Facilities - Others
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER)
The UCSB Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) collections of over 350,000 botanical and zoological specimens are vital to discovering, understanding, and documenting biodiversity and to informing public policy on such issues as invasive species, climate change, evolution, and emerging public health threats. The Vertebrate Collections Management Project will provide our primary users on campus and in our local community, as well as researchers around the world, with access to these valuable collections and their associated data, while contributing to the education of students interested in biological field work and museum practices and careers.
AVHRR Receiver Facility
ERI maintains a Terascan receiver and data archive at UCSB. Data is collected daily from overhead satellite passes, contains raw satellite pass data dating from September, 1993, to the present and is an important source of current and historical remote sensor observations of the west coast of the United States.
Optical Calibration Facility
Optical signals--whether obtained at ocean depths, in glacier ice, on the Earth's surface, from the atmosphere, or in space--are a key component of our scientific observations. We have developed a number of unique optical instruments (e.g., in-water UV and visible spectroradiometers) for our various research efforts. Sensitive calibration of these optical sensors is essential to ensure high quality and reliable data and we have developed a state-of-the-art optical calibration facility.
Micro-Environmental Imaging & Analysis Facility (MEIAF)
This state-of-the-art imaging facility for research features an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDS), scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) detector, and a cryostage, together enabling high-resolution imaging of hydrated specimens, observation of dynamic experiments such as crystal formation and dehydration, freeze-fracturing, and ultra-low temperature imaging. Applications range from microelectronics to forensic science to assessing inorganic nanomaterials interactions with biological tissues. The facility is located in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, staffed by a trained development engineer for training users and operating instrumentation, operated on a recharge basis, and managed by ERI.
CRREL UCSB Eastern Sierra Snow Study Site (CUES)
Resource Center for SPOT Imagery
In June of 2005, a program was launched to allow UCSB faculty, researchers, and students unlimited access to high spatial resolution commercial satellite imagery from the SPOT constellation of satellite sensors. These data are commercial products and have previously been inaccessible to academic researchers due to their high cost. During the period of the program (lasting until May of 2008), UCSB was able to task the SPOT satellites in areas of scientific interest and impact, such as the LTER sites. In all, we archived over 70,000 scenes, occupying over 16 Terabytes, with a retail value of over $241-million. Faculty, researchers, and students in Geography, Earth Science, the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, Marine Science Institute, Environmental Studies, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), and the former Crustal Studies and ICESS (now ERI), have utilized the satellite images (both archive and newly tasked). These data remain available to UCSB members.