July Luncheon Meeting

ABSTRACT: The eyes of NASA’s earth resource and environmental satellites observe the entire world with the purpose of identifying or predicting the changes that the earth will face over the next several decades, whether they are natural or human-induced. Identifying changes and monitoring trends in the atmosphere, in the oceans, and on the land involves numerous satellite sensors and platforms. Nowhere is the evidence of global climate change more impressive than at high latitudes and high altitudes; the “ice worlds” are melting. Land ice and sea ice impacts are documented particularly well from airborne and space-based sensors, which can monitor vast remote regions as melting occurs. Ice shelf disintegration and glacial retreat/advance globally will be highlighted in this presentation, using imagery from a variety of Earth Observation satellites, including those specifically designed to monitor the cryosphere.

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Dodge received her M.S. and Ph.D. from Colorado School of Mines, mapping and dating active faults in NW Nevada. Her first post-grad job involved photogeologic and field mapping of active faults in Nevada and Utah for the USGS Branch of Earthquake Tectonics and Risk. Her move to petroleum continued the imagery-application and structural mapping focus, with airborne / spaceborne photography and imagery. She spent 14 years in oil exploration, applying remote sensing technology to international exploration and environmental projects. She also served as a consultant with Australian Photogeological Consultants, exploring for minerals in the Andes of Chile, Argentina, and Peru. She is a Certified Geologist in Texas and is a Certified Petroleum Geologist with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). She has served as the President of the Dallas Geological Society, AAPG House of Delegate for 10 years (Georgia Geological Society) and as the president of both the Energy Minerals and Environmental Geology Divisions of AAPG. She retired to Midland in August of 2018.

Since joining academia 22 years ago, she has been researching and teaching the uses of satellite imagery for resource exploration and environmental management applications. She is currently an emeritus Geology and Environmental Science adjunct professor at Midwestern State University. In addition, she is deeply committed to training and educating future science teachers in geosciences, earth system science, and environmental observation techniques, with an emphasis on the integration of field observations and geospatial technology. She is currently providing Earth Science teacher training through the American Geosciences Institute, with grant funding from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation. She has a grant from the U.S. Geological Survey to provide teachers and faculty with geospatial technology training. She is also consulting on teaching resources development with textbook companies and online teaching resource developers. She volunteers in K-12 classrooms through the West Texas Geological Society.