NASA Award Recognizes Air Force Remote-Sensing Program
WASHINGTON -- NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior presented the 2010 William T. Pecora group award to the U.S. Air Force Eagle Vision program Tuesday at a Pentagon ceremony. Eagle Vision was recognized for contributions in the United States and abroad to homeland security, humanitarian aid and natural disaster recovery efforts.The program consists of five ground stations capable of retrieving
real-time satellite imagery from numerous commercial Earth-observing
satellites to deliver time-critical precision images to support U.S.
global crisis response. The ground stations are deployable worldwide.
The award was presented to James G. Clark, Air Force director of
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Innovations and
deputy chief of staff for ISR. NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati
and Anne Castle, Interior's assistant secretary for water and
science, made the presentation.
"Eagle Vision is an excellent demonstration of how Earth observations
from space support not only our soldiers and allies, but make a big
contribution to our country's humanitarian efforts at home and
abroad," Abdalati said. "One of NASA's primary missions, according to
our founding charter, is expanding human knowledge of the Earth.
Eagle Vision is an excellent example of the great achievements that
can be realized in Earth science through inter-agency collaboration."
The program was created in 1995 in response to the post-Desert Storm
need for timely, unclassified imagery the U.S. military could share
with our allies. Since then the program has aided natural disaster
relief and humanitarian efforts, including fighting wildfires in
California and relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
Outside the United States, the Eagle Vision team provided support to
19 different disaster events in six different countries during 2009.
Two Eagle Vision units provided Haiti earthquake first responders
with images within 24 hours of the quake.
Units also were deployed to Africa between 2004 and 2007 to collect
commercial satellite imagery of Chad, Mauritania, Uganda, and Niger
to build a broad-area geospatial library for humanitarian support.
NASA and the Department of the Interior present individual and group
Pecora Awards to honor outstanding contributions in the field of
remote sensing and its application to understanding Earth. The award
was established in 1974 to honor the memory of William T. Pecora,
former director of the U.S. Geological Survey and under secretary of
the Department of the Interior.
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
Source: NASA
