John is Chief of the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and he is serving as Associate Program Manager of Water Resources for the NASA Applied Sciences Program. He is also leading NASA's International Water Strategy. His research focuses on the application of satellite-based remote sensing and land surface hydrological modeling for improved ecological and water resource management. He is involved in several water resources management efforts addressing flood monitoring, flood damage assessment, and agriculture drought forecasting and mitigation. He is leading projects in the Middle East, Central and North Africa, Southeast Asia, and United States. He has served on the Panel on Global Hydrological Cycles and Water Resources for the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space. He is serving as NASA DEVELOP Program Lead Science Advisor for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He has served as the NASA GRACE Mission Applications Deputy Representative for Water and Coastal Resources, Chair of the American Geophysical Union’s Hydrology Remote Sensing Technical Committee, and Co-lead on the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS), Flood Disaster Pilot Risk Management Team. His most recent research includes the development of an improved hydrological decision support system for the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and Mekong River Commission, development of the operational global soil moisture product for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service crop forecasting system, and a deep learning-based system for improved satellite-based agricultural monitoring products. He has received multiple awards including the 2019 Arthur S. Flemming Award for Applied Science, the 2019 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the 2019 Department of State award for supporting the drafting and implementation of the US Global Water Strategy, the 2019 Robert H. Goddard Award for Science, as well as multiple NASA Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences annual awards for Outstanding Scientific Achievement, and Outreach. John is very involved in the scientific community and regularly gives invited keynote lectures, seminars, and tutorials on his research as well as the activities of NASA’s Applied Sciences Program related to water resources management around the globe. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geology with an emphasis in hydrology and remote sensing from the University of South Carolina.
John D. Bolten
(Chief)
| Email: | john.bolten@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.614.6529 |
| Org Code: | 617 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 617 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Brief Bio
Research Interests
Development of land data assimilation systems for remote sensing observations and land surface modeling to improve regional estimates of hydrological states and fluxes
Earth Science: Remote SensingUtilization of remotely-sensed soil moisture and terrestrial water storage data from the satellite-based Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E), Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) instruments
Earth Science: Remote SensingApplication of remote sensing and land surface modeling for improved ecological and water resource management efforts
Earth Science: Remote SensingDevelopment of near real-time flood monitoring and flood damage assessment products and tools
Earth Science: Hydrology / Water CycleCurrent Projects
Lead - NASA International Water Strategy
Hydrology / Water Cycle
Leading the coordination of NASA for improved response to international water security activities
Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission Science Team (2020-present)
Remote Sensing
Associate Program Manager, NASA Applied Sciences Program, Water Resources
Hydrology / Water Cycle
Principal Investigator for SHARE: Strategic Hydrologic and Agricultural Remote-sensing for Environments
Applications
Dr. Bolten is partnering with USACE and Pact To develop updated satellite based remote sensing and modeling applications for improved water resource management activities. The effort will result in multiple high impact training sessions and tutorials with regional partners and data users.
Machine Learning-Based Flood Forecasting and Warning System for Ellicott City, MD
Applications
Dr. Bolten is working with the Howard County Office of Emergency Management to develop a flash flood forecasting and warning system for Ellicott City Maryland.
Improve flood monitoring in the Lower Mekong River Basin using multi-sensor methods
Applications
Dr. Bolten is partnering with National Geographic and Stanford University to study the applications of drone technology for flood detection in Thailand
Improved water resource management in the Okavango Basin
Applications
Dr. Bolten is working with Conservation International and the Nature Conservancy to combine 3D groundwater modeling with a satellite-capable land surface model in the Okavango Basin
Contributions to the Freshwater Heath Index for the Lower Mekong River Basin with Satellite-Based Remote Sensing and Numerical Modeling
Applications
Dr. Bolten is partnering with Conservation International to assess anthropogenic impacts on the region.
Enhancing the Information Content and Utilization of SMAP Products for Agricultural Applications (Principal Investigator)
Remote Sensing
Enhancing the USDA Global Crop Production Decision Support System with NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Observations (Principal Investigator)
Remote Sensing
GIS and Remote Sensing Application for Assessment of Land Degradation in The Lower Mekong River Basin (Co-Investigator)
Enhancing Floodplain Management in the Lower Mekong River Basin Using NASA Vegetation and Water Cycle Satellite Observations (Principal Investigator)
Hydrology / Water Cycle
Improved Hydrologic Decision Support for the Lower Mekong River Basin Through Integrated Remote Sensing and Modeling (Principal Investigator)
Remote Sensing
NASA Food Security and Agriculture Consortium (FSAC) (Co-Investigator)
Remote Sensing
Co-Lead on the NASA-Conservation International Project, 'Development of the Freshwater Health Index for the Lower Mekong River Basin' (2017 - Present)
Remote Sensing
NASA Applied Sciences Program, DEVELOP GSFC Science Lead Advisor
Remote Sensing
Amplified study of the interactions and feedbacks between biomass burning and water cycle dynamics across the northern sub-Saharan African region (Co-Investigator)
Land Cover/Use
An Integrated Terrestrial Water Analysis System for the NCA: Evaluation and Dissemination (Co-Investigator)
Keeping Up With GRACE: GRACE Data Assimilation in an Age of Freshwater Appropriation (Co-Investigator)
Remote Sensing
Utilizing NASA Earth Observations to Enhance Flood Impact Products and Mitigation in the Lower Mekong Water Basin (Science Lead Advisor)
Hydrology / Water Cycle
Committee on Earth Observational Satellites, Flood Disaster Risk Mitigation Pilot for Lower Mekong River Basin (Regional Pilot Co-lead)
Positions/Employment
PHYSICAL SCIENTIST
NASA Hydrological Sciences Branch - Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
December 2008 - Present
PHYSICAL SCIENTIST
USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab - Beltsville, MD
October 2005 - December 2008
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
University of South Carolina, Department of Geological Sciences - Columbia, SC
August 1999 - August 2005
VISITING RESEARCH ASSISTANT
NOAA Environmental Technology Lab - Boulder, CO
August 2002 - December 2002
VISITING RESEARCH ASSISTANT
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Pasadena, CA
May 2000 - August 2000
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
West Virginia University, Department of Geology and Geography - Morgantown, WV
May 1998 - December 1998
Education
Department of Geological Sciences
Ph.D. in Geological Sciences
Dissertation: “Soil Moisture Observations Using L-, C-, and X- Band Microwave Radiometers”
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, SC August 2001
Department of Geological Sciences
M.S. in Geological Sciences
Thesis: “Passive and Active Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture”
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, Morgantown, WV December 1998
Department of Geology and Geography
B.S. in Geological Sciences
Professional Service
Chief, Hydrological Sciences Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2022-present)
Associate Program Manager, NASA Applied Sciences Division, Water Resources Program (2014-2022)
Chair Department of State - Interagency Science Applications Team (ISAT) (2021-present)
Associate Editor for Water Resources Research (2017-2022)
Earth System Predictability Research and Development -Fast Track Action Committee on Earth System Predictability (2020-2021)
Panel member 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space
Principal Investigator on NASA's SMAP Global Soil Moisture Product for USDA FAS (2010 - 2014)
Principal Investigator on NASA's Science Utilization of SMAP (SUSMAP) project
Principal Investigator and Applied Sciences Team member on NASA SERVIR Mekong (2016-2019)
Principal Investigator on NASA’s Project Mekong (2012-present)
Executive Committee Member for the National Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (2020-present)
Steering Committee Member - 2020 Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds
Co-Investigator for GIS and Remote Sensing Application for Assessment of Land Degradation in The Lower Mekong River Basin
Principal Investigator on the NASA-Conservation International Freshwater Health Index project in Lower Mekong River Basin
Technical Advisor for NASA SERVIR Mekong Hub Development (2015-2016)
Technical Advisor for NASA-USAID Partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) (2016-present)
Technical Monitor for NASA EPSCoR, 'Satellite-guided hydro-economic analysis for integrated management and prediction of the impact of droughts on agricultural regions' (2017-present)
NASA DEVELOP Science Team Lead for Lower Mekong River Basin Flood Inundation Mapping Project (2014-present)
Flood Disaster Risk Assessment Team Member for the Committee for Earth Observing Satellites (2013-2014)
NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Mission Deputy Representative for Water and Coastal Resources, 2012-present
National Soil Moisture Network Executive Committee member (2018-present)
Chair of the AGU Hydrology Remote Sensing Technical Committee, 2012-present
Co-chair of NASA GSFC Science and Exploration Directorate Deputy Director’s Council on Science, 2012
SMAP Applications Working Group and Calibration and Validation Working Group member, 2012
Toastmasters International Member
Awards
2023 American Geophysical Union International Award
2019 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
2019 National Arthur S. Flemming Award for Applied Science
2019 NASA Partnerships Honor Award for Team Excellence
2018 Robert H. Goddard Award for Science
2018 US Deparment of State Award for serving as agency lead for the US Global Water Strategy
2017 NASA Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences annual award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement for his leadership and development of the hydrological decision support system for the Lower Mekong River Basin
2017 NASA Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences annual award for Outreach for his involvement with BBC Documentary on Deserts, and PBS Special on satellite hydrology
2015 NASA Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences annual award for excellence and dedication in leading the DEVELOP student program, hosting foreign dignitaries, and performing live interviews during the launch of SMAP
2012 NASA Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences annual award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement for his leadership and development of the Middle East North Africa Land Data Assimilation System (MENA-LDAS)
Publications
Refereed
2024. "Deep Convolutional LSTM for improved flash flood prediction." Frontiers in Water 6 [10.3389/frwa.2024.1346104] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Technical note: NASAaccess – a tool for access, reformatting, and visualization of remotely sensed earth observation and climate data." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 27 (19): 3621-3642 [10.5194/hess-27-3621-2023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Robustness of gridded precipitation products for vietnam basins using the comprehensive assessment framework of rainfall." Atmospheric Research 293 106923 [10.1016/j.atmosres.2023.106923] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Regional analysis of the 2015–16 Lower Mekong River basin drought using NASA satellite observations." Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 46 101362 [10.1016/j.ejrh.2023.101362] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Operational forecasting inundation extents using REOF analysis (FIER) over lower Mekong and its potential economic impact on agriculture." Environmental Modelling & Software 105643 [10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105643] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Quantification of global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) – A case study of the newly released NASADEM for a river basin in Central Vietnam." Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 45 101282 [10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101282] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Working toward a National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network: vision, progress, and future directions." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society [10.1175/bams-d-21-0178.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Crop-CASMA: A web geoprocessing and map service based architecture and implementation for serving soil moisture and crop vegetation condition data over U.S. Cropland." International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 112 102902 [10.1016/j.jag.2022.102902] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Assimilation of SMAP Products for Improving Streamflow Simulations over Tropical Climate Region—Is Spatial Information More Important Than Temporal Information?." Remote Sensing 14 (7): 1607 [10.3390/rs14071607] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Diagnosing challenges and setting priorities for sustainable water resource management under climate change." Scientific Reports 12 (1): 796 [10.1038/s41598-022-04766-2] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Leveraging NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive for Assessing Fire Susceptibility and Potential Impacts Over Australia and California." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 15 779-787 [10.1109/jstars.2021.3136756] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Toward operational validation systems for global satellite-based terrestrial essential climate variables." International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 95 102240 [10.1016/j.jag.2020.102240] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Developing a strategy for the national coordinated soil moisture monitoring network." Vadose Zone Journal 20 (4): [10.1002/vzj2.20139] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Assessing the Impact of ENSO on Agriculture Over Africa Using Earth Observation Data." Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4 [10.3389/fsufs.2020.509914] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Assessing the Impact of Soil Layer Depth Specification on the Observability of Modeled Soil Moisture and Brightness Temperature." Journal of Hydrometeorology 1-54 [10.1175/jhm-d-19-0280.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Exploring Spatiotemporal Relations between Soil Moisture, Precipitation, and Streamflow for a Large Set of Watersheds Using Google Earth Engine." Water 12 (5): 1371 [10.3390/w12051371] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "How Satellite Soil Moisture Data Can Help to Monitor the Impacts of Climate Change: SMAP Case Studies." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 13 1590-1596 [10.1109/jstars.2020.2982608] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Agricultural Drought Monitoring via the Assimilation of SMAP Soil Moisture Retrievals Into a Global Soil Water Balance Model." Frontiers in Big Data 3 [10.3389/fdata.2020.00010] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Mapping Land Use Land Cover Change in the Lower Mekong Basin From 1997 to 2010." Frontiers in Environmental Science 8 [10.3389/fenvs.2020.00021] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Adequacy of Satellite-derived Precipitation Estimate for Hydrological Modeling in Vietnam Basins." Journal of Hydrology 586 124820 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124820] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Assessment of the Biomass Productivity Decline in the Lower Mekong Basin." Remote Sensing 11 (23): 2796 [10.3390/rs11232796] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Processing Remotely Sensed Data." Advanced Environmental Monitoring with Remote Sensing Time Series Data and R 114 [Full Text] [10.1201/9780429262050-5] [Article in Book]
2019. "Evaluation of Satellite-Based Rainfall Estimates in the Lower Mekong River Basin (Southeast Asia)." Remote Sensing 11 (22): 2709 [10.3390/rs11222709] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Application of GRACE to the estimation of groundwater storage change in a data poor region: a case study of Ngadda catchment in the Lake Chad Basin." Hydrological Processes hyp.13613 [10.1002/hyp.13613] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "NCA-LDAS Noah-3.3 Land Surface Model L4 Trends 0.125 x 0.125 degree V2.0, Annual Trends Data Product." Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) v 2.0 [10.5067/QFZZBKCO5YJG] [Dataset]
2019. "The Value of Near Real-Time Earth Observations for Improved Flood Disaster Response." Frontiers in Environmental Science 7 [10.3389/fenvs.2019.00127] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Web-based decision support system tools: The Soil and Water Assessment Tool Online visualization and analyses (SWATOnline) and NASA earth observation data downloading and reformatting tool (NASAaccess)." Environmental Modelling & Software 104499 [10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104499] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "NCA-LDAS: Overview and analysis of hydrologic trends for the National Climate Assessment." J. Hydrometeor. 20 (8): 1595-1617 [10.1175/JHM-D-17-0234.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Evaluating the Operational Application of SMAP for Global Agricultural Drought Monitoring." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 1-11 [10.1109/jstars.2019.2923555] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Building a one-stop shop for soil moisture information." EOS 100 [10.1029/2019EO123631] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Hydrologic and Agricultural Earth Observations and Modeling for the Water-Food Nexus." Frontiers in Environmental Science 7 pp. 23 [10.3389/fenvs.2019.00023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Earth Observations and Integrative Models in Support of Food and Water Security." Remote Sensing in Earth Systems Sciences [10.1007/s41976-019-0008-6] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Satellite-Based Assessment of Grassland Conversion and Related Fire Disturbance in the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska." Remote Sensing 11 (3): 283 [10.3390/rs11030283] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Developing Land Use Land Cover Maps for the Lower Mekong Basin to Aid Hydrologic Modeling and Basin Planning." Remote Sensing 10 (12): 1910 [10.3390/rs10121910] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Ground and satellite based observation datasets for the Lower Mekong River Basin." Data in Brief 21 2020-2027 [10.1016/j.dib.2018.11.038] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "A comparative study of available water in the major river basins of the world." Journal of Hydrology 567 510-532 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.10.038] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Comparison and Bias Correction of TMPA Precipitation Products over the Lower Part of Red–Thai Binh River Basin of Vietnam." Remote Sensing 10 (10): 1582 [10.3390/rs10101582] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Leveraging the Google Earth Engine for Drought Assessment Using Global Soil Moisture Data." Remote Sensing 10 (8): 1265 [10.3390/rs10081265] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Satellite observations and modeling to understand the Lower Mekong River Basin streamflow variability." Journal of Hydrology 564 559-573 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.07.030] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Improved Hydrological Decision Support System for the Lower Mekong River Basin Using Satellite-Based Earth Observations." Remote Sensing 10 (6): 885 [10.3390/rs10060885] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Socioeconomic Impact Evaluation for Near Real-Time Flood Detection in the Lower Mekong River Basin." Hydrology 5 (2): 23 [10.3390/hydrology5020023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Global Hydrological Cycles and Water Resources." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space [10.17226/24938] [Book]
2018. "NCA-LDAS Noah-3.3 Land Surface Model L4 Daily 0.125 x 0.125 degree V2.0, Daily Data." Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), Greenbelt, Maryland, USA Version 2.0 [10.5067/7V3N5DO04MAS] [Dataset]
2017. "Information theoretic evaluation of satellite soil moisture retrievals." Remote Sensing of Environment 204 392-400 [10.1016/j.rse.2017.10.016] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "A MODIS-based automated flood monitoring system for southeast asia." International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 61 104-117 [10.1016/j.jag.2017.05.006] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Intercomparison of Soil Moisture, Evaporative Stress, and Vegetation Indices for Estimating Corn and Soybean Yields Over the U.S." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 10 (4): 1328-1343 [10.1109/jstars.2016.2639338] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Flood mapping in the lower Mekong River Basin using daily MODIS observations." International Journal of Remote Sensing 38 (6): 1737-1757 [10.1080/01431161.2017.1285503] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Optical and Physical Methods for Mapping Flooding with Satellite Imagery." Remote Sensing of Hydrological Extremes 83-103 [10.1007/978-3-319-43744-6_5] [Article in Book]
2016. "Remote Sensing Techniques and Data Assimilation for Hydrologic Modeling." Handbook of Applied Hydrology, Second Edition [Article in Book]
2016. "Biomass burning, land-cover change, and the hydrological cycle in Northern sub-Saharan Africa." Environmental Research Letters 11 (9): 095005 [10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095005] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Unlocking the full potential of Earth observation during the 2015 Texas flood disaster." Water Resources Research 52 (5): 3288-3293 [10.1002/2015wr018428] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Near Real-Time Flood Monitoring and Impact Systems." Remote Sensing of Hydrological Extremes 105-118 [10.1007/978-3-319-43744-6] [Article in Book]
2016. "Applying Earth Observations to Water Resources Challenges." Earth Science Satellite Applications 147-171 [10.1007/978-3-319-33438-7_6] [Article in Book]
2015. "Satellite data for water resources management." Eos 96 [10.1029/2015EO035971] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Benchmarking a Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System for Agricultural Drought Monitoring." J. Hydrometeor. 15 (3): 1117–1134 [10.1175/JHM-D-13-0125.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Understanding changes in water availability in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo del Norte basin under the influence of large-scale circulation indices using the Noah land surface model." J. Geophys. Res. 117 (D5): D05104 [Full Text] [10.1029/2011JD016590] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Improved prediction of quasi-global vegetation conditions using remotely-sensed surface soil moisture." Geophysical Research Letters 39 (19): L19406 [10.1029/2012GL053470] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "On the utility of land surface models for agricultural drought monitoring." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 16 (9): 3451-3460 [10.5194/hess-16-3451-2012] [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Assessing the Impacts of Climate Variability on the Water Resources in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin." World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2010 [10.1061/41114(371)9] [Proceedings]
2010. "Evaluating the Utility of Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture Retrievals for Operational Agricultural Drought Monitoring." IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing 3 (1): 57-66 [10.1109/JSTARS.2009.2037163] [Journal Article/Letter]
2009. "An evaluation of soil moisture retrievals using aircraft and satellite passive microwave observations during SMEX02." Journal of the Remote Sensing Society of Japan 29 (1): 293-300 [10.11440/rssj.29.293] [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "Aircraft based soil moisture retrievals under mixed vegetation and topographic conditions." Remote Sensing of Environment 112 (2): 375-390 [10.1016/j.rse.2007.01.024] [Journal Article/Letter]
2007. "Estimating precipitation errors using spaceborne surface soil moisture retrievals." Geophysical Research Letters 34 [Full Text] [Journal Article/Letter]
2007. "Variation of Hydrometeorological Conditions along a Topographic Transect in Northwestern Mexico during the North American Monsoon." Journal of Climate 20 (9): 1792-1809 [10.1175/JCLI4094.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2004. "Passive-Active Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture at both L and C bands: A comparison of two field experiments." Italian Journal of Remote Sensing 30/31 65-86 [Journal Article/Letter]
2003. "Observations of soil moisture using a passive and active low-frequency microwave airborne sensor during SGP99." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 40 2659-2673 [Journal Article/Letter]
2003. "Soil moisture retrieval using the passive/active L and S- band radar/radiometer." EEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 41 2792-2801 [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2021. "The Lower Mekong River Basin freshwaters sustainability: Prospects for the future." OSF [10.17605/OSF.IO/K6HV4] [Dataset]
2020. "UTILIZING LANDSAT AND SENTINEL-2 TO REMOTELY MONITOR AND EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF WINTER COVER CROPS THROUGHOUT MARYLAND." ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences XLII-3/W11 125-130 [10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-3-w11-125-2020] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Soil moisture product validation good practices protocol, version 1.0." Committee on Earth Observation Satellites 123 pp. [10.5067/doc/ceoswgcv/lpv/sm.001] [Report]
2017. "U.S. Government Global Water Strategy ." U.S. Government Global Water Strategy [Full Text] [Other]
2016. "Applications Plan for the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) Missions: GRACE, GRACE-FO, and Future Missions." GRACE Tellus 15 [Full Text] [Report]
2015. "Evaluating the application of microwave-based vegetation observations in an operational soil moisture data assimilation system." 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) [10.1109/igarss.2015.7327003] [Proceedings]
2014. "Drought Prediction for Socio-Cultural Stability Project." NASA/TM-2014-218303 [Full Text] [Report]
2010. "Evaluation and application of remotely sensed soil moisture products." 2 pp. [Proceedings]
Selected Public Outreach
Bolten's team demonstrates Value of Information for Satellite-Based Flood Disaster Response Times in Lower Mekong River Basin
December 2019 - Present
Highlight on Dr. Bolten's work leveraging Google Earth Engine operational SMAP Soil Moisture product assessment of the CA fires.
October 2020 - Present
Library of Congress Lecture - Watching Water: New Approaches to Assessing & Managing Global Water Security & Sustainability
June 2018 - June 2018
NASA ARSET: Applications of Remote Sensing for River Basin Monitoring, Mekong Basin
May 2019 - Present
Hour long webinar and question and answer session on transboundary water management and remote sensing applications
John introduces the SMAP Early Adopters Program (0-1:00) and the USDA FAS global soil moisture system (11:00-12:30).
February 2018 - Present
NASA Ignite Talk at 2017 American Geophysical Union meeting. (TED style talk- 20 auto advanced slides without notes in 5 minutes).
2017 - Present
Live interview on the MSNBC 'The Ed Show' for the NASA SMAP Launch
February 2015 - Present
Live interview to discuss the potential impact of the NASA SMAP mission.
Live shots for the NASA SMAP Launch
February 2015 - Present
NASA scientist Dr. John Bolten talks about the launch of the Soil Moisture Active Passive - or SMAP - satellite scheduled to launch on Jan 29. SMAP will take stock of the water hidden just beneath your feet, in the topsoil. Knowing how much water is in the soil, and whether it is frozen or thawed, has profound applications for society, from better forecasting of natural disasters like floods and droughts to helping prevent food shortages.
Live shot for NASA SMAP launch
February 2015 - Present
One of the many live television interviews that were carried out for publich outreach before and during the NASA SMAP launch in January, 2015.
WBAL interview on the NASA SMAP Launch
February 2015 - Present
One of the many live television interviews for the NASA SMAP Launch