Dr. Marshall Shepherd, meteorologist and NASA astronaut, writes, “NASA has a really cool online resource in which you can test your skills by using Pi to calculate volume and water content of clouds as measured by a cloud-observing instrument called MISR (on NASA’s Terra satellite). You can even figure out how many Olympic-sized swimming pools could the cloud fill” in Forbes magazine for Pi Day, 2021.

Jim Drummond, the Principal Investigator of the MOPITT instrument onboard Terra, was awarded the John H. Chapman Award of Excellence by the Canadian Space Agency. The award is named after John H. Chapman, considered to be the father of the Canadian Space Agency Program. The award is presented to individuals to honor their exceptional achievement in Canadian space science. Recipients of the award have significantly contributed to achievements in space science and technology fields that have had socio-economic benefits for Canada and its citizens. Additionally, recipients have advanced Canada’s role in the international effort to develop space for peaceful use and the benefit of humanity, taken part in major discoveries and scientific technology breakthroughs and innovations, while inspiring others to achieve excellence in science and technology.

Jim Drummond has dedicated well over 20 years of his career to Terra and MOPITT. He worked diligently on the Terra mission from conception, launch, and through continued operation of the MOPITT instrument. His work on MOPITT enabled the first long-term global maps of carbon monoxide concentrations in the troposphere. His contributions have advanced our understanding of global pollution.

The American Geophysical Union published Advances in Satellite Data for Wildfire Smoke Forecasting in their EOS publication. The article highlights the use of GOES-16 data “to provide customized smoke modeling products for large wildfire events,” (over 8,000 hectares). However the article acknowledges that, “Modeling smaller fires requires higher spatial resolution data, such as those from the polar-orbiting satellites [Terra and Aqua], which provide snapshot data two to four times per day.”

https://eos.org/science-updates/advances-in-satellite-data-for-wildfire-smoke-forecasting