Guest lecture by Dr. Eleanor Stokes, NASA

The transformation of environmental conditions across the planet will impact the lives and livelihoods of people in complex ways. NASA’s Earth Information Center (EIC), a new initiative unveiled in June of 2023, aims to improve the public’s understanding of global environmental change and to deliver critical data and information about our changing planet directly into the hands of people in ways that they can immediately use.  For over fifty years, NASA’s satellites have collected data on Earth’s land, ecosystems, water, air, temperature, and climate, in collaboration with Federal partners. The EIC offers this data and derived scientific insights to the public through visualizations, interactive displays, and immersive experiences -- helping visitors understand the Earth's intricate interconnected systems and make decisions about how to respond to climate change in their own lives.

In this talk, I’ll introduce the general mission of the Earth Information Center and trace the path and process of gathering, interpreting, and translating data into actionable information. The talk will discuss converting nighttime observations from Suomi-NPP’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day Night Band (VIIRS-DNB) to actionable insights about power outages as an example—following the path from first light, to measurement and validation, to analysis, interpretation, translation, presentation and finally application. The goal of the talk is to use the story of this piece of data to show how the Earth Information Center functions as a collaborative, coordinated effort, across NASA centers and across federal agencies, between instruments, scientists, artists, communicators, and users. It’s a hopeful story, about how scientific developments are being used to engage the public and foster understanding, appreciation, and action around protecting our home.