NASA to visit National Park College; guest speakers announced

Little Rock, Arkansas – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are hosting guest lecturers at National Park College, and they are inviting the public to attend.

The learning session is set to begin on April 5 at 12 p.m. at the Student Commons Conference Center, located at 101 College Drive.

The “Space Weather and Eclipse” session will be led by Dr. Spann. Attendees will embark on an educational journey to learn about space weather conditions and their relevance to NASA and NOAA schematics.

Spann spent 37 years as the Space Weather Lead for the Heliophysics Division at NASA before taking up his current position as Senior Scientist for NOAA’s Office of Space Weather Observations.

Spann wrote more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles on space physics while at NASA, managed the science research organization at the Marshall Space Flight Center, built and launched several auroral UV remote sensing devices, was the principal investigator of an international mission with the Brazilian space agency known as SPORT that studies the Earth’s ionosphere, and more.

Spann will lead the charge to ensure that the organization’s space weather activities translate into achieving science and operations objectives as part of his responsibilities as NOAA. His objective is to organize space weather research on a global scale.

Jimmy Acevedo’s career at NASA started while he was a student at a community college participating in high-altitude ballooning. The Goddard Space Flight Center offered him three internships as a result of his involvement in the project.

At the Space Communications and Navigation program office, Acevedo now oversees an internship program.

A news announcement states that the program would discuss the solar eclipse and its relationship to space weather.

The public is welcome and does not need to pay admission.