NASA HEALTH AND AIR QUALITY APPLIED SCIENCES TEAM
Connecting NASA Data and Tools with Health and Air Quality Stakeholders

Dr. Yang Liu

Credentials: Chair and Gangarosa Distinguished Professor in the Gangarosa Department of Environment Health at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.

Address:
Faculty Profile
Emory Environmental Remote Sensing Group
yang.liu@emory.edu

Yang Liu is the Chair and Gangarosa Distinguished Professor in the Gangarosa Department of Environment Health at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. His research interests include satellite aerosol retrieval and product design, the application of satellite data in public health research, the potential impacts of global climate change on public health, GIS and spatial statistics. Over the past 13 years, Dr. Liu has been funded by NASA, CDC, NIH, EPA, HEI, and WHO to apply satellite data in air quality modeling and study the impact of climate change on air quality and human health using remote sensing and model simulations, and health impact of climate change related to extreme heat, wildfires, and ambient air pollution.

HAQAST Project: Using Earth Observations to Support National and Global Environmental Health Research and Surveillance

Yang and his team will be working with a host of stakeholders to integrate satellite data into efforts to understand skin-cancer, lung cancer, and the incidence of global wildfires.

Project goals/deliverables:

  1. Generate population-weighted surface UV exposure to cover the Continental US, Hawaii and Alaska, and potentially the Pacific Island Jurisdictions until 2020. This data set will be used to support the development of CDC’s Skin Cancer Dashboard.
  2. Assess the associatons between exposure to ambient PM2.5 as well as proximity to wildfires and lung cancer survival in the US using high-resolution satellite exposure estimates with individual-level health records in the massive National Cancer Database.
  3. Refine our satellite-driven global wildfires indicator for Lancet Countdown.

Co-Investigators /HAQAST Team Members: Liuhua Shi, ScD, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; Leticia Nogueira, PhD, American Cancer Society; Guanyu Huang, PhD, Spelman College; Adeline Yerkes, MPH, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors; Nick Watts, MD, Lancet Countdown, London, UK

Publications