NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan has said her organisation is keen to forge closer links with weather forecasting services around the world.
During a visit to ECMWF on 20 January 2016, Dr Stofan said NASA wanted to make “the best Earth observations possible” and to feed them to “organisations around the world involved in weather forecasting and climate modelling”.
“I think it’s really critical for organisations like NASA and ECMWF to always be looking for ways of how we can make closer ties,” she said. “We’re increasingly going to a global model of international research collaboration.”
Dr Stofan’s visit was part of a European tour which included a talk transmitted to girls’ schools across the UK.
“Diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, especially encouraging girls and other underrepresented groups to go into science, is a big passion of mine,” she explained.
Dr Stofan also talked about current developments at NASA, including plans to send humans to Mars.
“We need to get scientists on the surface of Mars to find out whether life evolved on some body in our solar system besides Earth,” she said. “We think we can get humans safely to Mars, and of course return them home safely, in the 2030s.”
Top photo: NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan (NASA/Joel Kowsky)