Eagle Vision Program Wins Pecora Group Award
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.