At the age of 16, this girl made an important project for NASA

In the spring of 2016, Liza Goldberg asked scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center that research could be done there. At that time, she was 14 years old.

This is also a problem for her, because the agency's internship program only accepts students from 16 years and older.

From "ignorant" to the early warning system

Liza Goldberg - (Photo: The Washington Post).

Fortunately, two satellite experts from the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) David Lagomasino and Temilola Fatoyinbo saw Liza's request.

They were interested in her intentions: studying plants related to and measuring the growth of young maple trees. Before that, she did this in the backyard once a week for 3 years.

Thinking that Liza could help them use the planetary data to draw maps of mangrove trees, they took Liza to the center during the summer before she started high school.

Less than 2 years later, Liza has developed what could be called an early warning system based on images from the first satellite to determine where the mangroves are threatened.

Liza Goldberg's work summarizes data from four satellites that track the growth and loss of mangroves, as well as rainfall, agricultural activity, and urban growth. Blue, yellow and red pixels on the map show the threat levels, from low to high.

From almost "ignorant" about satellite imagery to serious science at a world-renowned research facility is a series of events that happen very quickly for Atholton high school student in Columbia. . "I still can't believe I'm there," Liza said.

Before working with NASA scientists, she once saw firsthand the mangroves on a trip to Fort Myers, Florida.

She spent a lot of time in the summer analyzing NASA images of the African coast and determining whether she was seeing mangrove forest, water or just mud.

Before working with NASA, Goldberg only once saw the mangrove trees - (Photo: ABC News).

In a week, she made 10,000 such classifications. Her advisers soon realized that she was ready for something a little more creative.

At that time, it was reported that nearly 7,770 hectares of mangrove forest had disappeared from a bay in Australia - one of the largest lost areas of mangrove ever."I'm really happy to be mad when I see the mangrove trees in the news," Liza recounted.

She also knows that half of the world's mangroves have disappeared and the majority of the remaining forests are threatened by rising sea levels, erosion, agricultural processes, urban development and activities. Other human movements.

Goldberg said she was shocked and found that something needed to be done."I don't want to just analyze the losses that happened. I want to create a solution," she said.

During that school year, Goldberg came to the center once a week, on Friday afternoons. She read scientific papers on how to extract land cover information from satellite data and learn programming in JavaScript and Python. She took advantage of the school holidays to go to the lab more.

She also works on weekends and evenings, at home. Pretty soon after, she wrote her own programming, sometimes with help from Lagomasino. " I was surprised when she was involved in such a project, " said Hana Rhee, her first-year teacher at Atholton.

Surprise in the scientific world

With its early warning system, Goldberg's hard work is starting to bring success.

According to Lagomasino, although there was a similar landscape system for tropical forests, but the algorithm did not distinguish mangroves from nearby waters, a separate system for mangrove forests was required.

In July, Liza Goldberg was progressive enough that Lagomasino persuaded her to apply for a nomination to be presented at the fall of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans - one of the largest scientific events. the world, bringing together more than 20,000 space and Earth scientists.

Liza Goldberg's project focuses on mangrove forests - important ecosystem - (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

"She impressed many people. We joked that she was studying a master's or doctorate," said Lawrence Friedl, director of NASA's applied science program.

Global conservation organizations are now eager to use Goldberg's maps to make their work more efficient.

"It's more advanced than what my organization can create. There are lots of data, it helps us know what's going on and takes appropriate action , " said Aurelie Shapiro, a mangrove researcher. at the Berlin office of the World Nature Reserve Fund, said.

And Jorge Ramos from the International Conservation Fund in Arlington said that the system could help his organization and the communities they are working with to determine where to allocate resources to get maximum benefits. .

Goldberg's next step will be to synthesize additional data sources and make the alerts updated in real time as data from satellite passes. She also plans to transfer the system to a website so that more partners can access it.

In the longer term, Liza Goldberg wants to have a scientific career."My mother always teaches that what's really important is to love her career, because that's what I do every day, and I love what I'm doing at NASA," the young girl said.