Building Foresight for Earth Science, featuring Lindsey Jacobson
NASA’s Earth-observing satellite missions track dozens of features of a changing planet — aerosols, sea levels, land cover, cloud cover — over years and decades. Sustaining that record for the scientific and operational communities who depend on it requires more than engineering talent. It requires planning for an uncertain future: anticipating where a mission delay […]
NASA’s Earth-observing satellite missions track features like aerosols, sea levels, land cover and cloud cover over years and decades. Sustaining that record requires planning for an uncertain future, including anticipating disruptions that could create data gaps. Lindsey Jacobson, a NASA Pathways intern in engineering, supports the Earth Science Division through NASA's NESSIE team.
NESSIE works to anticipate disruptions before they happen and provides senior leaders with options for managing them. The team builds analysis tools to predict changes in the Earth-observing portfolio and develop strategies to respond, ensuring continued delivery of data to end users. Jacobson’s approach mirrors her graduate research, which focuses on how complex systems must evolve rather than be replaced.
She compares her work to preparing for hurricane season, where proactive measures allow for readiness when disruptions occur.
Written by urgent.news from NASA's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
