Satellites, Dinosaurs, Milankovitch Cycles, and Cretaceous Earth
Satellites, Dinosaurs, Milankovitch Cycles, and Cretaceous Earth
Compton J. Tucker
Senior Scientist
Earth Sciences Division
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Friday, February 22, 2019 - 8pm
Powell Auditorium at the Cosmos Club
About the Lecture
Earth-orbiting satellites have revolutionized the understanding of Earth’s coupled ocean-land-atmosphere system. They have advanced numerical weather prediction and enabled a quantitative understanding of climate processes. The speaker will review our unprecedented understanding of the Earth system made possible by satellite geophysical observations, contrast current climate with that of the Cretaceous Period, show the importance of plate tectonics to the Milankovitch Cycles, and show our trajectory is headed back to a Cretaceous-like climate.
About the Speaker
Compton J. Tucker is NASA Scientist in the Earth Sciences Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland and Consulting Scholar with the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Compton specializes in studying the earth with satellite data. He was among the first researchers to employ coarse-resolution satellite data and satellite data time series to study global photosynthesis on land. He pioneered their use to measure vegetative land cover, monitor droughts, provide famine early warnings, predict ecologically-coupled disease outbreaks, and document increased photosynthesis at higher northern latitudes resulting from warmer temperatures. He also pioneered the use of very large Landsat datasets to study forest conditions, and to measure deforestation, and forest fragmentation in temperate, subtropical, and tropical forests. And he has used satellite data to study tropical glaciers in the Andes and temperate glaciers in Asia Minor. In addition to working with satellite data, he has extensive experience conducting geophysical archaeological surveys at Troy, Granicus, and Gordion in Turkey.
Compton is an author on more than 190 journal articles. Publications on which he is an author as of January 2019 have been cited 30,000 times by Web of Science and 61,000 times by Google Scholar.
Among other honors, Compton has been awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; the Henry Shaw Medal from the Missouri Botanical Garden; the National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement; the William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Science; the William T. Pecora Award from the U.S. Geological Survey; the Galathea Medal from the Royal Danish Geographical Society; and the Vega Medal from the Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Compton earned an MS and PhD in Forest Science at Colorado State University.
Dinner with the Speaker For Members of the Society and Their Guests At the Cosmos Club
Reception 5:45 pm
Dinner 6:30 pm
Menu:
Cape Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette
Truffle Scented Chicken Breast with Mushroom Risotto and Green Beans
Hot Popovers
Grand Mariner Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
Coffee and Tea
Selected Red and White Wines
Register By 5:00 pm, Wednesday, February 20, 2019
John Wesley Powell Auditorium 2170 Florida Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008. Adjacent to the Cosmos Club.
If only attending the lecture, enter through the auditorium door. Do not enter through the Cosmos Club.