UMaine Student to Represent NASA at Space Conference
Contact: David Munson, UMaine University Relations (207) 581-3777
ORONO, Maine – UMaine doctoral student Leigh Stearns has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as one of ten graduate students nationwide to participate in the 2006 International Astronautical Congress in Valencia, Spain in October.
Organized by the International Astronautical Federation, the four-day event brings administrators from NASA and other space exploration organizations together with leading scientists from around the world to discuss space-related research and technology.
Stearns was selected for her groundbreaking techniques using satellite imagery to study the changing dynamics of Greenland’s glaciers. She will present her research to congress participants on October 4.
“I expect to be one of the few earth scientists at the conference, and I am looking forward to presenting techniques for applying space research technology to earth systems,” said Stearns. “I’m really looking forward to attending other informational sessions as well.”
A fourth-year graduate student with research experience in both Antarctica and Greenland, Stearns uses multiple images taken from NASA satellites to create topographic maps of active glaciers. The maps act as fingerprints that allow individual glaciers to be identified. By comparing images of the same glacier over time, its movements can be accurately quantified.
According to Stearns’ research, some glaciers in Greenland are moving as much as 300 percent faster than they were just three years ago. The movement and melt rate of Greenland’s glaciers has important implications regarding such critical concerns as global warming, sea level rise, and changing ocean currents.