Abstracts

• 16560 I'm Melting, I'm Melting! Oh, What a World! The eyes of NASA’s earth resource and environmental satellites observe the entire world with the purpose of identifying or predicting the changes that the earth will face over the next several decades, whether they are natural or human-induced. Identifying changes and monitoring trends in the atmosphere, in the oceans, and on the land involves numerous satellite sensors and platforms. Nowhere is the evidence of global climate change more impressive than at high latitudes; the “ice worlds” are melting. Land ice and sea ice impacts are documented particularly well from space-borne sensors, which can monitor vast remote regions as melting occurs. The MODIS sensor, which “flies” on the Terra and Aqua satellites, has been a particularly useful tool in monitoring changes in the cryosphere. Ice shelf disintegration and glacial retreat/advance will be highlighted in this presentation, using imagery from MODIS and other sensors including astronaut photography. I'm Melting, I'm Melting! Oh, What a World!
  I'm Melting, I'm Melting! Oh, What a World!
• 16558 Modeling Soil Loss in the Snake Creek Reservoir Water resource managers in Carroll County Georgia required a way to assess the impact of land cover change as it related to development on soil loss into drinking water reservoirs. Satellite imagery provided the appropriate tool to support watershed-scale analysis. Updated watershed land cover maps, which were based on image interpretation and included field verification, were input into Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) models to predict high soil-loss areas. RUSLE uses many parameters where change is not an issue, including soil classification, slope length, slope angle, and annual rainfall amount. Landcover in western Georgia is changing rapidly, through rural, suburban, and urban development, and deforestation. The County defined as Critical Areas all areas within 1,000 feet of the reservoir shoreline. The RUSLE mapping project identified high soil-loss areas’ intersection with Critical Areas, and highlighted recurring problems associated with several types of activities, including unauthorized roads, off-road trails on power line right-of-ways, forestry operations, and reworked slopes in newly-established subdivisions. The County was able to remediate some locations, and to adequately restrict development in other locations that could become problematic if developed or deforested. Modeling Soil Loss in the Snake Creek Reservoir
  Modeling Soil Loss in the Snake Creek Reservoir