Establishing a Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission: Integration and Application
A CREW proposal submitted to NASA-ROSES-2012 A25: SWOT: Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission Science Definition Team (NNH12ZDA001N-SWOT), $241,129, 3 mo/yr, 01/01/2013 – 12/31/2015.
Based on my expertise in mission advocacy and formulation, remote sensing retrieval using data assimilation, use of remote sensing to initialize weather and climate predictions, field activities for calibration and validation, translation of remote sensing science to applications and solutions, and multi-sensor and multi-disciplinary science integration activities, I am applying to be a member of the SWOT prelaunch science definition team. My efforts on this team will be specifically focused in two areas: integration and applications, as follows: (1) integration, including land surface modeling and assimilation, SWOT OSSE (virtual mission) and community testbed development, cross-platform and cross-sensor integration using model-sensor webs, historical integration with past hydrologic missions and datasets, and cross-disciplinary integration particularly with global water and carbon cycling and terrestrial modeling, and (2) development of SWOT applications, including the development and fostering of a community of end-users, stakeholders and decision makers that understand SWOT capabilities and are interested in using SWOT products in their decision making or solution development (SWOT Community of Practice), developing an assessment of current application benefits / requirements and needs for SWOT products, and identifying and nurturing a handful of “early adopters” who will partner to optimize their use of SWOT products, possibly even before launch as part of the extended OSSE or virtual mission activities.