SACRAMENTO – Quantifying drought impacts and managing California’s water resources during drought conditions using satellite remote sensing will be among the topics of a Feb. 25-26 workshop sponsored by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The workshop at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J. St., will begin at 1 p.m. on Feb. 25 and last until noon on Feb. 26.

The workshop is free to attend and is open to the public.

The workshop will highlight the partnership between NASA and DWR in the development and application of remote sensing research for water management purposes, with a special focus on drought preparedness and response.

Workshop topics will include a water outlook and update from the National Integrated Drought Information System; estimating acreage of fallowed agricultural land; monitoring Central Valley land subsidence; regional groundwater monitoring with orbiting satellite; monitoring and forecasting atmospheric river events; assessing snowpack conditions, and improving subseasonal forecasting of precipitation. Each uses remote sensing data and research to support drought preparedness and response.

Remote sensing offers unique opportunities for filling in data gaps over large geographic areas (such as mountain snowpack) that cannot be cost-effectively covered by ground-based measurements. It also may assist in long-term climate change adaptation.

DWR and NASA began examining opportunities for water resources applications of remote sensing data and research through a partnership established with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Ongoing collaborations have been evolving on a variety of projects ranging from levee monitoring to basic research on groundwater.

DWR projects such as an observing system for extreme precipitation installed as part of the enhanced flood response and emergency preparedness program are developing new data sources that will help support future activities.

NASA and the California Department of Water Resources
Remote Sensing for Drought Monitoring and Response Workshop

February 25th and 26th, 2014
Sacramento Convention Center, Room103
1400 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95814

Tuesday, February 25

9:30 – 11 a.m.: Press Conference

DWR-NASA Partnership, Jeanine Jones, CDWR & Lawrence Friedl, NASA Headquarters
Airborne Snow Observatory, Tom Painter, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Fallowed Area Mapping, Forrest Melton, NASA Ames Research Center-Cooperative for Research in Earth Science and Technology (ARC-CREST)

Subsidence Mapping, Tom Farr, NASA JPL

Atmospheric Rivers & Seasonal Forecasting, Duane Waliser, NASA JPL

Upcoming NASA Satellite Missions, Brad Doorn, NASA HQ

1 – 1:15 p.m.: Welcome and Introduction

Jeanine Jones, California Department of Water Resources
Lawrence Friedl, NASA Headquarters

1:15 – 1:30 p.m.: NASA Applied Sciences Program; Brad Doorn, NASA Headquarters

1:30 – 2:50 p.m.: Remote Sensing of Precipitation and Snow Water Resources; Airborne Snow Observatory, Tom Painter, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Satellite Monitoring of the Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, Jeff Dozier, University of California, Santa Barbara

Enhancing California's Water Resource Management and Decision Support Systems through Remote Sensing of Precipitation, Soroosh Sorooshian, University of California, Irvine

2:50 – 3:05 p.m.: Break

3:05 – 4 p.m.: Remote Sensing for Drought Impact Assessment and Mitigation

Remote Monitoring of Groundwater with Orbital Radar, Tom Farr, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Fallowed Area Mapping for Drought Impact Reporting and Decision Making, Jim Verdin, USGS / Forrest Melton, NASA Ames Research Center, Cooperative for Research in Earth Science and Technology (ARC-CREST)

Satellite Irrigation Management Support, Forrest Melton, NASA ARC-CREST

4:00 – 4:20: Sub-seasonal Forecasting

Atmospheric Rivers and the Madden Julian Oscillation: Key Phenomena for Predicting California Water Availability and Extremes, Duane Waliser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

4:20– 4:45: Questions and Discussion

4:45 p.m.: Adjourn

Wednesday, Feb. 26

9 – 9:40 a.m.: 2014 California Water Outlook

2014 California Water Outlook and Update from the National Integrated Drought Information System Workshop, Kelly Redmond, Desert Research Institute

Real-time Satellite Estimation and Mapping of Snow Water Equivalent across the Sierra Nevada, Noah Molotch, University of Colorado, Boulder

9:40 – 10:20 a.m. Drought in the Context of Climate Change and Infrastructure

Adaptation Planning for Climate Change Impacts using Advanced Decision Support and Remote Sensing: Irrigated Agriculture in California's Central Valley, Jonathan Winter, Dartmouth University / NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Monitoring of California Levees with Airborne Remote Sensing, Cathleen Jones, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

10:20 – 11 a.m.: Satellite Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture and Groundwater

Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture: The Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission, Narendra Das, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Recent Observations from California and Future Directions for GRACE, Jay Famiglietti, University of California, Irvine

11 – 11:20 a.m.: Questions and Discussion

11:20 a.m.: Adjourn