NASA presents its annual Pecora awards

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency has given its 2007 Pecora Awards to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and Stanley Morain of the University of New Mexico.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Department of the Interior present an individual and group Pecora award annually to honor outstanding contributions in the field of remote sensing.

The gravity and climate mission, known as GRACE, uses satellites to make precise gravity-field measurements to study changes on Earth, NASA said. GRACE's achievements include the first uniform measurement of Greenland and Antarctic ice mass changes.

Morain, a geography professor and director of the Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico, has collaborated internationally to create remote sensing applications that benefit agriculture, transportation and public health, NASA said.

The GRACE award was presented Monday in San Francisco during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting. Moran received his award Oct. 28 during the annual meeting of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

The award was created in 1974 to honor the memory of William T. Pecora, former director of the U.S. Geological Survey and under secretary of the Department of the Interior.