|
Home
Curriculum Vitae
McCall Glacier
Photography
Older Projects
Personal
Contact
|
Curriculum Vitae (as
of 2007)
Professional Preparation
Ph.D. in Geophysics, 1998,
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Thesis title: Seismic detection of transient changes
beneath Black Rapids Glacier, Alaska
M.S. in Arctic Engineering, 1992, University of
Alaska Anchorage
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 1988, Carnegie-Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Appointments
Research Associate Professor,
July 2004 to present, UAF/Institute of Northern Engineering
Research Assistant Professor, July 1999 to July 2004, UAF/Institute of
Northern Engineering
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, June 1998 to June 1999, University of Alaska,
Fairbanks
Research Assistant, January 1993 to June 1998, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Publications
Click here to get a concise list of
my publications with links to pdf files.
Research
My goal as a scientist is to improve our understanding
of climate change and its impacts in polar regions. My research covers
a broad scope of topics and methods, and from my perspective I try to
focus on those areas where I can do the most good at the time, rather
than stick with one thing and do it over and over. Climate change in
the Arctic is a serious issue with potential to cause many bad things
to happen that will affect my children and yours, so I think this field
of study is worthwhile not only for professional reasons but for personal
ones as well.
One gap I'm currently trying to
fill is the lack of direct observations of climate change in arctic
Alaska. Towards this end I use glaciers as a proxy for climate in my
McCall Glacier project and I am installing
a network of weather stations throughout the Brooks Range in my ARCN
project. Another gap I see is the lack of long-term climate records
from the terrestrial arctic and the lack of interaction between the
paleoclimate community and modern climate community, thus my involvement
with the Lake El'gygytgyn coring effort.
Of course a big gap exists between polar scientists and the public,
and I am trying to close this with my efforts with Virtual
Globes. Finally, soil moisture plays a key role in arctic ecosystem
dynamics, but there is no method for measuring it accurately from space,
and thus my DInSAR project. It would
be unfair of me to claim that I systematically pre-medidated this research
scope, as funding availability has a lot do with dictating my efforts
as a soft-money scientist, but there is a method to my madness and I
have tried to make that clear in this CV.
I have tried to categorize my
efforts by science theme, and have come with five broad, related categories:
Glaciology, Limnology, Hydrology, Terrain Visualization, and Engineering.
| Glaciology:
Arctic Glaciers |
Overview
I have been studying glaciers in the geographically-defined Arctic
since 2003, when I rescued a long-term project on McCall Glacier,
which began in 1957 and had been discontinued in 2001. Since then,
I have expanded west, and am now studying all glaciers in the Brooks
Range. Funding for these efforts has come from NSF, NASA, NPS, and
USGS thus far. My primary interests here are trying to understand
glacier-climate interactions and ice volume change over the past
150 years to the next 150 years. These funded projects are now convolved
into the Glaciodyn project, the lead project on Arctic Glaciers
for the International Polar Year, coordinated through the IASC Working
Group on Arctic Glaciers.
|
Arctic Glacier Proposals
NSF, 2001, funded: “Detection and attribution of changes in
the hydrologic regimes of the Mackenzie, the Kuparuk and the Lena
River Basins.” PIs: Larry Hinzman, Matt Nolan, Kenji Yoshikawa,
Doug Kane, $2,371,350, 5 years
National Park Service, 2005, funded: “Climate and Hydrology
Scoping in the Arctic Network (ARCN) of National Parklands”,
PI: Matt Nolan, $98,335, 3 years.
NSF, 2006 (pending), “Improving mass balance and glacier dynamics
modeling on Arctic glaciers for better prediction and hindcasting”,
PI: Matt Nolan, $498k, 3 years.
NSF, 2004, declined: “Bridging the scale-gap between Global
Circulation Models and Automatic Weather Stations: Air temperature
modeling on McCall Glacier.” PIs: David Atkinson and Matt
Nolan, $196,262, 2 years
NSF, 2005, declined: “IPY: Collaborative Research: Glaciodyn's
observations networks and education program”, PI: Matt Nolan,
$661k. |
Peer-reviewed
Papers on Arctic Glaciers
Nolan, Matt, Anthony Arendt, Bernhard Rabus, and Larry Hinzman,
2005. Volume change of McCall Glacier, Arctic Alaska, from 1956
to 2003. Annals of Glaciology, 42: 409-416.
Frank Pattyn, Matt Nolan, and Bernhard Rabus, 2005. Localized
basal motion of a polythermal Arctic glacier: McCall Glacier,
Alaska, U.S.A. Annals of Glaciology, 40: 47-51.
Klok, Lisette, Matt Nolan, and Michiel van den Broeke, 2006. Analysis
of meteorological data and the surface energy balance of McCall
Glacier, Alaska. Journal of Glaciology, 51 (174): 451-461.
Weller, Gunter, Matt Nolan, Gerd Wendler, Carl Benson, Keith Echelmeyer
and Norbert Untersteiner, in press. Fifty years of McCall Glacier
research: from the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58 to
the International Polar Year, 2007-08. Arctic (scheduled for pub.
in March 2007). |
Presentations
(last 3 years)
NorthWest Glaciology, 17-18 Oct 03, Portland, OR
- Talk: “McCall Glacier’s 46th Year of Scientific Research”
Glacier Automatic Weather Stations, 28-31 March 04, Pontresina,
Switzerland
- Talk: “Automated Weather Stations on McCall Glacier”
2004 ARCSS-FWI All-hands Meeting, 2-4 May 04, Woods Hole, MA
- Poster: “The role of glaciers in studying the Arctic’s
freshwater cycle” (sent poster, did not attend)
IGS Symposium on Arctic Glaciers, 22 Aug – 3 Sept 04 (including
post-conference excursion), Geilo, Norway
- Talk: “Volume change of McCall Glacier, Arctic Alaska, from
1956 to 2003”, Matt Nolan (presenting), Anthony Arendt, Bernhard
Rabus, and Larry Hinzman
NorthWest Glaciology, 14-16 October, Seattle Washington
- Talk: “What’s been happening lately on McCall Glacier”
USFWS, 7 Dec 04, Fairbanks AK
- Invited Talk: “Glaciology in the Romanzov Mountains: A Photographic
History of the Past 100 Years”; a luncheon reception was held
to honor my efforts to clean up McCall Glacier in ANWR and present
me with pins and plaques signed at the national level
AGU, 13-17 Dec 04, San Francisco, CA
- Convened “Uses of Photography in Cryospheric Studies”
- Hosted press conference associated with session; made front page
news in SF Chronicle during meeting and numerous publications afterwards
- Talk: “Uses of Several Photographic Methods to Detect Changes
of Glaciers in Arctic Alaska”, Matt Nolan (presenting) and
Shuhei Takahashi
- Talk: “Evidence and Implications of Recent Climate Change
in Northern Alaska and Other Arctic Regions”, Larry Hinzman
(presenting) and 12 others
IASC Working Group on Arctic Glaciers, 12-15 Jan 05, Pontresina,
Switzerland
- Talk: “Mass balance measurements in Arctic Alaska”
Northwest Glaciology, 21-22 Oct 06, Vancouver, Canada
- Talk: “Virtual tour of McCall Glacier”
AGU, 5-9 Dec 05
- Convened “Exploring Uncertainty in Glacier/Ice-Sheet Mass-Balance
Change Posters” with Jason Box
- Poster: “Glaciological observations on McCall glacier, Alaska,
in 2003-2004”, Shuhei Takahashi (presenting), K Satow, J Uetake,
K Sato, M Nolan and M Igarashi
IASC Working Group on Arctic Glaciers, 30 Jan – 03 Feb 06,
Innsbruck, Austria
- Talk: “Mass balance and velocity studies on McCall Glacier”
- Talk: “Education and outreach ideas for Glaciodyn”
NPS Climate Scoping Workshop, 6-9 Dec 06, Bodega Bay, CA
- Convener: Responsible for running the entire workshop
|
Professional
Service
IASC Working group on Arctic Glacier US Representative (2003-present)
Glaciodyn Education and Outreach Chair (2005-present)
International Glaciological Society Alaska Section Correspondent
(2001-present)
Paper and proposal reviews |
| Glaciology: Antarctic Glaciers |
Overview
This work largely followed up on PhD thesis research, using seismic
techniques to better understand the dynamics of fast glacier flow
in the Siple Coast ice streams. These glaciers move considerably
faster than the surrounding ice sheet, even though there is little
difference in surface topography. We worked in the headwaters of
these ice streams, which had not previously been investigated, during
a 1000-mile snow-machine traverse. The key question to be answered
was “Why do the ice streams start here and not somewhere else?”
I was not the lead on this project and the continuing research is
being conducted as a PhD thesis at another university, so there
are no planned outcomes from my contribution to this research. |
Proposals
University of Texas Austin, 2002: “Seismic investigation of
Ice Streams C and D, Antarctica.” PI: Matt Nolan, $23,668,
1 year |
| Glaciology: Sub-arctic
Glaciers |
Overview
My PhD Thesis work related to understanding the mechanism of basal
motion beneath glaciers, and focused on Black Rapids Glacier in the
Alaska Range. Specifically, I developed a seismic technique to measure
temporal changes of the bed of this glacier that can be applied to
any other glacier. Using this technique, I was able to measure reversible
changes in sub-glacier till saturation on the scale of minutes and
relate these to changes in ice-surface motion. The observations led
to new ideas behind the mechanisms of fast glacier flow and how subglacial
water moves through the glacier system. My collaborators and I are
continuing to pursue research on Black Rapids Glaciers and its neighbors,
but so far without funding. I also worked on Taku Glacier, determining
that it was the thickest glacier in North America (yet measured) using
seismic techniques and rewrote the history of its dynamics based on
this information. We are still continuing to pursue funding and projects
here. |
Proposals
NSF, 2004, Declined: “How is Glacier Dynamics Affected by Climate”,
PI: Martin Truffer, Co-PI: Matt Nolan, $577k. |
Peer-reviewed Papers
Nolan, Matt, Roman Motyka, Keith Echelmeyer, and Dennis Trabant, 1996.
Ice-thickness measurements of Taku Glacier, Alaska, and their relevance
to its dynamics. Journal of Glaciology 41 (139).
Nolan, Matt and Keith Echelmeyer, 1999. Seismic detection of transient
changes beneath Black Rapids Glacier, Alaska, Part One: Observations.
Journal of Glaciology 49 (149).
Nolan, Matt and Keith Echelmeyer, 1999. Seismic detection of transient
changes beneath Black Rapids Glacier, Alaska, Part Two: Basal morphology
and processes. Journal of Glaciology 49 (149).
Raymond, Charlie and Matt Nolan, 2000. Drainage of a glacial lake
through an ice spillway. International workshop on debris-covered
glaciers, Seattle, WA. IAHS.
Nolan, Matt, 2003. The Galloping Glacier Trots: Decadal-scale speed
oscillations in the quiescent phase. Annals of Glaciology, 36, p7-13. |
| Limnology: Lake El’gygytgyn |
Overview
This lake in the Siberian Arctic formed inside of an impact crater
that hit 3.5 million years ago, and the sediments at the bottom
of this lake hold what promises to be an excellent climate record
since that time. My involvement began here by conducting the first
seismic investigations of the impact structure and sediment thickness,
and have gradually evolved into modern process studies, primarily
related to hydrology, limnology, and weather. It
was 10 years or more of pretty hard work, but we now have approximately
$8M in total funding for our upcoming drilling project. The next
steps in my part of our new project are to answer the questions:
“What climate(s) is necessary to maintain a lake ice cover
throughout the summer?” and “What are the dominant weather
systems that affect local climate and how might these have changed
over time?”
|
Proposals
NSF, 2005, funded: “Collaborative Research: Arctic Paleoclimate
of the last 3.6 My: Scientific Drilling at Lake El'gygytgyn, NE Russia”
PI: Matt Nolan, $203,201, 4 years
NSF, 1999, funded: “Watershed Scale Hydrologic Process Study
of Lake El’gygytgyn, Siberia: A Pilot Project” PIs: Matt
Nolan and Larry Hinzman, $49,999, 1 year
NSF, 1999, funded: “Research for Undergraduates: Watershed Scale
Hydrologic Process Study of Lake El’gygtgyn, Siberia: A Pilot
Project” PI: Matt Nolan, $5,991, 1 year
NASA, 1999, funded: Commercial Remote Sensing Data Purchase Task Request
#659 (Lake El’gygytgyn Ikonos Imagery), $46,309.20 PIs Larry
Hinzman and Matt Nolan
NSF, 2002, not funded: “Lake-ice controls on biogeochemical
cycling within Arctic lakes.” PI: Matt Nolan, $321,617, 3 years.
NSF, 2002, not funded: “Using Modern System Science at Lake
El'gygytgyn, Siberia, to interpret a 300 ka Climate Record from the
western Arctic.” PI: Matt Nolan, $345,304, 3 years
NSF, 2002, not funded: “Paleoecology of the Bering Land Bridge
Reconstructed from Cores of Imuruk Lake, Seward Peninsula, Alaska.”
PIs- Sarah Fowell, David Stone, Jim Beget, Bruce Finney, Matt Nolan,
$527,000, 3 years
NSF, 2000, not funded: “Hydrological, Meteorological, Limnological,
Geomorphological, and Paleoenvironmental Studies at Lake El’gygytgyn,
Siberia”. Submitted to the Biocomplexity of the Environment
Program. PI: Matt Nolan, $1,633,312, 3 years
NSF, 1999, not funded: “Hydrologic, thermal, and climate studies
of Lake El’gygytgyn, Siberia”, PIs: Matt Nolan and Larry
Hinzman, $1,271,000, 3 years
NSF, 1999, not funded: “Geophysical Exploration of El’gygtgyn
Crater, Chukotka, Russia” , PIs: David Stone, Matt Nolan, and
Buck Sharpton. $347,754, 3 years |
Peer-reviewed Papers
Nolan, Matt and Julie Brigham-Grette, in press. Basic hydrology, limnology,
and meteorology of modern Lake El’gygytgyn. Journal of Paleolimnology.
Nolan, Matt, Glen Liston, Peter Prokein, Julie Brigham-Grette, Virgil
Sharpton, and Rachel Huntzinger, 2003. Analysis of Lake Ice Dynamics
and Morphology on Lake El'gygytgyn, Siberia, using SAR and Landsat.
J. Geophys. Research, 108 (D2) 8062, doi:10.1029/2001JD000934.
N.R. Nowaczyk, P. Minyuk, M. Melles, J. Brigham-Grette, O. Glushkova,
M. Nolan, A.V. Lozhkin, T.V. Stetsenko, P. Andersen, S.L. Forman,
2002. Magnetostratigraphic results from impact crater Lake El'gygytgyn,
north-eastern Siberia: a 300 ka long terrestrial paleoclimatic record
from the Arctic. Geophysical Journal International, V150, p109-126. |
Presentations (last 3 years)
Lake El’gygytgyn Science Steering Committee Meeting, 24-26 March
04, Leipzig, Germany
- Talk: “Basic hydrology, limnology, and climatology of the
El’gygytgyn Crater region” |
Professional Service
Lake El’gygytgyn Science Steering Committee |
| Limnology: Alaska Tundra Ponds |
Overview
Oil exploration in Alaska requires the construction of ice roads during
winter for transportation to and from drill sites. However, the long-term
consequences of extracting water from nearby ponds is largely unknown.
I was contracted by BP to conduct a review of the peer-reviewed literature
that might be related to this concern. While I did not find any papers
that directly addressed this, I created an annotated bibliography
of 200 papers that would provide the necessary background to anyone
interested in the topic, such that they would have the scientific
background necessary to formulate testable hypotheses related to potential
impacts. Though this did not result in a peer-reviewed paper, I have
received great feedback on the report and feel it is a solid contribution
to resolving the issue. |
Proposals
British Petroleum, 2002: “Review of long-term impacts on water
pumping from Arctic lakes”. PI: Matt Nolan, $49,959, 2 years |
Primary outcomes
Nolan, Matt, 2005. An annotated bibliography of research related to
the possible long-term impacts of pumping water from tundra ponds
for the creation of ice roads. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute
of Northern Engineering Report 05-02, 128 pages. |
| Hydrology: Remote-sensing of Soil Moisture |
Overview
A broad range of end-users are interested remote measurement of soil
moisture, from farmers, to the military, to climate-change scientists.
The problem is that there is no viable technique to do so on spatial
scales of less than a kilometer. I recently developed a technique
to measure soil moisture using differential SAR interferometry that
has the potential to fill this gap. Funding has been primarily from
the military. I was recently funded to follow up on this research
with another large military grant, through their DEPSCOR program.
The next steps here are to conduct highly controlled lab work using
an anechoic chamber that will unambiguously determine whether our
methods are valid or not (and indicate ways for improvement) and analyze
time-series of archived SAR data from other terrain types to determine
the practical robustness of the technique. Preliminary results from
this new project are encouraging and we have a suite of papers in
progress. |
Proposals
DoD, 2004, funded: “DInSAR measurement of soil moisture”,
PI: Matt Nolan, $900,000, 3 years.
UAF ARSC, 2001, funded: “Feasibility studies of using interferometric
and visualization software at ARSC.” PI: Matt Nolan, $33,976,
1 year
DoD, 2000, funded: “SAR Interferometric Studies of Soil Moisture.”
PIs: Matt Nolan and Larry Hinzman, $250,000, 1 year
DoD, 1999, funded: “Developing A Capability to Estimate Soil
Surface Moisture Level in Multiple Landscape Types” PIs: Larry
Hinzman and Matt Nolan. $399,000, 1 year
DoD, 1999, funded: “Investigating the Capability to Estimate
Soil Surface Moisture Level and Trafficability in Multiple Landscape
Types” PIs: Larry Hinzman and Matt Nolan. $206,000, 6 months
NASA, 1999, funded: “Analysis of SAR data for fire danger prediction
in boreal Alaska”, PIs: Laura Chavez and Matt Nolan: $99,713,
1 year
NASA, 2002, not funded: “Improving our soil-moisture modeling-infrastructure
using time-series made from DInSAR.” PI: Matt Nolan, $900,000,
three years.
DoD, 2002, not funded: “Soil Moisture Mapping using SAR.”
PIs: Matt Nolan and Larry Hinzman, $50,000, 1 year
NASA, 1999, not funded: “SAR analyses of temporal changes in
Arctic soil moisture”, PIs: Matt Nolan and Larry Hinzman: $89,668.74
NASA, 1999, not funded: “The Living Map Project: A SAR-based
Time/Space Visualization and Analysis System”, PIs: Rob Fatland
and Matt Nolan: $100,000
DoD, 1999, not funded: “SARfari: A tool for SAR Measurement,
Analysis, and Visualization of Temporal Changes in Soil Moisture and
Vehicle Trafficability”, PIs: Matt Nolan, Larry Hinzman, and
Rob Fatland: $483,497, 3 years |
Peer-reveiwed Papers
Nolan, Matt, Dennis R. Fatland, and Larry Hinzman, 2003. DInSAR measurement
of soil moisture. IEEE Transactions in Geoscience and Remote Sensing,
IEEE Transactions in Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 41(12), 2802-2813.
Nolan, Matt and Dennis R. Fatland, 2003. New topographic maps may
stimulate advancements in the DInSAR measurement of soil moisture
and surface deformation. EOS, 84(25), 24 June 03, p 235.
Nolan, Matt and Dennis R. Fatland, 2003. Penetration depth as a DInSAR
observable and proxy for soil moisture. IEEE Transactions in Geoscience
and Remote Sensing, 41(3), p532-537. |
Meetings (last 3 years)
Army Research Lab’s Soil Moisture Advisory Workshop, 8-9 Jan
04, Boston, MA
- Invited participation (expenses paid)
IGARRS, 20-24 Sept 04, Anchorage, AK
- Talk: “Soil Moisture as Signal and Error in SAR Interferometry”,
Matt Nolan (presenting), Dennis R. Fatland, Larry Hinzman
AGU, 5-9 Dec 05
- Talk: “Soil moisture as signal and noise in SAR interferometry”,
Matt Nolan (presenting), Bernhard Rabus, Alessandro Ferretti, Keith
Morrison, and Kais Khadra
- Poster: “Phase Sensitiveness to Soil Moisture in Controlled
Anechoic Chamber: Measurements and First Results”, Kais Khadra
and Matt Nolan (presenting) |
| Hydrology: Permafrost Hydrology |
Overview
I spent a lot of (largely unfunded) time participating in permafrost
hydrology research. For example, I initiated the idea for a redevelopment
of WERC’s hydrological model, then found and contracted a professional
programmer/scientist to do the work. I was the principle architect
in the new code’s development and organized a workshop to reveal
the progress and solicit suggestions for further development. This
model is now in the hands of over a dozen hydrologists in a variety
of countries, and will likely lead to a commercial release in the
next few years. Many of my other research themes contribute to this
theme as well, including my work with terrain visualization and acquiring
new digital elevation models in Arctic Alaska. My contributions to
this research typically involve developing new analysis technique
made possible by the acquisition of new DEMs. |
Proposals
UAF IARC, 2001, funded: “Studies of permafrost hydrology in
the Kuparuk River Basin.” PI: Matt Nolan. $45,390, 1 year
UAF, 2002, funded: “Oil Spill Detection Along the Trans Alaska
Pipeline Using Synthetic Aperture Radar.” PIs: Peter Prokein
and Matt Nolan, $2500, 1 year
UAF, 2000, not funded: “Creation of a Center of Excellence for
Permafrost Hydrology Research” PIs: Larry Hinzman, Matt Nolan,
Kenji Yoshikawa, $94,000/year
NSF, 2002, not funded: “Arctic Hydrology in Time and Space:
A Field and Modeling Study Coupled with the Earth Sciences.”
PIs: Doug Kane, Matt Nolan, Larry Hinzman, Jim McNamara, Jeremy Jones,
$2,375,180, 5 years |
Primary outcomes
Hinzman, Larry, Matt Nolan, and 8 others, 2000. Estimating snowpack
distribution over a large arctic watershed. Water resources in extreme
environments. AWRA, Middleburg, Virginia, 342 pp. Douglas Kane, Ed.
Nolan, Matt, and Peter Prokein, 2003. Evaluation of a new DEM of the
Putuligayuk Watershed for Arctic hydrological applications. Proceedings
of the 8th International Permafrost Conference, Zurich, Switzerland,
July 2003; Phillips, Springman and Arenson, Eds.
TopoFlow software development (2001-2002). More information on the
model can be found here: http://instaar.colorado.edu/topoflow/ |
| EarthSLOT and Terrain Visualization |
Overview
My scientific research in hydrology, limnology and glaciology has
made me aware that the quality of the topographic and imagery data
available to us in the Arctic needs considerable improvement. I therefore
have spent a major portion of my research activity in either improving
these data or educating the community about the problem. This activity
often takes the form of proposals to acquire new topographic or imagery
data, as well publishing sets of CDs or DVDs for distribution to the
scientific community and the public. My most recent activity combines
sophisticated GIS and visualization software with publicly available
data to visualize the entire earth at high spatial resolution (15
m or better) in an on-line, interactive 3D environment with video
game quality. The site can be found at www.earthslot.org. This has
been a highly collaborative project with a large variety of researchers
and educators and consumed a huge amount of my research activity.
The ultimate goal of the project is to improve our stewardship of
the planet through a better understanding of it, derived largely from
federally funded research. At the time we developed it, there was
no other tool of its kind. Now that similar tools such as Google Earth
are so popular (with over 100 million unique-user downloads), I am
beginning to transition out of the server-side business and devote
more effort to convening workshops to promote use of all virtual globe
tools. In July of 2006, I convened the First Annual Virtual Globe
User’s Conference (in Boulder CO), which had 70 attendees and
was well-received. At the Fall AGU meeting, I convened an education
session on virtual globes. In June 2007 I am convening the 2nd annual
users conference as a special session within the 5th International
Symposium on Digital Earth, a high-profile meeting that happens every
2 years. |
Proposals
NSF, 2005, funded: “EarthSLOT” PI: Matt Nolan, $110,468,
1 year (ongoing)
NSF, 2004, funded: “Creation of EarthSLOT: an Earth Science,
Logistics, and Outreach Terrainbase.” PI: Matt Nolan. $199,999,
1 year.
NSF, 2001, funded: “Purchase and Distribution of a New Digital
Model of the Kuparuk Watershed, Alaska for NSF Scientists.”
PI: Matt Nolan. $133,667, 1 year
NASA, 2000, funded: “3-D Imaging and near real time weather
viewing of 11 Alaska Mountain Passes/Gaps.” PIs: Diane Marshall,
Matt Nolan, Jim Harpring, $300,000, 2 years (Another $1.5 M went to
the vendors for new DEMs and imagery)
Intermap Technology Corp, 2000, funded: “Computer Visualizations
of new Digital Elevation Models.” To Intermap Technology Corporation.
PI: Matt Nolan, $20,830, 1 year
NASA, 1999, funded: Commercial Remote Sensing Data Purchase Task Request
#832 (Kuparuk River Watershed DEM), $200,000 (This money was paid
directly to vendor from NASA), PIs Larry Hinzman and Matt Nolan
UAF, 2000, not funded: “Visualization of the Fairbanks Area
Natural Resources via Interactive Computer Animation” UA Natural
Resource Fund. PI: Matt Nolan, $29,222 |
Primary outcomes
EarthSLOT (2004 to present). An on-line, interactive 3D visualization
of the entire globe: www.earthslot.org. This GIS tool is currently
used as a science integration and outreach tool by NSF funded researchers,
and currently supports many layers of data overlays of use to a wide
variety of end-users. It is free for use by the general public and
will hopefully become a central tool for IPY. I was directly involved
with the development of over 20 applications using EarthSLOT, primarily
for Arctic data retrieval or visualization.
Kuparuk River DEM Distribution (2002). A set of 8 DVDs containing
data and visualizations of a digital elevation model of the Kuparuk
River (about 8000 square km). These DVDs contain the raw data, various
ways of merging them, visualizations, validation data, stream channel
networks, and a pdf bibliography of related research. This set is
now available through the Joint Office for Scientific Support, an
NSF-run archive and distribution center. I believe that over 15 sets
have been ordered already. Many of these visualizations are available
on my web site.
Intermap Technologies CDs (2001). A set of 9 CDs containing 3D visualizations
of topography data and other 2D visualizations. These visualizations
are used by the commercial company Intermap Technologies Corp in their
sales and tutorial meetings.
Lake El’gygytgyn CD (2000). A series of visualizations of Lake
El’gygytgyn, Siberia, and distributed these in CD format. Approximately
50 of these CDs have been distributed to a variety of scientists and
interested persons. The visualizations include merging of remote sensing
data (Ikonos, Landsat, SAR) and topography, for realistic fly-throughs.
They are organized and intended to allow scientists to better understand
this interesting impact crater and the lake within it. Most of these
visualizations are also available through my web site. |
Presentations (last 3 years)
SEARCH Open Science Meeting, 30 Oct 03, Seattle, WA
- Poster: “The SEARCH for new DEMs in the Arctic”, Matt
Nolan (presenting), Larry Hinzman, Kenji Yoshikawa, and Doug Kane
NSF’s Arctic GIS Needs Assessement Workshop, 31 Oct 03, Seattle,
WA
- Invited participation (expenses paid)
AGU, 8-12 Dec 03, San Francisco, CA (did not attend)
- Poster: “IPY: An excellent opportunity to improve Arctic DEMs
and document today's Arctic for future generations”, Matt Nolan
(presented by Paul Overduin)
NSF, 16 Jan 06, Washington, DC
- Talk: “EarthSLOT: An Earth Science, Logistics, and Outreach
Terrainbase”
AGU, 13-17 Dec 04, San Francisco, CA
- Invited Talk: “Potential Uses of EarthSLOT (an Earth Science,
Logistics, and Outreach Terrainbase) for Education and Integration
in the International Polar Year”, Matt Nolan (presenting)
- Poster: “EarthSLOT (an Earth Science, Logistics, and Outreach
Terrainbase): Or, How You Can Create 3D, Interactive Visualizations
of the Earth with Little or No Funds.” Peter Prokein (presenting)
and Matt Nolan
NSF, 24 March 05, Washington, DC
- Talk: “EarthSLOT: An Earth Science Logistics and Outreach
Terrainbase”; brief NSF program managers on EarthSLOT, well-received
NASA, 25 March 05, Washington, DC
- Talk: “EarthSLOT: An Earth Science Logistics and Outreach
Terrainbase”; brief NASA program managers on EarthSLOT, very
well-received
DLESE, 18-20 April 05, Breckenridge, CO
- Invited Keynote Talk (expenses paid): “EarthSLOT: An Earth
Science Logistics and Outreach Terrainbase”
Poles Together Workshop, 20-22 July 2006, Boulder, CO
- Invited Talk: “Virtual Globes in IPY”, presented remotely
in 3D from Fairbanks
Northwest Glaciology, 21-22 Oct 06, Vancouver, Canada
- Talk: “Virtual tour of McCall Glacier”
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, 28 Oct 06, Greenbelt, MD
- Invited talk (expenses paid): “Virtual globes in science and
education” (telecast to all NASA facilities)
ARSC Workshop, 1 March 06
- Convener: “Overview of Online 3D Terrain Visualization and
GIS tools”
American Association of Geographers, 7-11 March 06, Chicago, Il
- Invited Panelee: Sat on a panel of experts on virtual globe technology |
Professional Service
Iditarod in 3D. In 2005 and 2006, I tracked the Iditarod sled dog
race in 3D using EarthSLOT. This effort received nationwide press
coverage and I received lots of positive feedback locally. The basic
idea is that users could interactively visualize the race route in
high resolution (15 m) 3D, and we updated the positions of the mushers
every 15 minutes or so. We made a series of movies going from checkpoint
to checkpoint, and these were widely downloaded and reutilized on
other websites.
|
| Engineering |
Overview
I have a number of pet projects that I spend personal time working
on, and I have tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to pursue several of
these professionally. I live in a cabin that is off the GVEA electrical
grid, I heat with wood, and am generally into implementing ideas that
relate to this lifestyle. A few of the projects listed above could
also fit into this category, as most of my research involves new engineering
development of equipment or techniques. |
Proposals
UAF, 2003, funded: “Development and testing of a remotely controlled
airborne geophysical instrument platform.” PI: Matt Nolan, Co-PI:
Kristin Nolan, $2500.
DOE, 2002, not funded: “Case studies of remote power generation
by home owners in the greater Fairbanks area.” PI: Matt Nolan,
$37,500, 2 years
DOE, 2002, not funded: “Thermal and electrical energy generation
in cold climates using low-cost wood stoves.” PI: Matt Nolan,
$75,000, 2 years
DOE, 2002, not funded: “Rural power production from waste heat.”
PI: Matt Nolan, $30,000, 1 year.
UAF EPSCOR, 2002, not funded: “Cumulative impacts of road construction
on the surface and groundwater hydrology in discontinuous permafrost
terrain.” PI: Kenji Yoshikawa and Matt Nolan, $20,000, 1 year
UAF EPSCOR, 2002, not funded: “Satellite measurement of the
interaction between soil moisture and roadways in the Arctic.”
PI: Matt Nolan, $20,000, 1year |
|
