What a Long, High-Energy Trip It’s Been!
Posted On: January 12, 2012Comments: No Responses
After 16 years of discovery, the mission of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has reached the end of science operations. The spacecraft began the decommissioning process during the week beginning Monday, January 2, 2012, and science observations concluded at the end of the day on January 3, 2012. Fittingly, the final observation was of [...]
Superfast Networks on Display
Posted On: December 28, 2011Comments: No Responses
Network researchers, including ADNET HECN staff, troubleshoot the high-bandwidth connection between Seattle and Greenbelt. SESDA's High End Computing Network (HECN) group continues to break new ground in network speeds. The group operates out of GSFC Code 606.1, the Networks and IT Security branch, and their project was cited as one of the top exhibits at [...]
Mars Science Laboratory Launches
Posted On: December 5, 2011Comments: No Responses
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) was successfully launched on 26 November 2011 from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas V rocket. SESDA II engineering staff are playing a critical role in achieving the science objectives of this ambitious mission through their development and ongoing support of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument payload onboard the [...]
SESDA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Team Helps Confirm SO2 Reduction
Posted On: December 5, 2011Comments: No Responses
SESDA II’s Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) team processes and archives critical ozone data from this spaceborne instrument aboard NASA’s Aura satellite. The group has helped confirm that the introduction of the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2005 has led to a big reduction in pollution from eastern US coal power plants. Scientists have previously used [...]
NPP Launch
Posted On: November 3, 2011Comments: No Responses
On October 28, the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft was launched on a Delta vehicle from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Instruments onboard will acquire climate and weather data measurements covering atmosphere, land and ocean. Several critical measurement objectives are: climate change, ozone layer dynamics, disaster monitoring, weather prediction, vegetation, global ice cover, [...]
Training the Next Generation of Scientists
Posted On: October 26, 2011Comments: No Responses
Mr. Huy Lam, a senior at Poolesville High School in Montgomery County, Maryland, has been selected as a 2011 Siemens Science Competition semi-finalist. His research project was "A Multi-Spacecraft Approach to Studying Auroral Kilometric Radiation Using the Virtual Wave Observatory." The Virtual Wave Observatory (VWO) is an online suite of tools and data that allows [...]
Fermi Captures Neutron Star Plunge
Posted On: September 7, 2011Comments: No Responses
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, with comprehensive support provided by SESDA II scientists and software developers, recently yielded an unprecedented set of observations of a fascinating astrophysical binary system consisting of a neutron star and a massive star. Every 3.4 years the incredibly dense neutron star plunges directly through the disk of gas surrounding its [...]
Successful Launch to Jupiter
Posted On: August 18, 2011Comments: No Responses
On 5 August 2011, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The collective cheers of many SESDA II staff could be heard throughout the Goddard campus as it lifted off, a result of the many years of preparation and testing our programmers, instrument engineers, data technicians, and even summer interns had spent reaching [...]
SESDA II Staff Support Science Proposals
Posted On: March 29, 2011Comments: No Responses
As of March 24, 2011, our Science Proposal Support Office (SPSO) support team organized and implemented 30 proposal reviews (mostly Red Teams) in only 19 working days! Without counting the value of a major Earth system science Senior Review proposal (EO-1), the total request of these proposals exceeded $13M. Most proposals were in response to [...]
Scientist utilizes Giovanni to map baby blue shark nursery
Posted On: January 12, 2010Comments: No Responses
A study to be published in the 15 January 2010 issue of Fisheries Research describes characterization of an oceanic region in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of southern Brazil, where juvenile blue sharks (Prionace glauca) are found in high numbers. One of the unusual aspects of the region is that mature blues are [...]
