Research: Analysis of time series satellite vegetation index measurements from various satellite instruments including Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), SPOT Vegetation, and NOAA’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Focus on land surface response to interannual climate variability associated El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), drought pattern analysis, inferred long-term trends and dynamics of vegetation patterns, development of long-term data records (LTDRs) of the biosphere and links between climate variability and vector-borne disease outbreaks.
Project Management: (1) Project lead in support of research analysis and applications development for global agricultural monitoring to United States Department of Agriculture/Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS), climate variability and vector-borne disease prediction mapping in support of the Department of Defense Armed Forces Health Survilleince Branch - Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (DoD/AFHSB-GEIS) and United States Department of Agriculture / Center for Medical, Agricultural & Veterinary Entomology (USDA/CMAVE).
(2) Managing and coordinating research analysis and programming staff for the projects.
(3) Proposal writing and project budgeting, writing project reports and lead and representation at project meetings
(4) Liaison with external data providers
Assaf Anyamba
(Principal Scientist)
| Email: | assaf.anyamba@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.614.6601 |
| Org Code: | 618 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 618 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE CO |
Brief Bio
Positions/Employment
Principal Scientist
Goddard Earth Science and Technology Research (GESTAR) Universities Space Research Association - NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
January 2018 - Present
Senior Research Scientist
Universities Space Research Association (USRA) -Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) - NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
April 2015 - Present
Research Scientist
Goddard Earth Sciences Technology Center/University of Maryland Baltimore County (GEST/UMBC) - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
January 2002 - April 2011
Associate Research Scientist
Universities Space Research Association (USRA) -Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) - NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
April 2014 - Present
Assistant Research Scientist
Goddard Earth Sciences Technology Center/University of Maryland Baltimore County (GEST/UMBC) - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
January 2001 - April 2002
Research Scientist
Universities Space Research Association (USRA) - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
January 1999 - December 2000
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
University Programs Office - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
July 1997 - December 1998
Teaching Experience
- Visiting Lecturer (once a year) Science Technology and Policy Program, Georgetown University (2014 - Present)
- Teaching Assistant 1992-1993,Geographic Information Systems & Remote Sensing School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA
- Teaching Assistant 1990-1992, (1)World Geography, (2) Geographic Information Systems & Remote Sensing, Department of Geography, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
- Teaching Assistant 1990, Cartography, Department of Geography, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy (Geography), Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1992-1997, Dissertation topic: Interannual Variability of NDVI over Africa and its relation to El Niño / Southern Oscillation
- Master of Arts, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 1990-1992 Thesis topic: Monitoring Seasonal Ecological Change Using NOAA-AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Data: An Integrated Remote Sensing and GIS Approach Applied to Kenya
- Bachelor of Arts (Honors: Geography & Economics) Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya, 1986-1989, Senior Thesis Topic: Evolutio of Koobi Fora Spit, NE Lake Turkana. (Major Physical Geography)
Professional Societies
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2011 - Present
Society for Vector Ecology (SOVE)
1999 - Present
Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
2009 - 2017
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS)
1992 - 2014
American Society for Microbiology
Member
2007 - Present
Professional Service
1. Member – Pandemic Prediction and Forecasting Science Technology Working Group (formerly part of OSTP; 2015-present).
2. Member - US Rift Valley Fever Working Group
3. USDA / ARS Veterinary Medical and Urban Entomology National Program 104- Program Reviewer: 2008 – present)
4. Co-Lead, Air Quality & Health Working Group, Goddard Applied Sciences
5. Co-Lead, Climate & Environmental Health Working Group, Goddard Applied Sciences
6. Scientific Advisor for the GO Mosquito Habitat Mapper Initiative (https://mosquito.strategies.org/index.php/en/english/ask-a-scientist-blog/)
7. Chair, 610 Seminar Chair, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Awards
- 2018: USRA President’s Award: Individual Excellence Award2013: FDA Leveraging/Collaboration Award
- 2010: Interagency Partnership Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC).
- 2009: USDA ARS Technology Transfer Award
- 2008: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Group Achievement Award to the Goddard Applied Sciences Team
- 2006: Certificate of Contribution to the World Health Organization
- 2003: Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections System Outstanding Support Award. Award given for Outstanding Support to the Department of Defense(DoD) Global Emerging Infections and Response System for Providing Monitoring Capability for Rift Valley Fever.
- 2003: John I. Davidson President's First Place Award for Practical Papers presented by the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) for the paper "Mapping Potential Risk of Rift Valley Fever Outbreaks in African Savannas Using Vegetation Index Time Series Data” (PERS, February 2002; 68-2, pp. 137-145). Award presented during the ASPRS Annual Conference in Anchorage, Alaska: May 6-9, 2003
- 1998-1999: NASA/GSFC Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award at Goddard Space Flight Center
- 1997: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) award to attend a workshop on A Systems Approach to El Niño Southern Oscillation, Boulder, Colorado 20 July - 1 August
- 1993-1997: NASA Graduate Student Fellowship in Global Change Research.
- 1995: Global Change Systems for Analysis, Research and Training (START) / International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) to attend workshop on Data and Scientific Networking, College Park, Maryland, July - August.
- 1992: Universities Space Research Association/NASA-GSFC: Graduate Student Visiting Scientist Program - Earth Systems Science, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
- 1992-1993: Clark University, Graduate Associateship.
- 1992: Houk Foundation Research Grant for Masters Thesis Research.
- 1990-1992: Ohio University: Department of Geography, Graduate Associateship.
- 1988: Harvard University - National Museums of Kenya Scholarship on the Koobi Fora Field School Program.
Grants
Rift Valley fever Monitoring, Risk Mapping and Prediction System
Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (DoD/GEIS) - Department of Defense, Defense Health Agency's (DHA) Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch (AFHSB) - Awarded: 2016-10-01
Dates: 2016-10-01 - 2020-09-30
Coverage: 0.2
Amount 198K
Integrating AVHRR and MODIS Observations into the USDA FAS Global Agricultural Monitoring System
Global Agricultural Monitoring System - United States Department of Agriculture / Foreign Agricultural Service - Awarded: 2016-10-01
Dates: 2016-10-01 - 2017-09-30
Coverage: 0.1
Amount 550K
CHIKRISK: Global Monitoring & Mapping of Chikungunya Risk
Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JSTO-CBD) - Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE) - Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) - - Awarded: 2016-10-01
Dates: 2016-10-01 - 2019-09-30
Coverage: .3
Amount 1337K
Understanding Rift Valley Fever in Republic of South Africa
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)- Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) - Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) - Awarded: 2013-08-01
Dates: 2013-10-01 - 2018-09-30
Coverage: 0.2
Amount 314k
Geospatial Risk Assessment of Plant Pathogens
Geospatial Risk Assessment of Plant Pathogens - Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) - Awarded: 2007-08-01
Dates: 2007-08-01 - 2012-07-31
Coverage: .3
Publications
Refereed
2022. "Climate Conditions During a Rift Valley Fever Post-epizootic Period in Free State, South Africa, 2014–2019." Frontiers in Veterinary Science 8 [10.3389/fvets.2021.730424] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Scraping Unstructured Data to Explore the Relationship between Rainfall Anomalies and Vector-Borne Disease Outbreaks." 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data [10.1109/bigdata52589.2021.9671853] [Proceedings]
2021. "A systematic review and meta-analysis of the potential non-human animal reservoirs and arthropod vectors of the Mayaro virus." PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15 (12): e0010016 [10.1371/journal.pntd.0010016] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Applying a One Health Approach in Global Health and Medicine: Enhancing Involvement of Medical Schools and Global Health Centers." Annals of Global Health 87 (1): 30 [10.5334/aogh.2647] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Impact of recent climate extremes on mosquito-borne disease transmission in Kenya." PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15 (3): e0009182 [10.1371/journal.pntd.0009182] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Climate predicts geographic and temporal variation in mosquito-borne disease dynamics on two continents." Nature Communications 12 (1): 1233 [10.1038/s41467-021-21496-7] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Rift Valley fever and the challenges of remaining fully prepared for this periodic emergency." Bulletin de l'OIE 2020 (2): 41/102-44/102 [10.20506/bull.2020.2.3151] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Transdisciplinary Research Priorities for Human and Planetary Health in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (23): 8890 [10.3390/ijerph17238890] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Farm-Level Risk Factors of Increased Abortion and Mortality in Domestic Ruminants during the 2010 Rift Valley Fever Outbreak in Central South Africa." Pathogens 9 (11): 914 [10.3390/pathogens9110914] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "The El Niño – La Niña cycle and recent trends in supply and demand of net primary productivity in African drylands." Climatic Change 138 (1): 111–125 [10.1007/s10584-016-1730-1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Rift Valley Fever: An Emerging Mosquito-Borne Disease*." Annu. Rev. Entomol. 61 (1): 395-415 [10.1146/annurev-ento-010715-023819] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Epidemiologic and Environmental Risk Factors of Rift Valley Fever in Southern Africa from 2008 to 2011 ." Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 15 (8): 502-511 [10.1089/vbz.2015.1774] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Global Climate Anomalies and Potential Infectious Disease Risks: 2014-2015." PLOS Currents Outbreaks Edition 1 [10.1371/currents.outbreaks.95fbc4a8fb4695e049baabfc2fc8289f] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Thirty-two Years of Sahelian Zone Growing Season Non-Stationary NDVI3g Patterns and Trends." Remote Sens. 6 (4): 3101-3122 [10.3390/rs6043101] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Recent Weather Extremes and Impacts on Agricultural Production and Vector-Borne Disease Outbreak Patterns." PLOS ONE 1-9 [10.1371/journal.pone.0092538] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Association of Temperature and Historical Dynamics of Malaria in the Republic of Korea, Including Reemergence in 1993." Military Medicine 179 (7): 806-814 [10.7205/MILMED-D-13-00545] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "The Normalization of Surface Anisotropy Effects Present in SEVIRI Reflectances by Using the MODIS BRDF Method." IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing 52 (10): 6026-6039 [10.1109/TGRS.2013.2294602] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Global Trends in Seasonality of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), 1982–2011." Remote Sensing 5 (10): 4799-4818 [10.3390/rs5104799] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Rift Valley Fever Risk Map Model and Seroprevalence in Selected Wild Ungulates and Camels from Kenya." PLoS ONE 8 (6): e66626 [10.1371/journal.pone.0066626] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Vector-borne infectious diseases and influenza." [Article in Book]
2012. "Historical Perspectives on AVHRR NDVI and Vegetation Drought Monitoring." Remote Sensing of Drought: Innovative Monitoring Approaches [Article in Book]
2012. "Climate Teleconnections and Recent Patterns of Human and Animal Disease Outbreaks." PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 6 (1): e1465 [10.1371/journal.pntd.0001465] [Journal Article/Letter]
2011. "Analysing the advantages of high temporal resolution geostationary MSG SEVIRI data compared to Polar Operational Environmental Satellite data for land surface monitoring in Africa." International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 13 (5): 721-729 [10.1016/j.jag.2011.05.009] [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Monitoring Global Croplands with Coarse Resolution Earth Observations: The Global Agriculture Monitoring (GLAM) Project." Remote Sensing 2 (6): 1589-1609 [10.3390/rs2061589] [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Modeling the distribution of Culex tritaeniorhynchus to predict Japanese encephalitis distribution in the Republic of Korea." Geospatial Health 5 (1): 45-57 [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Prediction, Assessment of the Rift Valley Fever Activity in East and Southern Africa 2006–2008 and Possible Vector Control Strategies." Am J Trop Med Hyg 83 (2 Suppl): 43-51 [10.4269/ajtmh.2010.09-0289] [Journal Article/Letter]
2009. "Prediction of a Rift Valley fever outbreak." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (3): 955-959 [10.1073/pnas.0806490106] [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "The Impact of Climate Change on the Epidemiology and Control of Rift Valley Fever." Rev Sci Tech 27 (2): 413-426 [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "Satellite Vegetation Index Data as a Tool to Forecast Population Dynamics of Medically Important Mosquitoes at Military Installations in the Continental United States ." Military Medicine 173 (7): 677-683 [10.7205/MILMED.173.7.677] [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "Long-term Surveillance Data and Patterns of Invasion by Aedes Albopictus in Florida." J American Mosquito Control Association 24 (1): 115-120 [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "Environmental biosurveillance for epidemic prediction: experience with Rift Valley fever." Biosurveillance and Biosecurity 5354 169-174 [10.1007/978-3-540-89746-0_17] [Article in Book]
2008. "Extreme Weather and Epidemics: Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya Fever." Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events: Understanding the Contributions of Infectious Disease Emergence 116-128 [Article in Book]
2008. "Ecology of disease: the intersection of human and animal health." Vector-borne diseases - Understanding the Environmental, Human Health, and Ecological Considerations, Forum on Microbial Threats 78-88 [Article in Book]
2007. "Drought-associated Chikungunya Emergence along Coastal East Africa." The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 76 (3): 405-407 [Journal Article/Letter]
2007. "Comparisons of compositing period length for vegetation index data from Polar-orbiting and Geostationary satellites for the Cloud-prone region of West Africa." Photogrammmetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 73 (3): 297-310 [10.14358/PERS.73.3.297] [Journal Article/Letter]
2007. " A Rift Valley fever risk surveillance system for Africa using remotely sensed data: potential for use on other continents." Veterinaria Italiana 43 (3): 663-674 [Full Text] [Journal Article/Letter]
2007. "A Rift Valley fever risk surveillance system for Africa using remotely sensed data: potential for use on other continents." Veterinaria Italiana 43 (3): 663-674 [Full Text] [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Rift Valley Fever Potential, Arabian Peninsula." Emerging Infectious Diseases 12 (3): 518-520 [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Predictability of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index in Kenya and Potential Applications as an Indicator of Rift Valley Fever Outbreaks in the Greater Horn of Africa." J Clim 19 1673-1687 [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Developing climate anomalies suggest potential disease risks for 2006-2007." Int J Health Geographics 5 (60): 8 pp [10.1186/1476-072X-5-60] [Journal Article/Letter]
2005. "Analysis of Sahelian vegetation dynamics using NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data from 1981-2003." J Arid Environ 63 (3): 596-614 [10.1016/j.jaridenv.2005.03.007] [Journal Article/Letter]
2005. "Monitoring Drought Using Coarse-Resolution Polar-Orbiting Satellite Data." Oxford University Press 57-78 [Article in Book]
2005. "Recent trends in vegetation dynamics in the African Sahel and their relationship to climate." Global Environ Change 15 394-404 [Journal Article/Letter]
2004. "Wind-Related Processes Detected by the Spirit Rover at Gusev Crater, Mars." Science 305 (5685): 810 [10.1126/science.1100108] [Journal Article/Letter]
2003. "Seasonal to interannual variability of vegetation and fires at SAFARI 2000 sites inferred from advanced very high resolution radiometer time series data." Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 108 8507-8516 [Journal Article/Letter]
2002. "Climatic and Ecological Context of Ebola Outbreaks." Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 68 (2): 147-152 [Journal Article/Letter]
2002. "From El Niño to La Niña: Vegetation response patterns over East and Southern Africa during 1997-2000 period." J. Climate 15 3096-3103 [Journal Article/Letter]
2002. "Mapping Potential Risk of Rift Valley fever outbreaks in African Savannas using Vegetation Index Time Series Data." Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 68 (2): 137-145 [Journal Article/Letter]
2001. "NDVI anomaly paterns over Africa during the 1997/98 ENSO warm event." Int. J. Remote Sens. 22 1847-1859 [Journal Article/Letter]
2000. "Evidence of Lunar Phase Influence on Global Surface Air Temperature." Geophys. Res. Lett 27 (18): 2969-2972 [Journal Article/Letter]
2000. "The Manifestation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation in Global Deep Convection and in the Schumann Resonance Intensity." J. of the Atmospheric Sciences 57 1029-1044 [Journal Article/Letter]
1999. "Climate and satellite indicators to forecast Rift Valley Fever in Kenya." Science 285 (5426): 397-400 [10.1126/science.285.5426.397] [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2020. "Reaching Broad Audiences from a Large Agency Setting." Foundations of Data Visualization 319-340 [10.1007/978-3-030-34444-3_18] [Article in Book]
2015. "Remote Sensing." International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition 20 419-424 [Book]
2008. "The relationship between environmental factors retrieved from remotely-sensed data and Rift Valley Fever activity in Senegal." Proc IGARSS [Other]