in NASA’s visit to the Algerian Space Agency.  

Algerian researchers expressed keen interest in collaborating with LCLUC program on studying North African land-cover and land-use change processes. The discussions covered topics, such as urbanization, forest fires, desertification, agriculture, air quality, and more. Algerian ministries also showed interest in joining GEOGLAM activities and collaborating with NASA HARVEST on agriculture. They also expressed interest in future collaboration on education through the GLOBE Program and capacity building through ARSET, SERVIR, and LCLUC. The US Embassy organized an event with a US NGO operating in Algiers, where the NASA delegation engaged with students working on environmental science and technology projects. We stayed in a historic hotel with beautifully ornamented lobby and dining room:

 

One of the rooms in this hotel was used for one year by General Dwight Eisenhower as military headquarters (Nov 1942-Dec 1943). We were allowed to see it:

 

Two of the GOFC-GOLD (Global Observations of Forest Cover and Land-use Dynamics, https://gofcgold.org) European networks - SCERIN (South-Central East European Network led by Petya Campbell, Jana Albrechtova, Lucie Kupkova and Olga Brovkina) and MedRIN (Mediterranean Network led by Florian Schwandner, Vince Ambrosia, Ioannis Gitas and Fantos Hadjimitsis) - organized a joint SCERIN-MedRIN workshop in July in Chania, Crete (Greece), hosted by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania. An annual NASA-ESA Trans-Atlantic Training (TAT) event was held at the same location in conjunction with the workshop, therefore TAT students could attend the workshop’s opening. I had the privilege of attending the workshop, which had the overarching theme “Land Cover Change and Extreme Events” and included talks on floods, heat waves, droughts, urban expansion and human health. You can tell what the weather was like there from the picture below:

At this meeting, the Caucasus network was dissolved and, as a result, Azerbaijan joined the Central Asia Regional Information Network (CARIN), and Georgia joined SCERIN. Giorgi Ghambashidze and Sofo Kenkebashvili from Georgia have been attending SCERIN workshops as observers rather regularly, so it was natural for them (and it seemed they were quite happy) joining SCERIN. The LCLUC Lead Geoff Henebry (Michigan State U.) welcomed Azerbaijan to the Central Asia Regional Information Network (CARIN) and already invited Elton Mammadov from Baku to give a talk at CARIN webinars. Incidentally, Baku was the location of the annual high-level climate change event COP-2024. Geoff’s partners in Central Asia are Dr.Zheenbek Kulenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) and Dr.Mirasil Mirzoev (Tajikistan).

In 2023, Chris J. and I attended Space Week in Fortaleza, Brazil, organized by Geraldo Ferreira, Professor at the University of Ceará, Brazil, with a little help from NASA LCLUC (see pic below from last year).

This year I was invited to the second Space Week Nordeste, held Sep 2024, but this time in another state of Northeast Brazil – Maranhão. However, my travel was not approved because of the lack of our travel budget in the end of the fiscal year. I agreed to give my talk virtually. My feeling is that a virtual presentation is kind of detached from the audience, I don’t see its reaction, head nodding or shaking, smiles to jokes or discontent with my statements. But according to Geraldo it was a successful presentation, except for the Q&A part with some technical glitches. I am invited again to Space Week Nordeste in early August 2025, planned to be held in Recife (the state of Pernambuco). Hopefully, I will be approved so I could represent NASA there, but this year, I’d say, our budget among other things is less predictable than weather .

Activities of the African networks (led by David Roy, Michigan State U., and his regional partners Natasha Ribeiro, Yudith Kamoto, Navashni Govender, Landing Mane, Cheikh Mbow and others) continue as planned. Yudith, Miombo Network Chairperson, reported that the Miombo network is thriving as a scientific platform for researchers in the region. She mentioned that there is a plan to host a science meeting soon, most likely this coming year.

I’d like to give a shout-out again to Krishna (NASA MSFC), who, in addition to diligently helping me in his role of LCLUC Deputy managing the Program, has been tremendously busy coordinating activities for GOFC-GOLD regional networks. This includes his leadership in two SARI networks: South Asia coordinated with Prof. Garg (TERI School of Advanced Studies) in India, and Southeast Asia coordinated with regional partners: Dr. Pariwate Vernakovida (King Mongkutís University of Technology) and Dr. Tanita Suepa (GISTDA), both in Thailand, and Dr. Israr Albar (Ministry of Environment & Forestry) in Indonesia. Coordinating ALL the networks is not a trivial task, and Krishna has been doing an excellent job in this role to be on top of the plans, coordinating various events. I’d also like to express my gratitude again to our Japanese partners and co-sponsors Tsuneo Matsunaga-san (National Institute for Environmental Studies) and Ohara-san (Asia Center for Air Pollution Research) for their continuous support of LCLUC workshops in Asia on the topic of biosphere-atmosphere interactions. Their co-sponsorship of the next SARI meeting (the Southeast Asia Synthesis workshop) in Iloilo, the Philippines, is greatly appreciated. We truly appreciate the hosting of this forthcoming meeting by our partners in the Philippines Space Agency Gay Jane Perez and Jennifer De Maligaya.

The second GOFC-GOLD Summit, to be kindly hosted by Levent Genc (U. Çanakkale, Turkey) is still in our plans for September 2025, at which representatives from ALL regional networks over the world could meet and exchange their experiences and ideas, like we did in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2017. In the meantime, I’d encourage wider distribution of the announcements of regional networks’ webinars, so that cross-fertilization between various networks could be pursued despite the delay in the follow-up second Summit.

I would like to commend the following people for their efforts in keeping GOFC-GOLD active: Jon Padgham (START Inc.),  David Skole, the Land Cover Implementation Team Co-Chair, and David Roy, the Fire Implementation Team Co-Chair, both at Michigan State U., for the outstanding leadership of their respective teams in collaboration with their European co-chairs: Martin Herold (GFSET, Potsdam, Germany) in Land Cover IT, and Martin Wooster (King’s College, UK) and Jesus Ayanz (JRC, Italy) in Fire IT.

I’d like to reemphasize our Program’s close collaboration with the Global Land Programme (GLP), the international sister-program of LCLUC. The Executive Officer Ariane De Bremond (UMD) has been working diligently on coordinating GLP with LCLUC activities. For valuable information on LCLUC-related events and jobs, I encourage you to subscribe to the GLP newsletter (https://glp.earth/) or follow their website for updates. Many of LCLUC alumni and current members have been GLP members; they can be found on https://glp.earth/find-scientist. The GLP 5th Open Science Meeting last November in Oaxaca, Mexico was a big success. Kudos to the organizers, especially Ariane who manages such a huge event every few years with hundreds of people attending and multiple sessions and side meetings held. Just think of the logistics one needs to manage this number of people to make the meeting go smoothly. LCLUC had its regional Science Team meeting the day before the GLP meeting opened.  The ST meeting focused on Latin America, with practically all ongoing LCLUC projects represented. There were also two sessions organized within the GLP meeting. See a nice compilation of that week’s events on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMpno_VbFA. Most of the meeting was recorded so you can listen to talks and panels, including participation by Chris J., using the links on the GLP website.

Oaxaca meeting was just after the famous Dia de Muertos, so those who came a couple of days before the meeting got to join some celebration activities.

As SARI reached its Synthesis stage, more focus will be put on two other regions of the world: Latin America and Africa. We will start with more focusing on Latin America, as the number of ongoing projects has now a critical mass. Therefore, the LCLUC leadership decided to make the LCLUC LatAm component better coordinated. I appreciate Gillian Galford’s, U. Vermont, kindly agreeing to lead the LatAm component. She will also help broadening the scope of the GOFC-GOLD network activities in the region, as now it has more emphasis on fires than land-use changes.

Capacity Building. The LCLUC program continues to focus on cultivating the next generation of LCLUCers. In addition to targeted solicitations directed at early career scientists, each international Science Team meeting includes a training session designed to enhance regional capacity aligned with SERVIR activities. Furthermore, we continue to actively support the NASA-ESA Trans-Atlantic Training (TAT) initiative, organized by Premek Stych (Charles U. in Prague), Francesco Sarti and Connor Heeney (ESA), myself (NASA), and Levente Ronczyk (Hungary). TAT aims to promote the use of remote sensing methods and data in Eastern Europe. The recent TAT was held in conjunction with the SCERIN-MedRIN joint workshop in July, bringing together students from central Eastern Europe, Balkans and the Mediterranean region. This initiative plays a crucial role in advancing skills in remote sensing methods among students in the region and within the community of early career scientists, building their professional capacity. We always try and will continue to coordinate the planned capacity building activities with those by SERVIR in the region the events take place.

Program Support. Dr. Krishna Vadrevu (NASA MSFC) has been managing his considerable responsibilities with enthusiasm and efficiency as he serves both as LCLUC Deputy Program Manager and the GOFC-GOLD coordinator. The continuous improvement of the program, College Park, with Meghavi Prashnani taking charge of developing newsletters and the website updates, assisted by Rohan Purekar. Melanie Reynolds and Meghavi have coordinated and led the LCLUC webinars, which are recorded and can be accessed on the LCLUC website. Mary Mitkish and Meghavi organize the in-person science team meetings, while Jack O’Bannon and Fernando Ramirez take care of IT issues. My personal appreciation goes out to the LCLUC support team and each of them individually for their dedicated efforts.

The LCLUC website was upgraded with a new Drupal version. For those who haven’t explored the LCLUC website, I strongly encourage you to do so at your leisure. There are many interesting features on the front page, including a map of project locations, linked to team membership and members’ pages, including international collaborators, a map of research polygons, and hotspots map, developed from LCLUC projects. It is critical for each PI to verify the content of all the above-mentioned maps for their respective projects; please check the locations, affiliations, the full list of collaborators and their affiliations/locations, etc. On the front page, you can also find the LCLUC and LCLUC-relevant calls and selections, the calendar of LCLUC and LCLUC-related meetings, and the list of past and planned LCLUC ST meetings as well as the link to LCLUC-related meetings. The project tab at the top allows you to explore a list of past and ongoing projects on a particular region (you’d need to click on the tab and scroll down to see the list). For specific project details, just click on the project of interest. Any glitches you find while exploring the website and particularly your page(s) should be reported to Meghavi. So far, I have been the main trouble shooter, so I appeal to you all – please help us in making our website error-free as much as possible. Your feedback is crucial, so please share any observations or concerns.

Please continue to help us with statistics on publications, the numbers of graduate student supported under the LCLUC projects, awards for papers, etc. I use these stats when promoting the Program to upper management and worldwide.

I cannot overemphasize the critical support I receive from Krishna (NASA) and Chris Justice (UMD) in running the program. It’s hard to imagine how the program would function if not for their continuous and thoughtful support.

Recognitions.

I heartily congratulate the following LCLUCers for their well-deserved accomplishments.

• Ruth DeFries was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

• Matt Hansen received the 50th Annual William T. Pecora Award – perhaps, the highest appreciation in remote sensing community. 

• Dr. Son Nghiem, Jet Propulsion Lab: his emergency response re. Super Typhoon Yagi was appreciated by U.S. State Dept., specifically the Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.

• Meha Jain, U. Michigan, was awarded the AGU Early Career Award in Global Environmental Change.

• Jiquan Chen, became a winner of IUFRO 2024 Scientific Achievement Award.

• Zhenong Jin received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, which is the most prestigious award presented annually by NSF to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors in the context of their organizations' missions. Zhenong recently joined Peking University in China, so the PI of the project on olive trees in Morocco is currently Elinor Benami at Virginia Tech, who has been Co-I on the project.

• Sean Woznicki Receives Distinguished Early-Career Scholar Award

Please contact our team if you are featured in the media or receive an award, so that we can highlight your accomplishments on the website.
 

Personal Notes.

This past year was special for me as I became the National Champion 2024 in saber fencing in my age category (70s) during Summer Nationals competition. That was the second time for me becoming a National Champion: I got this title exactly 10 years ago at the same location – Columbus, Ohio (it’s funny but I still have the National Champion 2014 t-shirt). Being in top-4 in two other national competitions during the year placed me on the national USA vet team and provided me an opportunity to compete in the World Veterans Competition, an annual international event, this time held in Dubai. Compared to the previous year in Daytona Beach, where I got as a bronze medalist in my individual category and a gold medal in our team competition, Dubai was a disappointment for me as I did not get to top four, i.e., did not get a medal standing on the podium. But being 5th in the world is not so terrible, I guess. That was the luck of the draw – I had a match in the quarterfinals with the strongest Italian fencer in our category, who took the World Champion title several times before and this time too. I learned my lesson, and, next time I’ll try to beat him if I get to fence him again. I am honored to be a member of a very strong saber fencing club in DC area – Capital Fencing Academy (https://www.capfencing.com/), with kids getting medals at high level junior competitions and with top-level veteran fencers, which is especially important for me. Last April in Salt Lake City, our club swept the gold medals in each age category (40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s). I made a 3-min compilation video about this “historic” event 😊 (https://youtu.be/zWRUEW_UU5s).

Not long ago, I got interested in pickleball. I watched pickleballers encroaching on us, tennis players, at our courts where we have been playing during the last three decades. I was curious but decided to try this strange game when I retire (somehow, I thought it was for older people, and boy, was I wrong!). In summer, I decided to try it. Well, it is a different game indeed but it’s not as easy as I looked to me. And of course, why did I think it is “for retirees”? So many younger people play it, with the best players in their 20s or younger. This game was invented in mid-1960s but got a spike of popularity only a few years ago (they say during COVID time). So, this is my latest craze. There is so much to learn about its tactics, the hits, etc. Much different from tennis. So, I need to train muscle memory by practicing a lot (some hits need to be automated). But until I master my skills, especially when I stop making too many unforced errors, I will abstain from playing tennis, and maybe start playing both when I feel I’m ready.

Another hobby of mine now is watching YouTube videos of chess games with analysis. I used to play chess in my youth, but YouTube brought an opportunity to learn more of the debuts, strategy, endgames and various tricks, which made me realize how little I knew when I used to play. In general, I’d say that YouTube brought possibilities to watch interesting debates, lectures, etc. which 20-30 years ago were only accessible by attending in person, with very little shown on TV. Now, discussions with smart and sometimes controversial people are coming right to your room on a large screen creating the effect of actual presence. But you can also pause, rewind, watch it with close captions, do fact-checking, stop for watching later, etc. And of course, so many educational possibilities, like improving your chess or pickleball skills (theoretically)... In short, I am becoming a “couch potato” watching YouTube all the time 😊

BAMS paper. Last year was especially significant for me as it marked my father’s 100th birthday. Based on a virtual session in 2023, dedicated to Prof. Lev Gutman’s legacy, which I organized at the Mesoscale Meteorology conference held in Madison, Wisconsin, I took upon myself to write an article for the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, in which I wanted to give a brief description of his scientific legacy and promote his monograph titled “Introduction to the Nonlinear Theory of Mesometeorological Processes”, published in Russian in the Soviet Union in 1969, and later translated into English (in 1972), Chinese, and Japanese. His works are not well known to Western scientists but analytical solutions in mesoscale problems remain relevant to this day. I am grateful for the continuous support by two outstanding atmospheric scientists in shaping and refining this article: Roger Pielke, Sr., Emeritus Professor at Colorado State University, and Richard Anthes, a longtime president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (until 2012) and NCAR Director in the late 1980s. For those who are curious about details of my father’s legacy, here is a link to this article:  https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/105/9/BAMS-D-24-0069.1.xml?rskey=exVkwk&result=1

Final Remarks. I am sending this letter primarily to LCLUC PI’s (current and alumni) and friends of LCLUC. Before you discard this message, please forward it to your team members including non-US partners.

The program is expanding and growing in numbers, with many early career scientists joining in the last few years. Welcome all newcomers to the LCLUC family! Remember: once an LCLUCer, always an LCLUCer. All LCLUC alumni are invited to keep in touch and attend LCLUC events. And, of course, all veterans are welcome to submit innovative, exciting proposals with novel methods, leveraging the synergy of various kinds of satellite observations, employing “big data” and “machine learning” methods, as well as incorporating advanced methods to integrate socio-economic data and methods into LCLUC studies. So, the program has been going through both rejuvenation and reinvigoration. But we don’t forget our program veterans, its key scientists and main driving forces in program directions. We are thinking about celebrating the LCLUC 30th (pearl) anniversary in 2026, and we’ll try to make it big with alumni invited.

I’d like to wish the whole LCLUC family, friends and international colleagues exciting results and discoveries and a productive New Year 2025. Considering the outcomes of previous end-of-year wishes, I can only express cautious optimism, wishing that the world situation will not deteriorate further. In my opinion, the most appropriate for this year, would be the famous quote from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, a Chinese military strategist and general: "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle".

To those who reached the end of this message, thank you for your patience and apologies for taking your time from your family and holidays.

Happy Holidays, and healthy and hopefully more peaceful and safer New Year!

-Garik