{"id":230219,"date":"2025-06-06T03:33:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T17:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=873605"},"modified":"2025-06-06T03:33:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T17:33:34","slug":"nasa-earth-scientist-elected-to-national-academy-of-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=230219","title":{"rendered":"NASA Earth Scientist Elected to National Academy of Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"
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3 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Earth scientist Compton J. Tucker has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his work creating innovative tools to track the planet\u2019s changing vegetation from space. It\u2019s research that has spanned nearly 50 years at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he is a visiting scientist after retiring in March. <\/p>\n

Tucker\u2019s research began with identifying wavelengths of light that are absorbed or reflected as plants undergo photosynthesis, and has evolved into calculating the health and productivity of vegetation over time with satellites. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored and surprised,\u201d Tucker said of his election. \u201cThere were opportunities at the Goddard Space Flight Center that have enabled this work that couldn\u2019t be found elsewhere. There were people who built satellites, who understood satellite data, and had the computer code to process it. All the work I\u2019ve done has been part of a team, with other people contributing in different ways. Working at NASA is a team effort of science and discovery that\u2019s fun and intellectually rewarding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/figure>
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Earth scientist Compton Tucker, who has studied remote sensing of vegetation at NASA Goddard for 50 years, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.<\/div>\n
Courtesy Compton Tucker<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tucker earned his master\u2019s and doctoral degrees from Colorado State University, where he worked on a National Science Foundation-funded project analyzing spectrometer data of grassland ecosystems. In 1975, he came to NASA Goddard<\/a> as a postdoctoral fellow and used what he learned in his graduate work to modify the imager on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorological satellites and modify Landsat<\/a>\u2019s thematic mapper instrument.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He became a civil servant at the agency in 1977, and continued work with radiometers to study vegetation \u2013 first with handheld devices, then with NOAA\u2019s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite instruments.\u00a0\u00a0He has also used data from Landsat satellites, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments<\/a>, and commercial satellites. His scientific papers have been cited 100,000 times, and one of his recent studies mapped\u00a010 billion individual trees<\/a>\u00a0across Africa\u2019s drylands to inventory carbon storage at the tree level.<\/p>\n

“The impact of Compton Tucker’s work over the last half-century at Goddard is incredible,\u201d said Dalia Kirschbaum, director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard. \u201cAmong his many achievements, he essentially developed the technique of using satellites to study photosynthesis from plants, which people have used to monitor droughts, forecast crop shortages, defeat the desert locust, and even predict disease outbreaks. This is a well-deserved honor.”<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/figure>
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Goddard scientist Compton Tucker’s work using remote sensing instruments to study vegetation involved field work in Iceland in 1976, left, graduate student research at Colorado State University in the early 1970s, top right, and analyzing satellite data stored on tape reels at Goddard.<\/div>\n
Courtesy Compton Tucker<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The National Academy of Sciences was proposed by Abraham Lincoln and established by Congress in 1863, charged with advising the United States on science and technology. Each year, up to 120 new members are elected \u201cin recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,\u201d according to the organization.<\/p>\n

In addition his role as a visiting scientist at Goddard, Tucker is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and a consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s University Museum. He was awarded the National Air and Space Collins Trophy for Current Achievement in 1993 and the Vega Medal by the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography in 2014. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union, and won the Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 2017, among other honors. <\/p>\n

By <\/strong>Kate Ramsayer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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