ABoVE Cancellations in Response to COVID
Due to the risks and uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided to cancel the 2020 ABoVE airborne campaigns of UAVSAR (L-Band) and AVIRIS-ng. We intend to reschedule these campaigns for 2021.
All NASA-funded ABoVE projects should adhere to the recommendations of their home institutions regarding what, if any, types of field activities might be permitted over the coming months. Moreover, all NASA-funded ABoVE projects must closely follow the recommendations and/or rules issued by federal, state, provincial, territorial, and local governmental entities in Alaska and Canada. The safety of our team is a top priority as is the safety of Indigenous and other local populations in Alaska and Canada.
Given the current circumstances, we expect all NASA-funded ABoVE projects to either cancel or postpone field activities until the situation improves. Those of you who use field logistics resources provided by NASA should review this document on revised protocols. We also need you to let us know if there are any field activities this year that you still hope to conduct.
We will soon begin a process to assess the impacts of these cancellations on your research project and on ABoVE in general. As NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stated regarding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, “We are continuing to work to support our grantees and space act agreement partners. Our goal in all this is to ensure this crisis does not rob us of our most precious resource, our team.”
Hank Margolis, Program Manager
NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program
