Two NASA scientists will join the team that authors the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Hosted by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Drought Monitor started in 1999 and creates weekly maps of drought severity in the U.S. and its territories.
Joining the team are Benjamin Cook and Jonathan Case. Cook is headquartered at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University and has been with NASA since 2009. Case works out of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the University of Alabama-Huntsville and has been with NASA since 1998.
“[NASA] put together a short list, and so they nominated me as a candidate for USDM author,” Case said. “So, that was certainly an unexpected honor to accept the nomination.”
Case started with NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and later joined the NASA Earth Sciences team in 2006.
Cook said the scope of his work with NASA has been broadly focused on drought.
“I've been utilizing the drought monitor product for applied research for at least 10 years now,” Case said.
As a part of the team, the two will collaborate with scientists across the U.S. to help create the weekly map.
Part of the learning and training process for the authors includes shadowing Brian Fuchs, the monitoring coordinator for the NDMC.
“We'll be learning the ins and outs of the actual process and the software, and examining the indicators and seeing how that process is done in the coming weeks and months,” Case said.
Mark Svoboda, director of the drought center, said the Drought Monitor has always been a collaborative project, with UNL already partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“We are very excited about this partnership, which marks a new step in joint efforts between NASA and the Drought Monitor authoring team,” Svoboda said.
Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, said NASA Earth science has already been contributing unique data and expertise to the monitor effort for years.
“This agreement formalizes our partnership and incorporates NASA scientists as key members of the expert team that produces the weekly maps that are the gold standard for observing and forecasting drought,” she said.
Case and Cook will each complete their first two-week shift later this year.