WHAT IS NEREID?
NEREID works with academia, industry and research to identify, leverage, amplify and scale efforts to conduct research, develop tools, and engage communities of learners and policymakers in Earth and space science. NEREID recognizes the importance of interdisciplinarity, equity, and the dynamic relationships among data, modeling, and individual perspectives. NEREID facilitates the development and dissemination of accessible and democratized tools and methods and works with systems of education and learning to integrate these tools into education and policy. And NEREID is accomplishing this through the development of a community of practice: a network of practitioners who are aligned in their goals and working together toward a common purpose.
MISSION
NEREID (ˈnirēˌid) catalyzes innovation and convergence in Earth-space data research, education, policy, and industry.
GOAL 1
Build a diverse and inclusive community of practice to explore challenges in Earth-space data science convergence.
GOAL 2
Identify and implement solutions to challenges in teaching, learning, and workforce development with Earth-space data.
GOAL 3
Address society’s greatest challenges through Earth-space data science convergence.
GOAL 1
Build a diverse and inclusive community of practice to explore challenges in Earth-space data science convergence.
GOAL 2
Identify and implement solutions to challenges in teaching, learning, and workforce development with Earth-space data.
GOAL 3
Address society’s greatest challenges through Earth-space data science convergence.
WHY NEREID AND WHY NOW?
We are in the Age of Big Data. The world now creates over 2.5 exabytes of data daily and data from Earth and space sciences represent a significant and important source of these accumulating data. The rapid pace of this revolution in big data has resulted in a widening gap between learning and the demands of the science and engineering workplace. Closing the gap between learning and the demands on the workforce entails cultivating habits of mind needed to understand the value and power of big data. And diverse populations need democratized big data tools and the practical knowledge to use them.
WHY EARTH AND SPACE DATA?
Converging a wide variety of Earth-space data, tools, and techniques relating to human activities provides a pathway to addressing some of humanity’s most difficult and persistent problems, such as cosmic catastrophes (e.g. solar flares, asteroid impacts, gamma ray bursts, etc.), climate change, poverty, access to clean water and food supplies, eradication of disease and other societal needs and challenges. Understanding things such as dark matter and dark energy, and applications for quantum sensing in Earth-space sciences can lead to new discoveries and transformative technologies.
NEREID TIMELINE
Image credits:
Main photo: The Milky Way from Cerro Mayu Observatory near La Serena, Chile. Just above the volcanic dome (bottom right) are the Magellanic Clouds, two near-by irregular dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. In addition, the image captures the open-air astronomical archeology museum at the Observatory. (Credit: M. Dieterich, ACEAP/NSF)
Link to full image (opens in new window)
Goal 1: This image taken from the International Space Station shows an aurora, airglow, one of the oldest impact craters on the Earth (lower right), snow and ice, stars, and light pollution, all examples of the interconnectedness of the Earth and space. (Credit: NASA)
Goal 2: Cameron Beccario, from https://earth.nullschool.net; a visualization of global weather conditions forecast by supercomputers, updated every three hours; ocean surface current estimates updated every five days; ocean surface temperatures and anomaly from daily average (1981-2011) updated daily; ocean waves updated every three hours; aurora updated every thirty minutes.
Link to website (opens in new window)
Goal 3: Earth as art / Lawrence Friedl, Karen Yuen...[et.al.].; NASA Earth Science; Algerian Desert, pp.6-7; Lying amid the Great Eastern Erg, the Great Western Erg, and the Atlas Mountains in Northern Africa, the Sahara Desert in central Algeria is dotted by fragmented mountains (in brown, lower right) where barren, windswept ridges overlook arid plains. In this Landsat 5 image from 2009, a system of dry streambeds crisscrosses the rocky landscape.
