Rapid Response and Novel Research in Earth Science (RRNES)

An opportunity to propose investigations making innovative use of NASA satellite data to address regional-to-global environmental, economic, and/or societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Potential proposals may address R&A-related topics more fundamental in underlying physical and/or biological sciences (including possible connections to socioeconomic activities) and/or ASP-related topics characterizing impacts of decisions or efforts to inform decision makers on regional-to-global levels in their responses to mitigate the impacts of the disease. Research activities proposed must be hypothesis-driven and make quantitative connections between changes in anthropogenic forcings and/or social and economic activity and the related Earth system environmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposals should address change(s) as part of longer-term regional or global budgets and/or interconnected processes in a way that adds to our understanding of them. Proposals that simply demonstrate correlations between changed human activities and direct response of quantities viewed from space are of low priority. The period of performance for these proposals must NOT exceed 12 months, and cost (full cost, including all salaries and indirect expenses) should not exceed $100K over the award lifetime except under extraordinary circumstances.