Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Paul M Montesano

(Senior Research Scientist)

Paul M Montesano's Contact Card & Information.
Email: paul.m.montesano@nasa.gov
Phone: 301.614.6642
Org Code: 606.3
Address:
NASA/GSFC
Mail Code 606.3
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: ADNET SYSTEMS INC

Research Interests


Boreal forest structure and patterns

Earth Science: Remote Sensing

Advance the application of multi-sensor remote sensing and geo-spatial data integration to document, quantify, assess uncertainty of and monitor changes in, boreal forest structure.

Positions/Employment


Senior Research Scientist

ADNET Systems, Inc. - NASA Center for Climate Simulation | Computational & Information Sciences & Technology Office

September 2021 - Present


Lead Research Scientist

SSAI - Biospheric Sciences Lab | NASA Goddard Space flight Center

August 2015 - September 2021


Research Scientist

SSAI / Sigma Space - Biospheric Sciences Lab | NASA Goddard Space flight Center

November 2006 - August 2015

Education


Dept. of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland - College Park
PhD (May 2015)
Doctoral Thesis: The uncertainty of spaceborne measurements of vegetation structure in the taiga-tundra ecotone of northern Siberia.

Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison
M.S.(Research option) Environmental Monitoring, May 2006
Master’s Thesis: Estimating chl-a in lakes with MODIS: a regional assessment

Rutgers College, Rutgers University
B.A. with High Honors, May 2001 Major: Geography Minor: Biology
Senior Honors Thesis: Examining relationships between snow coverage and wildfires in the western U.S.

Selected Publications


Refereed

2023. "Modeling forest canopy surface retrievals using very high-resolution spaceborne stereogrammetry: (II) optimizing acquisition configurations." Remote Sensing of Environment 298 113824 [10.1016/j.rse.2023.113824] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Modeling forest canopy surface retrievals using very high-resolution spaceborne stereogrammetry: (I) methods and comparisons with actual data." Remote Sensing of Environment 298 113825 [10.1016/j.rse.2023.113825] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Large-Scale Distributed Compositing and Statistics Framework For Very-High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery." IGARSS 2023 - 2023 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss52108.2023.10283222] [Proceedings]

2023. "Producing a Science-Ready Commercial Data Archive: A Workflow for Estimating Surface Reflectance for High Resolution Multispectral Imagery." IGARSS 2023 - 2023 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss52108.2023.10281820] [Proceedings]

2023. "Patterns of regional site index across a North American boreal forest gradient." Environmental Research Letters [10.1088/1748-9326/acdcab] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Aboveground biomass density models for NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar mission." Remote Sensing of Environment 270 112845 [10.1016/j.rse.2021.112845] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Estimating Bare Earth in Sparse Boreal Forests With WorldView Stereo Imagery." IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 1-5 [10.1109/lgrs.2021.3112387] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Storm surge and ponding explain mangrove dieback in southwest Florida following Hurricane Irma." Nature Communications 12 (1): 4003 [10.1038/s41467-021-24253-y] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Validation of ICESat-2 terrain and canopy heights in boreal forests." Remote Sensing of Environment 251 112110 [10.1016/j.rse.2020.112110] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "The bioclimatic extent and pattern of the cold edge of the boreal forest: the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone." Environmental Research Letters [10.1088/1748-9326/abb2c7] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Space‐Based Observations for Understanding Changes in the Arctic‐Boreal Zone." Reviews of Geophysics 58 (1): 2019RG000652 [10.1029/2019rg000652] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "A Systematic, Regional Assessment of High Mountain Asia Glacier Mass Balance." Frontiers in Earth Science 7 [10.3389/feart.2019.00363] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "A Systematic, Regional Assessment of High Mountain Asia Glacier Mass Balance. Front." Frontiers/Earth Science 7 363 [https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00363] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Modelling above-ground biomass stock over Norway using national forest inventory data with ArcticDEM and Sentinel-2 data." Remote Sensing of Environment 236 111501 [10.1016/j.rse.2019.111501] [Journal Article/Letter]

2019. "An API for Spaceborne Sub-Meter Resolution Products for Earth Science." IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss.2019.8898358] [Proceedings]

2019. "Boreal canopy surfaces from spaceborne stereogrammetry." Remote Sensing of Environment 225 148-159 [10.1016/j.rse.2019.02.012] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "The use of sun elevation angle for stereogrammetric boreal forest height in open canopies." Remote Sensing of Environment 196 76-88 [10.1016/j.rse.2017.04.024] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "Spaceborne potential for examining taiga–tundra ecotone form and vulnerability." Biogeosciences 13 (13): 3847-3861 [10.5194/bg-13-3847-2016] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "Calibration and Validation of Landsat Tree Cover in the Taiga−Tundra Ecotone." Remote Sensing 8 (7): 551 [10.3390/rs8070551] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. " Combining satellite lidar, airborne lidar, and ground plots to estimate the amount and distribution of aboveground biomass in the boreal forest of North America 1 ." Can. J. For. Res. 45 (7): 838-855 [10.1139/cjfr-2015-0006] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Sensor Compatibility for Biomass Change Estimation Using Remote Sensing Data Sets: Part of NASA's Carbon Monitoring System Initiative." IEEE Geosci. Remote Sensing Lett. 12 (7): 1511-1515 [10.1109/lgrs.2015.2411262] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Examining the utility of satellite-based wind sheltering estimates for lake hydrodynamic modeling." Remote Sensing of Environment 156 551-560 [10.1016/j.rse.2014.10.024] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "The uncertainty of biomass estimates from modeled ICESat-2 returns across a boreal forest gradient." Remote Sensing of Environment 158 95-109 [10.1016/j.rse.2014.10.029] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "The uncertainty of biomass estimates from LiDAR and SAR across a boreal forest structure gradient." Remote Sensing of Environment 154 398-407 [10.1016/j.rse.2014.01.027] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "NASA Goddard’s LiDAR, Hyperspectral and Thermal (G-LiHT) Airborne Imager." Remote Sensing 5 (8): 4045-4066 [10.3390/rs5084045] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Taking stock of circumboreal forest carbon with ground measurements, airborne and spaceborne LiDAR." Remote Sensing of Environment 137 274-287 [10.1016/j.rse.2013.06.019] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Achieving accuracy requirements for forest biomass mapping: A spaceborne data fusion method for estimating forest biomass and LiDAR sampling error." Remote Sensing of Environment 130 153-170 [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Best Merge Region-Growing Segmentation With Integrated Nonadjacent Region Object Aggregation." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 50 (11): 4454 - 4467 [10.1109/TGRS.2012.2190079] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Object-based mapping of the circumpolar taiga–tundra ecotone with MODIS tree cover." Remote Sensing of Environment 115 (12): 3670-3680 [10.1016/j.rse.2011.09.006] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "FOREST BIOMASS MAPPING FROM LIDAR AND RADAR SYNERGIES." Remote Sensing of Environment 115 (11): 2906-2916 [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "A blended global snow product using visible, passive microwave and scatterometer satellite data." International Journal of Remote Sensing 32 (5): 1371-1395 [10.1080/01431160903548013] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "ESTIMATING SIBERIAN TIMBER VOLUME USING MODIS AND ICESAT/GLAS." Remote Sensing of Environment 113 (3): 691-701 [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "MODIS TREE COVER VALIDATION FOR THE CIRCUMPOLAR TAIGA-TUNDRA TRANSITION ZONE." Remote Sensing of Environment 113 (10): 2130-2141 [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "A multi-scale segmentation approach to mapping seagrass habitats using airborne digital camera imagery." Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 72 (6): 665-675 [Journal Article/Letter]

2004. "Statewide mapping and assessment of vernal pools: A New Jersey case study." Journal of Environmental Management 76 230-238 [Journal Article/Letter]

2003. "Does Phragmites expansion alter the structure and function of marsh landscapes? Patterns and processes revisited." Estuaries 26 (2): 423-435 [Full Text] [Journal Article/Letter]

2002. "Examining the relationship between snowfall and wildfire patterns in the western United States." Physical Geography 21 335-342 [Journal Article/Letter]

Non-Refereed

2022. "ABoVE: LVIS L3 Gridded Vegetation Structure across North America, 2017 and 2019." ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1923] [Dataset]

2015. "LiDAR-based Biomass Estimates, Boreal Forest Biome, Eurasia, 2005-2006." Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA: Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1278] [Dataset]

Professional Societies


American Geophysical Union

2010 - Present

Awards


Thomas Hilker Early Career Scientist Award. ForestSAT2018, College Park, Md, October 2018

Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award. Dept of Geographical Sciences, U. Md-College Park, 2014

NASA GSFC Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Award: Scientific Achievement, August 2012

Best Reference Map Award (Professional Category), ACSM-CaGIS Map Design Competition (shared), 2006

Best Software Integration (1st place) / Best Cartographic Design (2nd place), 2003 NJDEP Mapping Contest

Andrew Hill Clark Award recipient for excellence in geography, 2001

Phi Beta Kappa, 2001