Behind the Scenes—and Science—of the Earth Observatory

Since its launch in 1999, NASA’s Earth Observatory has published around 12,000 images, maps, and data visualizations. The number of written articles, feature stories, and natural hazard descriptions are nearly as numerous. This talk will shed some light on why we do this, how we do it, and the ways the Earth Observatory is both a consumer and communicator of science. Psychology, pixels, and prose converge in every piece, published daily for over two decades—and I am excited to take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of our team and our mission.


Date/Time
Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 11am-12pm EST

This seminar can be viewed remotely via Microsoft Teams: Join here

IS&T Colloquium Committee Host: Helen-Nicole Kostis

Presentation located here. Recorded session is available through NASATube.

Joshua Stevens
Data Visualization Lead
NASA Earth Observatory

Joshua has been the lead visualizer of the NASA Earth Observatory since 2015. He has researched and taught cartographic design, geovisual analytics, and remote sensing for more than a decade. He was the lead author of the 2012 update to the online geography textbook, Mapping Our Changing World. Prior to the Earth Observatory, he was NSF IGERT Fellow in big data social science at The Pennsylvania State University where he pursued a Ph.D. in geography.  Joshua also earned a master’s in geography and a bachelor’s degree in geographic information science at Michigan State University.

 

Earth Observatory team