BS, 2005, University of Arizona
PhD, 2009, University of Arizona
Joel McCorkel
(Deputy Project Manager)
| Email: | joel.mccorkel@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.614.6675 |
| Org Code: | 425 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 425 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Current Projects
Atmosphere Observing System Deputy Project Manager
The Atmosphere Observing System project consists of the AOS-Storm (polar orbit) and AOS-Sky (inclined orbit) missions that will provide transformative three-dimensional space-based and sub-orbital observations of co-located cloud, precipitation and aerosol processes leading to improved prediction of weather, air quality, and climate.
AOS is a multi-lateral project including partners from Japan (JAXA), France (CNES), and Canada (CSA). These partnerships enable synergistic science by combining Doppler radar, lidar, polarimetric, thermal, and microwave radiometry co-located measurements – each measuring key independent atmospheric properties at the same time.
Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) Project Scientist (2020 - 2023)
Weather
Project Scientist for the Geostationary Extended Observations mission to continue and extend the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) observation of the Earth's weather and environment. GeoXO is currently in pre-formulation to establish the science measurements and constellation to be implemented to meet NOAA's observational needs.
GOES Flight Project Scientist (2018-2021, Deputy 2015-2018)
Weather
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) – R Series is the nation’s most advanced fleet of geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R Series significantly improves the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and our nation’s economic health and prosperity. The satellites provide advanced imaging with increased spatial resolution and faster coverage for more accurate forecasts, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and improved monitoring of solar activity and space weather. The GOES-R Series is a four-satellite program (GOES-R/S/T/U) that will extend the availability of the operational GOES satellite system through 2036.
Dr. McCorkel was selected to serve as GOES Flight Project Scientist in July 2018 following his tenure as Deputy Project Scienist for Calibration beginning in 2015 first under Dr. Dennis Chesters then Dr. Scott Braun.
Landsat 9 TIRS-2 Deputy Instrument Scientist and Calibration Lead (2015 - 2022)
The Thermal Infrared Sensor-2 (TIRS-2) is a two-channel thermal imager being built at Goddard Space Flight Center. TIRS-2 provides global, geo-located thermal image data in spectral channels centered at 10.8- and 12 micrometers with 100-m sample size over a 185-km swath. It will fly on Landsat 9, the newest addition to the Landsat satellite fleet, which will continue the legacy of the joint NASA/USGS Landsat Program proving Earth imagery since 1972. TIRS data are used by scientists around the world to derive evapotranspiration of vegetation to evaluate water consumption on field-by-filed basis, assess droughts, and aide in water use management. These data are also used to track deforestation, assess volcanic eruptions and hazards, map urban heat fluxes, monitor and assess wildfires, track material transport in lakes and coastal regions, identify mosquito breeding areas, and map power plant thermal plumes in waterways.
Dr. McCorkel joined the TIRS-2 Instrument Project in 2015 as the Product Development Lead for Calibration (sensor calbration team lead) and later became the TIRS-2 Deputy Instrument Scientist in 2016.
GLAMR Principal Investigator - Goddard Laser for Absolute Measurement of Radiance
Remote Sensing
GLAMR is a laser-based calibration facility providing sensors that operate in the solar reflective spectrum with spectral and radiometric characterization at climate-levels accuracies. NIST-traceable transfer radiometers with uncertainties as low as 0.09% (k=2) are used as a reference. Originally installed at GSFC in 2010 for CLARREO prephase A studies, the facility has expanded and supports several Earth science flight sensors including Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager-2, JPSS VIIRS, PACE's Ocean Color Instrument, and CLARREO Pathfinder. GLAMR also provides characterization for airborne instruments such as, G-LiHT (B. Cook Code 618) and Research Scanning Polarimeter. The GLAMR team continues to build more advanced tunable lasers with improved reliability, power, and redundancy to batter address demanding requirements of flight system test schedules and science characterization.
Positions/Employment
AOS Deputy Project Manager / Code 425
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2023 - Present
Acting Deputy Director, Sciences and Exploration Directorate / Code 600
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2023 - 2023
GeoXO Project Scientist
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2020 - 2023
GLAMR Principal Investigator
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2013 - 2023
Earth Science (610) Calibration Laboratory Lead
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2022 - 2023
GOES-R Project Scientist
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2018 - 2020
Landsat 9 TIRS-2 Deputy Instrument Scientist and Calibration Lead
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2015 - 2022
GOES-R Deputy Project Scientist
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2015 - 2018
Research Physical Scientist, Biospheric Sciences Laboratory / Code 618
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
October 2011 - August 2023
Scientist, Airborne Observation Platform
National Ecological Observatory Network - Boulder, CO
May 2009 - September 2011
Education
Awards
Individual Awards
- 2024 NASA Honor Award – Outstanding Leadership Medal
- 2019 NASA Honor Award – Outstanding Leadership Medal
- 2015 NASA Honor Award – Early Career Achievement Medal
- NASA Special Act Awards (2013, 2019-ALTIRS, 2022, 2023-Lab mgmt, 2023-600DD)
- Performance Awards – Distinguished (2015, 2016, 2018-2023)
- Performance Awards – Accomplished (2013, 2014, 2017)
Group awards
- 2024 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for PACE Ocean Color Instrument Team
- 2024 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for GLAMR Team
- 2023 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Mission Enabling Support – JPSS-2 Flight and Ground Segment Teams
- 2023 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Science – JPSS-2 Instrument and Imagery Cal/Val Teams
- 2023 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for GeoXO Program Science Working Group
- 2022 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Science – Landsat Calibration and Validation Team
- 2022 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Engineering – TIRS-2 Post-delivery Support
- 2022 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Customer Service – JPSS-2 Instrument Development and Delivery Team
- 2022 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Customer Service – Landsat 9 Project Team
- 2021 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Engineering – TIRS-2 Team
- 2021 RHG Engineering Team Award – Goddard Laser for Absolute Measurement of Radiance for support of L'Ralph
- 2019 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager Optimization Team
- 2019 NASA Honor Award – Silver Achievement Medal for Landsat 9 GLAMR Team
- 2019 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Engineering – TIRS-2 Cryocooler Team
- 2018 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for JPSS-1 Integration and Launch Team
- 2018 NASA Honor Award – Silver Achievement Medal for stellar achievement in implementing performance improvements and TIPCE test of the TIRS-2 Imaging Performance System, resolving the Detector-Electronics operation anomaly
- 2017 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for Goddard Laser for Absolute Measurement of Radiance (GLAMR)
- 2017 RHG Exceptional Achievement for Engineering – TIRS-2 Telescope, Optics, Detector Assembly Team
- 2017 NASA Honor Award – Group Achievement Award for GOES-R Team
- 2017 Certificate of Appreciation – support of NASA/ESD/ESTO Advanced Components Technologies program solicitation
- 2013 Certificate of Recognition – Contributions to successful completion of Joint Polar Satellite System Program’s KDP-I and KDP-C milestones
Other Professional Information
Web of Science: https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/1810918
Publications
Refereed
2024. "GeoXO: NOAA’s Future Geostationary Satellite System." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 105 (3): E660-E679 [10.1175/bams-d-23-0048.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Using OSSEs to Evaluate the Impacts of Geostationary Infrared Sounders." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 39 (12): 1903-1918 [https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-22-0033.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Polarization Performance Simulation for the GeoXO Atmospheric Composition Instrument: NO2 Retrieval Impacts." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 15 (15): 4489–4501 [doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4489-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "The First Atmospheric Radio Occultation Profiles From a GPS Receiver in Geostationary Orbit." IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters [10.1109/lgrs.2022.3185828] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2) Stray Light Mitigation and Assessment." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 1-1 [10.1109/tgrs.2022.3177312] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Reviews and syntheses: Ongoing and emerging opportunities to improve environmental science using observations from the Advanced Baseline Imager on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites." Biogeosciences [10.5194/bg-2020-454] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Landsat 9: Empowering open science and applications through continuity." Remote Sensing of Environment 248 111968 [10.1016/j.rse.2020.111968] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Prelaunch Radiometric Calibration and Uncertainty Analysis of Landsat Thermal Infrared Sensor 2." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 1-12 [10.1109/tgrs.2020.3008655] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Reflective solar band striping mitigation method for the GOES-R series advanced baseline imager using special scans." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 14 (03): 1 [10.1117/1.jrs.14.032409] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "High productivity in hybrid-poplar plantations without isoprene emission to the atmosphere." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201912327 [10.1073/pnas.1912327117] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "GOES-16 ABI solar reflective channel validation for earth science application." Remote Sensing of Environment 237 111438 [10.1016/j.rse.2019.111438] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "An inter-comparison exercise of Sentinel-2 radiometric validations assessed by independent expert groups." Remote Sensing of Environment 233 111369 [10.1016/j.rse.2019.111369] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Current status of Landsat program, science, and applications." Remote Sensing of Environment 225 127-147 [10.1016/j.rse.2019.02.015] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "The terrestrial organism and biogeochemistry spatial sampling design for the National Ecological Observatory Network." Ecosphere 10 (2): e02540 [10.1002/ecs2.2540] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Ultra-portable field transfer radiometer for vicarious calibration of earth imaging sensors." Metrologia 55 (3): S104-S117 [10.1088/1681-7575/aab311] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Development of a simulation environment to support intercalibration studies over the Algodones Dunes system." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 12 (01): 1 [10.1117/1.jrs.12.012008] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Overview of the 2015 Algodones Sand Dunes field campaign to support sensor intercalibration." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 12 (01): 1 [10.1117/1.jrs.12.012003] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Earth-observing satellite intercomparison using the Radiometric Calibration Test Site at Railroad Valley." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 12 (01): 1 [10.1117/1.jrs.12.012004] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Monitoring Orbital Precession of EO-1 Hyperion With Three Atmospheric Correction Models in the Libya-4 PICS." IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 13 (12): 1797-1801 [10.1109/lgrs.2016.2612539] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Imager-to-radiometer in-flight cross calibration: RSP radiometric comparison with airborne and satellite sensors." Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 9 (3): 955-962 [10.5194/amt-9-955-2016] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Quantifying Libya-4 surface reflectance heterogeneity with WorldView-1, 2 and EO-1 Hyperion." IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 12 (11): 2277 - 2281 [10.1109/LGRS.2015.2468174] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Validation of EO-1 Hyperion and Advanced Land Imager Using the Radiometric Calibration Test Site at Railroad Valley, Nevada." IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing 9 (2): 816-826 [10.1109/jstars.2015.2463101] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "The Ground-Based Absolute Radiometric Calibration of Landsat 8 OLI." Remote Sens. 7 (1): 600-626 [10.3390/rs70100600] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Landsat-8: Science and product vision for terrestrial global change research." Remote Sensing of Environment 145 154-172 [10.1016/j.rse.2014.02.001] [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. "Vicarious Calibration of EO-1 Hyperion." IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing 6 (2): 400-407 [10.1109/jstars.2012.2225417] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Absolute Radiometric Calibration of Narrow-Swath Imaging Sensors With Reference to Non-Coincident Wide-Swath Sensors." IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing 51 (3): 1309-1318 [10.1109/tgrs.2012.2219874] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "In-Situ Transfer Standard and Coincident-View Intercomparisons for Sensor Cross-Calibration." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 51 (3): 1088-1097 [10.1109/tgrs.2013.2243841] [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2022. "U.S. Plans for Geostationary Hyperspectral Infrared Sounders." IGARSS 2022 - 2022 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss46834.2022.9884082] [Proceedings]
2020. "Landsat 9 Mission update and status." Earth Observing Systems XXV 11501 (O): 1-8 [10.1117/12.2569748] [Proceedings]
2019. "Time resolved irradiance of an integrating sphere illuminated by a mode-locked optical parametric oscillator." Earth Observing Systems XXIV [10.1117/12.2530295] [Proceedings]
2019. "The Operational Land Imager-2: prelaunch spectral characterization." Earth Observing Systems XXIV [10.1117/12.2529776] [Proceedings]
2019. "The JPSS-2 VIIRS version 2 (at-launch) relative spectral response characterization." Earth Observing Systems XXIV [10.1117/12.2530022] [Proceedings]
2019. "First Results from Laser-Based Spectral Characterization of Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager-2." IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss.2019.8898508] [Proceedings]
2019. "Landsat 9: Mission Status and Prelaunch Instrument Performance Characterization and Calibration." IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss.2019.8898362] [Proceedings]
2019. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 Spectral Response Test: Updates And Perspective." IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss.2019.8899118] [Proceedings]
2019. "GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager performance recovery summary." IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss40859.2019.9044466] [Proceedings]
2018. "Landsat-8 on-orbit and Landsat-9 pre-launch sensor radiometric characterization." Earth Observing Missions and Sensors: Development, Implementation, and Characterization V [10.1117/12.2324715] [Proceedings]
2018. "Spectral testing of the Landsat-9 OLI-2 instrument using the Goddard Laser Absolute Measurement of Radiance (GLAMR)." Earth Observing Systems XXIII [10.1117/12.2321192] [Proceedings]
2018. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 pre-launch characterization: initial imaging and spectral performance results." Earth Observing Systems XXIII [10.1117/12.2321084] [Proceedings]
2018. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 Architecture and Design." IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 8841-8844 [10.1109/igarss.2018.8518269] [Proceedings]
2018. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 Subsystem-Level Spectral Test Results." IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 8849-8852 [10.1109/igarss.2018.8518669] [Proceedings]
2018. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 Preliminary Stray Light Assessment." IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 8853-8856 [10.1109/igarss.2018.8519394] [Proceedings]
2018. "Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 Characterization Plan Overview." IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 8845-8848 [10.1109/igarss.2018.8518798] [Proceedings]
2018. "Characterization of Firefly, an Imaging Spectrometer Designed for Airborne Measurements of Solar-Induced Fluorescence." IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium [10.1109/igarss.2018.8518303] [Proceedings]
2016. "Results from source-based and detector-based calibrations of a CLARREO calibration demonstration system." Proc. SPIE, Earth Observing Systems XXI 9972 [10.1117/12.2238634] [Proceedings]
2016. "Evaluation of GLAMR-based calibration for SI-traceable field reflectance retrievals." Proc. SPIE, Earth Observing Systems XXI 9972 [10.1117/12.2238630] [Proceedings]
2015. "VIIRS/J1 polarization narrative." Earth Observing Systems XX [10.1117/12.2190138] [Proceedings]
2015. "Radiometric calibration of G-LiHT's imaging spectrometer using GLAMR for satellite sensor intercalibration." Earth Observing Systems XX [10.1117/12.2188763] [Proceedings]
2015. "Demonstrating the error budget for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory through solar irradiance measurements." Earth Observing Systems XX [10.1117/12.2188849] [Proceedings]
2015. "Radiometric cross-calibration of Terra ASTER and MODIS." Earth Observing Systems XX [10.1117/12.2185539] [Proceedings]
2015. "Online resource for Earth-observing satellite sensor calibration." Earth Observing Systems XX [10.1117/12.2188741] [Proceedings]
2015. "Data products of NASA Goddard’s LiDAR, hyperspectral, and thermal airborne imager (G-LiHT)." SPIE. 9482, Next-Generation Spectroscopic Technologies VIII 94821D [10.1117/12.2177083] [Proceedings]
2015. "The development of a DIRSIG simulation environment to support instrument trade studies for the SOLARIS sensor." Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XXI 9472 947214 [10.1117/12.2177507] [Proceedings]
2013. "Error budget for a calibration demonstration system for the reflected solar instrument for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory." Proceedings of SPIE 8870 [10.1117/12.2024562] [Proceedings]
2012. "Cross-calibration of imaging sensors using model-based, SI-traceable predictions of AT-sensor radiance." Proceedings of SPIE 8510 [10.1117/12.930309] [Proceedings]
2012. "Test Plan for a calibration demonstration system for the reflected solar instrument for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory." Proceeding of SPIE 8516 [10.1117/12.930337] [Proceedings]
2012. "Instrumentation and first results of the reflected solar demonstration system for the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory." Proceeding of SPIE 8510 [10.1117/12.930950] [Proceedings]
2011. "Progress in the development of airborne remote sensing instrumentation for the National Ecological Observatory Network." Progress in the development of airborne remote sensing instrumentation for the National Ecological Observatory Network [Proceedings]
2009. "Transmittance measurement of a heliostat facility used in the preflight radiometric calibration of Earth-observing sensors." Proceedings of SPIE Earth Observing Systems XIV 7452 74520P [10.1117/12.828873] [Proceedings]
2009. "Radiometric characterization of hyperspectral imagers using multispectral sensors." Proceedings of SPIE Earth Observing Systems XIV 7452 745210 [10.1117/12.828608] [Proceedings]
2008. "Intercomparison of imaging sensors using automated ground measurements." IEEE International Geoscience Remote Sensing Symposium 4 1332-1335 [10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779977] [Proceedings]
2008. "Temporal, spectral, spatial study of the automated vicarious calibration test site at Railroad Valley, Nevada." Proceedings of SPIE Earth Observing Systems XIII 7081 (70810I): 9 pp. [10.1117/12.795551] [Proceedings]
2008. "Inflight intersensor radiometric calibration using the reflectance-based method for Landsat-type sensors." ASPRS/Pecora 17 [Proceedings]
2007. "Retrieval of surface BRDF for reflectance-based calibration." Proceedings of SPIE 6677 [10.1117/12.734847] [Proceedings]
2006. "Radiometric calibration of Advanced Land Imager using reflectance-based results between 2001 and 2005." Proceedings of SPIE 6296 [10.1117/12.679892] [Proceedings]
2005. "Vicarious calibration of the ASTER SWIR sensor including crosstalk correction." Proceedings of SPIE 5882 [Proceedings]