Along with my advisor Jennifer Swenson, I had the opportunity to attend the NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team meeting in Washington D.C., along with my advisor. The work presented by this group of researchers was so impressive and directly applicable for my work that I found I couldn't miss a single presentation. My favorite part of the experience was an interactive discussion regarding future research priorities. NASA is gearing up for its second "Decadal Survey", which sets goals and outlines the planned missions and specific sensing instruments to achieve those aims over the next decade. It is pretty cool that NASA so actively engages researchers and end users in this process!
Check out the NASA Science Mission Directorate's hyperwall for some cool summaries of earth observation research.
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/search.cgi?content&value=None&Earth=True&page=5&ipp=12