ARC-CREST
ARC-CREST Cooperative Agreement
Annual Reports
Leadership
New Proposals
Research Groups
About
In 2023, the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI), in partnership with California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) and San José State University (SJSU), was awarded a five-year, $117 million cooperative agreement from NASA Ames Research Center to advance cutting-edge research in Earth science and technology.
The award, the Ames Research Center Cooperative for Research in Earth Science and Technology (ARC-CREST), is a renewal of the original 10-year agreement awarded to BAERI and CSUMB in 2012 and is a testament to the successful partnership between the organizations. To date, ARC-CREST scientists have received 3 individual and 21 group achievement awards from NASA, as well as:
Field Campaigns
30+
Articles Published
387
New Datasets
10
Students Trained
500+
Press Release
ARC-CREST
Annual Reports
2025
2023/4
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
ARC-CREST
Leadership
Dr. Robert Bergstrom
Dr. Bergstrom is the Founder and Director of the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI). Under Bergstrom's leadership, BAERI has worked collaboratively with NASA for over 20 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University and Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering. He completed post-doctoral research in atmospheric physics at the University of Mainz, Germany, and at NASA's Ames Research Center. Since 1972, his research has focused on the radiative properties of atmospheric aerosols. In addition, Dr. Bergstrom holds a law degree from Stanford University. Before founding BAERI, Bergstrom worked as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the US Environmental Protection Agency and co-founded the legal software company Legisoft.
Dr. Susan Alexander
Dr. Alexander holds two positions at the California State University of Monterey Bay (CSUMB): Professor of Ecology in the Division of Science and Environmental Policy and the Director of the Applied Marine and Watershed Science MS degree program. A member of the CSUMB faculty since 1996, she is a leader in higher education program development serving underrepresented populations in STEM education. Dr. Alexander holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and a Doctoral degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. She completed her post-doctoral research in ecological modeling and remote sensing at NASA's Ames Research Center. Since 1997, she has led CSUMB to carry out research, technology, and application development in the area of applied Earth systems and environmental science.
Dr. Julia Gaudinski
Dr. Julia Gaudinski is the Research Director for the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC) at San Jose State University (SJSU). She brings two main areas of capability to her work. First, she is a climate scientist with research expertise in terrestrial carbon cycling, particularly in forest soils. Second, she brings experience in strategic grant acquisition through her 2019–2022 work to build the centralized five-person Research Development unit within the Division of Research and Innovation at SJSU. Julia holds Bachelor’s degrees in Earth science and environmental studies from the University of California Santa Cruz, and a PhD from the University of California Irvine in Earth system science.
New Proposals
If you're interested in working with ARC-CREST, please email [email protected].

To add a new project under the ARC-CREST cooperative agreement, please request a PR form from Cecilia Madruga-Santos at [email protected].

ARC-CREST
Research Groups
The research groups supported by ARC-CREST are listed below. For more information on a specific research group, click the highlighted link (where applicable).

Earth Sciences Focus Areas

  1. Ultra-Stable Spectrometers for Sky-Scanning Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (5STAR)
  2. Aerosol Modeling and Data Analysis
  3. Atmospheric Composition Campaign Data Analysis and Modeling (ACCDAM) Bio
  4. Aerosol Rapid Analysis Combined Entry Probe/Sonde Technology (AERACEPT)
  5. AI/ML for Shoaling Prediction
  6. AI/ML Tech Support
  7. Airborne EC Flux
  8. Airborne asSessment of Hyperspectral Aerosol optical depth and water-leaving Reflectance for PACE (AirSHARP3)
  9. Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) FireSense
  10. Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS)
  11. Formaldehyde to Nitrogen Dioxide Ratio (FNR) Trends
  12. Distributed Spacecraft with Heuristic Intelligence to Enable Logistical Decisions (D-SHIELD)
  13. Indianapolis Flux Experiment (INFLUX) and Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON)
  14. NASA Earth Exchange (NEX)
    1. Carbon Monitoring Systems (CMS)
    2. GeoFlux
    3. GeoNEX and Remote Sensing
    4. Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI)
    5. Internet of Animals (IOA)
    6. NASA Disaster Response Coordination System (DRCS)
    7. National Climate Assessment (NCA)
    8. NEXFire
  15. TRACER-1
    1. Weather Research and Forecasting model with online Chemistry into the Data Assimilation Research Testbed (WRF-Chem/DART)
  16. Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2)
  17. Ozone Where We Live (OWWL) Growth
  18. Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX)
  19. Sea-going Sky-Scanning Sun-Tracking Advanced Robotic Research Radiometer (SeaSTAR/SeaSTAR-PACE)
  20. San Joaquin Valley (SJV) O3
  21. Soil Moisture Active-Passive Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (SMAP CASA)
  22. Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON)
  23. Wildfire, Ecosystem Resilience, and Risk Assessment Initiative (WERK)

Earth Science Applied Sciences Program

  1. Agriculture, Health and Marine Studies
  2. Disaster Management
  3. FireSense Implementation Team (FSIT)
  4. Land Cover and Land Use Change (LCLUC) Amazon
  5. Land Cover and Land Use Change-Weather Research and Forecasting (LCLUC-WRF) Mapping
  6. Land Cover and Land Use Change-Weather Research and Forecasting (LCLUC-WRF) Modeling
  7. Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR)
  8. Water Resources Program (WRP)
  9. Western Water Action Office (WWAO)
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