ULRMC Represented at Global Change Conference

30 April 2003 - ULRMC technical experts, Dr. Mykola Zalogin and David Schaub, recently attended a workshop held in Suzdal, Russia as part of the Northern Eurasia Environmental Partnership Initiative (NEESPI). The workshop brought together nearly 100 scientists and administrators from 10 countries to develop a science plan for a new international project led by NASA and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Zalogin and Schaub were the only attendees from Ukraine, however they were accompanied by a colleague from the United States, Dr. Nancy French, who is an expert on boreal forests.

The NEESPI sessions were a chance for scientists to share their views on the major environmental factors that impact global climate. As the largest sink of organic carbon on earth, northern Eurasia plays a vital role in controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Most climatologists suspect that recent increases in carbon dioxide are related to warmer temperatures globally. Understanding the impacts of land changes in this region is crucial if we want to predict what will happen to the earth's climate.

At the conference, Zalogin and Schaub presented a poster on their recent work in collaboration with forest experts from National Agrarian University on modeling carbon cycle changes due to forest fires. The research work demonstrated the application of satellite imagery for quantifying carbon loss in forests of Polissia. This is a natural extension of ULRMC's fire monitoring program based on its daily downloads of NOAA-AVHRR data.

ULRMC hopes to promote Ukrainian participation in the NEESPI program by collaborating with American researchers on future projects.