Dr. Azad Hossain's research on Chattanooga was featured as NASA's Earth Observatory "Image of the Day"
photo by Courtesy of NASA
Research by Dr. Azad Hossain, an environmental geoscientist and associate professor in the UTC Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, was recently featured as NASA Earth Observatory’s “Image of the Day.”
The article, titled “Building Out Chattanooga,” uses satellite images from 2001 and 2024 to show how much the city has grown. The story highlights Hossain’s use of Landsat, an Earth-observing satellite program that documents surface changes over time.
Hossain said he has used Landsat data since the late 1990s.
“It took more than two months to get the image,” he said of his early work mapping the Bay of Bengal. “Now, if I tell you we need to get a Landsat scene for Chattanooga, after one hour, I can show you the image.”
He said another reason for NASA’s interest in Chattanooga was the city’s recent designation as North America’s first National Park City.
“Chattanooga is a unique place. If you look for urbanization, you’ll find it here,” he said.
When Dr. Hossain joined UTC in 2016, he saw a need for research on local urbanization. With help from students and colleagues, he began using satellite data to track development.
Understanding how Chattanooga is growing and how that growth affects the environment has been a primary goal of Dr. Hossain’s research.
“If we know the relationship between this growth and our environment, we’d be able to do it in a sustainable manner and make everybody happy,” he said.
NASA’s Earth Observatory article links to previous research by Dr. Hossain and his co-authors. He was quick to credit their role in reaching this point.
“It’s not only for me,” he said of the NASA recognition. “It’s the work I did, but it’s also my students’ work. When I got this article published, I was in class and I told my students, ‘Look, this is public. You can go there and see it.’ I feel pretty good. I’m sure they also feel good.”
Dr. Hossain said his goal has always been to do research that’s both useful and accessible, and to help train the next generation to keep it going.
“We like complex research, but sometimes it doesn’t need to be complex,” he said. “We can solve things using simple techniques and understand things better. And that’s what this work shows.”
To learn more about Dr. Hossain’s research and other UTC stories, visit UTC News.
Dr. Azad Hossain
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