We have all heard that mathematics is the language of science, but we rarely get to see how it is actually spoken. SpaceMath@NASA is a program for students and teachers that goes behind the scenes of NASA press releases to reveal the often simple mathematics that scientists and engineers use to make major discoveries or engineering breakthroughs.  Developed by SESDA’s Dr. Sten Odenwald and supported by NASA grants, the program has recently announced a partnership with Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt Publishing – America's leading textbook publisher.  Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt is a national STEM textbook publisher that specializes in science and math textbooks for middle and high school students. The collaboration provides textbooks with real-world math examples drawn from many NASA science and engineering programs to highlight how math principles are applied to actual problem solving. The learning modules feature a video segment, press releases, and an interactive modeling. Some of its current exercises feature data and discoveries by the International Space Station, Mars Science Laboratory, Webb Space Telescope, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Opportunity Rover, and CERES.
 

Details of this collaboration can be found in the NASA press release

SESDA II media specialist Steele Hill has produced a traveling exhibit called “The Sun as Art” which opens at the Maryland Science Center on February 9, 2012. The exhibit uses stunning images of the Sun captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and presents them in a variety of colors and formats for a unique perspective of the Sun as viewed from space.   The exhibit will run for three months before traveling to other venues around the country, and can be viewed online at:  http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/art.php.
 

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 the Super Computing 2011 (SC11) convention in Seattle last November.  The team demonstrated unprecedented high-speed data transfer rates using custom built RAID servers that achieved a lightning-fast 60 Gbits/sec disk-to-disk transfer rates across the nearly 3000-mile distance between Seattle and Goddard Space Flight Center, and 72 Gbits/sec locally.

The HECN group also had a successful proposal to the Department of Energy that allows them to use DOE’s Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI) 100G test bed.  Their project will allow them to evaluate advanced network cards as well as next-generation servers, performance measurement tools, and applications that will support highly parallel, multi-core architectures.  Their goal is to keep pushing the envelope as they approach 100 Gbit/sec transfer rates.  These enormously high bandwidths will prove critical as both NASA and the commercial world move towards cloud computing.
 

Scientists have previously used the satellite's OMI to observe sulfur dioxide levels within large plumes of volcanic ash and over heavily polluted parts of China. But this is the first time they have observed such subtle details over the much-less-polluted United States. The secret is a new mathematical approach centered on averaging measurements within a 30-mile radius of a sulfur dioxide source over several years. It makes it possible to detect emissions at levels four times lower before.

The team also plans to use a similar technique to monitor other important pollutants that coal power plants release, such as nitrogen dioxide, a precursor to ozone.
 

A representative image from southern Ohio.

The full article may be read at:
http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/59972-clean-air-law-brings-fall-in-sulfur-dioxide
Other OMI data and images may be found at this website:
http://ozoneaq.gsfc.nasa.gov/
 

NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) will acquire land, ocean and atmospheric measurements for Earth system science. Upper left: The NPP instrument package following Thermal Vacuum testing at Ball Aerospace. Upper right: launch of NPP Oct. 28, 2011 on a Delta vehicle. Bottom: SESDA staff Christina Coleman, Aries Keck, and Ellen Gray of the NPP media team bundled up at 2 AM at the launch site. SESDA personnel also operate networks and systems supporting NPP data processing.