Highlights for March 5, 1999
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Lotus Update: John Clark of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics is in Reston March 1-5 as the Biological Resources Division representative to the Lotus Implementation Group. The team is meeting with Notes design engineers to begin the process of designing the next USGS messaging and collaborative system. The first priority is designing a common Division-wide electronic mail system. (John Clark, Denver, 303-202-4244)
  
• USGS-NASA Address Leafy Spurge in National Park. Ralph Root of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics is working with a team of scientists exploring the potential for detecting and mapping leafy spurge at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Root has been asked by NASA to help evaluate the use of a low altitude platform for NASA's Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). Airborne spectrometer data collected from this low altitude (Twin Otter at 12,500 feet) version of AVIRIS are of much higher spatial resolution (3-m pixel size) than the nominal AVIRIS data collected from its usual U-2 high altitude aircraft, which flies above 60,000 feet (20-m pixel size). Early indications from a low altitude test flight over the park show that data are spectrally comparable to those collected at higher altitudes but have spatial resolution nearly two orders of magnitude greater. More information and "quicklook" images from low altitude AVIRIS can be viewed on NASA's AVIRIS Web site at < http://makalu.jpl.nasa.gov/>. (Ralph Root, Denver, 303-202-4232)
  

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives: No report.

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.