"Vital Signs: Taking the Pulse of Our Planet" was the theme for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's fifteenth installment of its annual lecture and reception sponsored by the Maryland Space Business Roundtable. Published on Oct 23, 2014

Earth is a complex, dynamic system we do not yet fully understand. Like the human body, the Earth system comprises diverse components that interact in complex ways.

On this global tour, scientists lead the viewer through Earth's water cycle, forests and frozen regions as seen through the eyes of NASA's Earth observing satellite fleet. They share a story of how we can make life better today and into the future.

NASA's Earth science program aims to develop a greater understanding of Earth's system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to improve predictions of climate, weather and natural disasters.

The lecture features:

Lennard Fisk, Ph.D, Distinguished University Professor of Space Science, University of Michigan
INTRODUCTION

Gail Skofronick-Jackson, Ph.D, Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on THE WATER CYCLE

Thorsten Markus, Ph.D Project Scientist for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2)
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on SEA ICE

Lola Fatoyinbo-Agueh, Ph.D, Principal Investigator, (Eco-Synthetic Aperture Radar) (EcoSAR)
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, LAND AND EARTH

Piers Sellers, Deputy Director, Science and Exploration Directorate, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, THE BIG PICTURE

Pioneers Nitin Desai, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Bill Ford, Yolanda Kakabadse, Maurice Strong,  Jim MacNeill, and Achim Steiner , highlight the historic nature of the original Rio Earth Summit, while acknowledging its shortcomings. Rio+20 takes place in June 2012.