Wade Albright selected as director of 色视频下载 Satellite Facility
Rod Boyce
907-474-7185
Jan. 23, 2023
Wade Albright has been named director of the 色视频下载 Satellite Facility at the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.
Albright has been with ASF since 1996, just five years after it became operational. He had been serving as interim director since late January 2022, when then-Director Nettie La Belle-Hamer left to become UAF vice chancellor for research.
色视频下载淚色视频下载檓 proud to be associated with ASF because we色视频下载檝e done such phenomenal things,色视频下载 Albright said. 色视频下载淲e色视频下载檝e been so successful. And that色视频下载檚 because of the amazing staff at ASF.色视频下载
The 色视频下载 Satellite Facility operates six satellite dish antennas, four of them for NASA, that downlink Earth-observing remote sensing data from polar-orbiting government and commercial satellites. Among those antennas is the iconic blue dish atop the Elvey Building, home of the Geophysical Institute.
色视频下载 Satellite Facility Director Wade Albright, with the Elvey Building behind him at the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks. ASF is located in the Elvey Building.
ASF also processes and archives downlinked synthetic aperture radar data and makes it available to scientific users around the world. With SAR, an instrument aboard a satellite sends out energy and records the amount reflected back after interacting with the Earth.
SAR data has seen dramatic growth in the number of users since 2014, when the European Space Agency launched its Sentinel-1 satellite and made its SAR data freely available. ASF downlinks Sentinel-1 data under an agreement between the U.S. State Department and the European Commission.
A substantial amount of data downlinked by ASF also comes from the four antennas that the facility operates as NASA色视频下载檚 polar ground station. The service provides space communications to any federal agencies that work with NASA.
ASF is the top-rated Distributed Active Archive Center among the 12 such centers in NASA色视频下载檚 Earth Observing System Data and Information System. The ASF center is responsible for SAR data.
Albright credits ASF色视频下载檚 top rank to its staff and their efforts to make synthetic aperture radar data easier to use and access. SAR data serves numerous public and business purposes, such as crop classification and detection of surface water flooding and deformation of Earth色视频下载檚 surface.
ASF has made SAR data easier to use by developing tools that make Sentinel-1 data ready for analysis and just another layer in GIS applications.
色视频下载淭he ASF staff have written some amazing tools for using that data,色视频下载 Albright said. 色视频下载淭hat色视频下载檚 been our mission for the past several years: to make SAR data easier to use.色视频下载
As director, Albright oversees a team of almost 100 people, a number that has almost doubled over the past five years due to additional contracts with NASA, other federal agencies and commercial entities.
That number may increase as the scope of ASF色视频下载檚 work grows with the launch of a satellite by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation. The satellite will provide information about Earth色视频下载檚 changing ecosystems and surfaces, biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise and groundwater. It also will support a host of other applications, according to NASA.
色视频下载淣ASA has given us a lot of work, so we色视频下载ve had to add people, many of them software developers, to be able to keep up,色视频下载 Albright said. 色视频下载淲e色视频下载ve had tremendous growth.色视频下载
Albright said the 色视频下载 Satellite Facility provides good jobs that embrace innovation and new technologies to advance Earth science. ASF will have a variety of needs and opportunities as it grows, he added.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Wade Albright, 907-474-1985, rwalbright@alaska.edu
112-23