Paul Racette
As an adventurous adolescent, Paul grew up chasing severe thunderstorms across the plains of Kansas. And so he was quite excited after joining the Goddard Space Flight Center in July 1990 to learn that his first assignment was to prepare and install a suite of sensors on a DC-8 aircraft for an experiment to study typhoons. That fall while stationed at Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, Japan, he flew for the first time through the eye of a category 5 typhoon. That experience was the beginning of an exciting and fruitful career developing and deploying microwave remote sensors for studying Earth's environment. Since then, Paul has been the principal engineer responsible for the overall instrument concept, development and deployment for five highly-innovative remote sensing instruments. Each of these instruments has produced unique, scientifically rich data. Paul has participated in more than fifteen major field experiments around the world pioneering techniques to observe the Earth. As a member of the senior technical staff at Goddard, he has initiated technology developments, research projects, and international collaborations that have advanced the state of the art in microwave remote sensing and instrument calibration. For these efforts and accomplishments Paul received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Service and was the first recipient of Goddard's Engineering Achievement Award established to publicly recognize Goddard's highest achieving engineers. In 2005 he completed the requirements for his Doctor of Science in electrical engineering from The George Washington University. Recognizing the critical needs in education and a desire to seek new adventures, Paul applied and was accepted into the NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program. As a NAFP fellow he returned to his home state to serve as a guest faculty at the Haskell Indian Nations University during the 2005 - 2006 academic year. Paul recently competed the second year of his fellowship working at NASA Headquarters as Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Education.
Paul is highly commited to serving the public through professional activities. Paul has served the IEEE in many capacities including secretary of the University of Kansas IEEE student chapter, the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Socieity's New Technology Directions Committee Representative, Chair of the Instrumentation and Future Technologies Committee, and Professional Activities Committee for Engineers Representative. He now serves as Editor-In-Chief for Earthzine.
Shrinking ice means Greenland is rising fast
Originally Published by New Scientist - Earth
Greenland’s landmass is rising up to 4 centimeters per year. The accelerated rate of its rise is attributed to its shrinking ice dome.
Scientists Warn That Species Extinction Could Reduce Productivity of Plants on Earth by Half
Originally Published by Earth Today
An international team of scientists has published a new analysis showing that as plant species around the world go extinct, natural habitats become less productive and contain fewer total plants — a situation that could ultimately compromise important benefits that humans get from nature.
Posted on
November 10th, 2007
Biodiversity, Ecosystems
News: La Niña Persists
Originally Published by NASA Earth Observatory
The tropical Pacific Ocean remains in the grips of a cool La Niña, as shown by new data.
Posted on
November 10th, 2007
Climate, Earth Observation
Mitigating Climate Change with Geoengineering
Originally Published by NYT > Environment
As scientists debate whether human activity will lead to disastrous or catastrophic climate change, some discuss how geoengineering could mitigate the changes through global manipulation of the environment. Yikes!
Posted on
November 10th, 2007
Technology, Would You Believe?
Fires and Haze Fill The Skies In West Africa
Originally Published by NASA Earth Observatory
Widespread agricultural burning in Senegal and Mali combined with blowing dust to create hazy skies.
Posted on
November 8th, 2007
Agriculture, Disasters
Feds Want to Clean Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Originally Published by San Francisco Chronicle
The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a stewy body of plastic and marine debris that floats an estimated 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, is a shape-shifting mass far too large, delicate and remote to ever be cleaned up, according to a researcher who recently returned from the area.
But that might not stop the federal government from trying.
Posted on
November 5th, 2007
Water, Would You Believe?
Scientists Track Time and Place of HIV’s Arrival
Originally Published by washingtonpost.com
Scientists track the evolution of HIV virus using genetic analysis. It’s an example of how advances in analysis techniques lead to better understanding of how desease spreads.
Posted on
November 5th, 2007
Health
Green Schools Offer Healthier, Smarter Classrooms
Originally Published by t r u t h o u t
In Plenty Magazine, Samantha Cleaver reports that “as baby boomer-era school buildings become more and more outdated, many districts are building green schools to replace energy guzzling, polluted learning environments.”
Posted on
November 2nd, 2007
Education
China’s Birth Defects Soar Due to Pollution
Originally Published by t r u t h o u t
Reuters reports that “Birth defects in Chinese infants have soared nearly 40 percent since 2001, a government report said, and officials linked the rise to China’s worsening environmental degradation.”
Posted on
November 2nd, 2007
Health
Deforestation in Amazonia
Originally Published by Encyclopedia of Earth
Tropical forests in Amazonia are being cleared rapidly, representing an important contribution to land-use and land-cover change. This is a thoughtful article of the history, economic and environmental impacts of Amazonia deforestation.
Posted on
November 2nd, 2007
Agriculture, Biodiversity, Economy
NASA Daily Image
Panorama of the East Coast
This Jan. 29 panorama of much of the East Coast, photographed by one of the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the International Space Station, provides a look generally northeastward: Philadelphia-New York City-Boston corridor (bottom-center); western Lake Ontario shoreline with Toronto (left edge); Montreal (near center). An optical illusion in the photo makes the atmospheric limb and light activity from Aurora Borealis appear "intertwined." Image Credit: NASA