9351686 Blount Recent advances in computing hardware and software have, for the first time, brought massive numbers of earth and space- derived data sets into the realm of undergraduate instruction. Affordable storage and image-manipulation hardware coupled with user-friendly analysis software for scientific visualization are the major advances. In addition, the rapid expansion of regional supercomputing centers and ubiquitous networks have led to computing facility surpluses which now allow undergraduate students access to computing time previously reserved for graduate and post-graduate researchers. To address these realities, we are developing an interdisciplinary earth and planetary science teaching curricula centered on coordination between formerly disparate academic departments. To spearhead this effort, we have formed the Earth System Science Institute (ESSI), which includes the departments of Space Studies, Geography, and Geology. A networked undergraduate imaging laboratory is being established for training of undergraduate earth and planetary science students in the emerging fields of scientific visualization of multispatial and multitemporal data sets. Individual graphics workstations are being networked to a Cray X-MP supercomputer. The coupled hardware system is capable of both acquiring and analyzing a suite of in-situ and space-derived data sets including the high-resolution (1 km) multiband imaging data sets of the NOAA AVHRR sensors acquired by our newly installed satellite ground station. The curricula includes exercises in data acquisition, data visualization, scientific programming, information extraction and computer modeling. Undergraduates exposed to these curricula will be well prepared to deal with the plethora of earth and planetary data to be generated as a part of the International Global Change Research Program in the next decade and beyond. ***
