NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, along with the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, have partnered with science and technology nonprofit First Street Foundation to enhance climate risk modeling, promote applied science research, and more effectively communicate the risks of a changing climate.
NASA will now receive bulk access to First Street’s national high-resolution, property-specific, climate-adjusted risk hazard and statistical data, as well as technical insights into the foundation’s methodologies. The two groups will work together to further improve physical models and risk products related to floods, fires, heat, and other climate-driven hazards. The goals of the collaboration are to quantify economic impacts from climate and promote climate risk awareness to individuals, communities, as well as local, state, and federal government agencies.
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“NASA Earth observations and model output are already publicly available, but this agreement with First Street enables us to work together to integrate our trusted observations, predictions, and scientific expertise into improved products that will be freely available,” said Dr. Stephanie Schollaert Uz, applied sciences manager for the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard.
The collaboration is one example of how NASA will continue working with partners inside and outside the federal government in the ongoing effort to equip decision makers with the information they need to mitigate, adapt, and respond to climate change. Data products and collaborations like this one are emblematic of what NASA aims to achieve through the new Earth Information Center – an agency initiative recently announced at the September meeting of the National Space Council.
“First Street’s nonprofit mission is to quantify and communicate America’s growing climate risk to inspire people to take action,” said Dr. Ed Kearns, chief data officer at First Street Foundation. “Working with NASA will not only vastly expand our access to its expertise, but also provides us with new avenues of communication to federal agencies, states, and local governments to help us deliver our message about the risks of climate change to communities across the country.”