Studying Earth from Space

UNC Asheville Student Abby Sgan Interns with NASA DEVELOP

By UNC Asheville

November 22^nd, 2022

UNC Asheville environmental studies major Abby Sgan was over the moon when she found out she’d be spending the summer interning with NASA—though her projects kept her firmly rooted on planet Earth.

“My team is researching sediment dynamics in the York River Basin of the Chesapeake Bay,” Sgan explained. “Our project partners are the Department of Environmental Quality in Virginia; we're using NASA satellite Earth observations to conduct feasibility projects with these partners to address community concerns.”

Sgan spent 10 weeks during the summer of 2022 as a participant in NASA’s Applied Sciences’ DEVELOP National Program, which addresses environmental and public policy issues through interdisciplinary research projects.

“We’re doing research on sediment flows and how that affects water quality,” Sgan said. “It's going to build the framework for future feasibility projects, and to determine if they can do future work with NASA Earth observations, like we're doing right now."

Every day Sgan would join her project group to work collaboratively to create deliverables—a presentation, poster, technical paper, project summary paper, and a website image—for their community partner, which could be used in their ongoing work surrounding sediment dynamics and turbidity in the York River.

The project required the use of remote sensing technology like ArcGIS—programs Sgan, as the youngest participant in her group of primarily graduate students, hadn’t had the opportunity to work with yet. She took the opportunity to learn from her peers and get a head-start on her continuing education.

“There are so many people from all education levels. Because I’m early in my education, there's so much capacity to learn from them,” Sgan said. “Just being exposed to all of this scientific information and knowledge, it’s a giant opportunity. You're busy, you're making your deliverables, you're working with your team, but there's just so much out there to learn.”

Participating in DEVELOP allowed Sgan to build upon her lifelong passion for Earth science and her work in environmental studies at UNC Asheville. Inspired by her peers in DEVELOP, Sgan hopes to continue that work in grad school.

“I would like to go to grad school one day. Working with my coworkers has made me realize that. They're so invested in their work, and everything they do is so specialized,” Sgan said. She also likes the idea of returning to DEVELOP for another term as a grad student as well. But first, she still has two more years of undergraduate work at UNC Asheville.

“I tell people about UNC Asheville all the time, how invested the professors are in the material,” Sgan said. “Especially now, the need to study Earth science is so urgent with climate change. It feels extra exciting when you're part of something like DEVELOP, or you're learning in a classroom about these things that could benefit us as a community in the future.”

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