Professor Michael Ramsey has been appointed by NASA to be part of the science development team for the upcoming Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Mission. SBG is one of the first missions being developed for NASA’s new Earth System Observatory (ESO), which will provide key information to guide efforts related to climate change, natural hazard mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes. SBG consists of two instruments on two different satellites, with the thermal infrared (TIR) portion of the mission being jointly developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in Rome. The TIR instrument is scheduled for a 2028 launch and will provide unprecedented data at high spatial and temporal scales. These data will be used for a variety of science applications including better monitoring of urban heat islands and vegetation health, to detection of new wildfires and volcanic activity, to mapping the mineralogy and cryosphere of the Earth’s surface.
Ramsey is leading the effort to define and develop the data algorithms that will be used specifically for the geology data products produced by the mission. These include surface mineralogy, thermal anomaly detection, and volcanic activity. This software is required to be accurate, fast, and produce clear data for use by the scientific community. As part of this appointment, Ramsey will relocate to Los Angeles for the four summer months of the academic year to work at JPL, attend meetings, and present results. He is completing his second summer appointment in 2024 and is planning for future relocations until 2028 and SBG’s successful launch.