This is the last installment of the Science for a Hungry World series.

This series of videos illustrate the value of the unique perspective gained from space and enforces the need for global agricultural monitoring and accurate forecasting. The six episodes will define the global food system, look at NASA’s role in providing an uninterrupted supply of satellite remote sensing data for agricultural production monitoring, explore the successful partnerships and monitoring tools used to provide an understanding of the global perspective on agriculture, and examine the concepts of land cover and land use change, food security, the availability of water resources, and global agricultural production in a changing climate.

Agriculture is more than growing food and fuel and getting it to market. This first of six episode defines the global food system as an interconnected, dynamic, and complex structure. [Producer/Editor, 2009]

CHECK BACK EACH WEDNESDAY FOR A NEW INSTALLMENT IN THIS SERIES!

Water is all around us, and its importance to nearly every natural process on earth cannot be underestimated. It is vital to life, but it is also tightly coupled to climate, helping to carry heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. Changes to the water cycle affect climate and vice versa. The water cycle is the movement of water around the Earth in all its forms. Imagine the path a molecule of water might take after it evaporates from the salty ocean. It might condense and return to the ocean as rainfall, or it might move through the atmosphere as water vapor and fall onto the land surface as freshwater rain or snow. Snow may become part of an ice cap or glacier, where the water molecule could remain for centuries, or it might soon melt and enter the soil or a stream. Rain wets the soil, becoming available for plants to use. The water molecule may drain into an aquifer, where it could remain for many years before feeding into a stream. Streams flow into lakes and rivers, but along the way the water molecule might be captured for use industry, agriculture, or drinking and other domestic needs. Ultimately, the water molecule will return to the ocean where the journey begins anew. This video explains what the water cycle is and how important it is to life on earth.

October 11-17th is Earth Science Week!  Sponsored by the American Geological Institute, the theme of this year’s Earth Science Week is “Understanding Climate.”  To help celebrate, NASA Goddard is producing a podcast series about oceans and climate, plus a few other exciting activities like live webcasts and educational materials.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, NASAexplorer. It has videos covering everything from Apollo to Earth Science.  Also, check out the Earth Observatory blog, Journey to Galapagos, by NASA oceanographer Gene Feldman (http://tinyurl.com/kwjjbw).

This free event will feature lively discussion of four scientists, and will be moderated by Kathy Sullivan of Ohio State University. Featured scientists include Jim Yoder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass.; Waleed Abdalati, Colorado State University, Boulder, Colo.; Christopher Justice, University of Maryland at College Park, Md.; and J. Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

The scientists will discuss new developments in research and benefits to society made possible by the Earth system science approach pioneered by the agency during the last 20 years. Topics covered will include oceans, wildfires, frozen areas of earth, weather and climate.

Contact me for more info!