NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, along with the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, has partnered with science and technology nonprofit First Street Foundation to enhance climate risk modeling, promote applied science research and more effectively communicate the risks of a changing climate.
NASA will now receive bulk access to First Street’s high-resolution, property-specific, climate-adjusted risk hazard and statistical data for the US, as well as technical insights into the foundation’s methodologies.
The two groups will work together to improve physical models and risk products related to floods, fires, heat and other climate-driven hazards. The goals of the collaboration are to quantify the economic impacts of climate and promote climate risk awareness to individuals, communities, and local, state and federal government agencies.
Dr Stephanie Schollaert Uz, applied sciences manager in the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard, said, “NASA Earth observations and model output are already publicly available, but this agreement with First Street enables us to work together to integrate our trusted observations, predictions and scientific expertise into improved products that will be freely available.”
The collaboration is one example of what NASA aims to achieve through the new Earth Information Center – an agency initiative that will allow users to see how the Earth is changing.
Dr Ed Kearns, chief data officer at First Street Foundation, added, “First Street’s nonprofit mission is to quantify and communicate America’s growing climate risk to inspire people to take action. Working with NASA will not only vastly expand our access to its expertise but also provide us with new avenues of communication to federal agencies, states and local governments to help us deliver our message about the risks of climate change to communities across the country.”