The U.S. Department of the Interior and National Aeronautics and Space Administration recently recognized scientists’ achieving excellence in Earth observation with their 2007 William T. Pecora Award. Each year, Interior's U.S. Geological Survey and NASA present the award to groups and individuals who contributed toward understanding of the Earth through their accomplishments in the field of remote sensing.

This year’s winners are the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Team (group award) and Stanley A. Morain, University of New Mexico (individual award):

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Team — The team from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, the first of NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder satellite missions, is the recipient of the 2007 group award. The team received the award for its design, development and operation of a satellite-based mission to measure the Earth’s gravity. The team’s success has improved scientific understanding of water changes throughout the world.

The mission, known as GRACE, uses twin satellites to make precise gravity-field measurements to study changes on Earth. Signal achievements include the first uniform measurement of Greenland and Antarctic ice-mass changes and monthly estimates of water accumulation in the world's river basins.

GRACE is a collaborative endeavor involving the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas, Austin; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the German Space Agency; and Germany's National Research Center for Geosciences, Potsdam.The team accepted its award at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting on Dec.10, 2007, in San Francisco.

Stanley A. Morain — Stanley A. Morain, the recipient of the 2007 individual award, is a professor of Geography and director of the Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico. He received the award for his exceptional and sustained national and international leadership in biogeographical remote-sensing research and education.

For more than 43 years, Morain has had a distinguished career in remote sensing, his research benefitting public health and agriculture. He has been a pioneer in modeling the affects of global dust and atmospheric fine particulates on the Earth in the
context of public health. In the early 1970s, by using Landsat, he developed and demonstrated satellite remote-sensing techniques that have advanced crop and vegetation analysis across the world.

Morain accepted his award at the Canadian Remote Sensing Society, American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing 2007 Specialty Conference in Ottawa, Canada, on Oct. 30, 2007.

Since 1974, the Dr. William T. Pecora award has honored those achieving excellence in the field of remote sensing. Each year, Interior and NASA present the award in memory of Pecora, whose early vision and support helped establish the Landsat satellite program. Pecora was director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 1965 to 1971 and later served as Interior undersecretary until his death in 1972.  

To learn more about this award and its recipients, go to http://remotesensing.usgs.gov/pecora.php. For additional information, contact Denver Makle, public affairs specialist, USGS, at (703) 648-4732.

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