Proceedings
of the Sixth Annual NASA Earth Science Technology Conference

NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) held its sixth annual technology conference – ESTC2006 – June 27th-29th, at the University of Maryland Inn and Conference Center in College Park, MD. This year’s conference reflected a broad range of technologies and disciplines within NASA Science Mission Directorate. Over 300 attendees hailed from NASA centers, academia, industry and federal labs.

The ESTC2006 agenda included over 90 technical papers. Earth science technology projects – including instruments, components, advanced information systems, communications, automation, modeling, and high-performance computing – were presented within two parallel tracks of sessions: Track A: Information System Technologies, and Track B: Observation Technologies. A third parallel track of sessions (Track C: SMD Technologies) was added this year to showcase technology developments from across the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD). Track C included a variety of topics, including: astrophysics, planetary, propulsion, and sub-orbital technologies.

ESTC2006 featured a plenary talk by Peter Hughes, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Chief Technologist, and two luncheon talks on climate change given by Dr. John Christy, Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Dr. William Krabill of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch NASA Wallops Flight Facility. In addition, George Komar, the Deputy Associate Administrator for Technology (Acting) for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, led a public, town-hall-style forum on "Future Directions for NASA Science Mission Directorate Technology".

The full proceedings – including abstracts, papers, presentations, an index of authors, and the complete agenda – are available on this site. For more information on ESTO and it's programs, please visit https://esto.nasa.gov

Amy Walton, Deputy ESTO Program Manager
Steve Smith, Conference Organizer
Glenn Prescott, Conference Chairman