Dr. Montesano is a research scientist focusing on the use of remote sensing and geospatial data integration to examine earth system processes. He has worked in the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory (Code 618) and currently works with the Data Science Group in the Computational and Information Sciences and Technology Office (CISTO, Code 606). He collaborates with interdisciplinary research teams on projects that use NASA and commercial spaceborne and airborne remote sensing data along with physical models and field data to understand ecosystem processes.
Paul M Montesano
(Senior Research Scientist)
| 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 |
Brief Bio
Research Interests
Remote sensing and geospatial data integration
Earth Science: Remote SensingAdvance the application of multi-sensor remote sensing and geo-spatial data integration with passive-optical, lidar, and synthetic aperture radar.
Vegetation structure mapping
Earth Science: Biosphere Land Carbon DynamicsDocument, quantify, assess uncertainty of and monitor changes in vegetation cover, height, and biomass.
Boreal forest dynamics
Earth Science: Ecosystem functionAssess the pace and pattern of vegetation change in the boreal forest and high northern latitudes.
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 Service
- NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Vegetation Dynamics Working Group Co-Lead (2023 - present)
- NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Vegetation Structure Working Group Lead (2019 - 2022)
- NASA / ESA Multi-Mission Algorithm and Analysis Platform (MAAP) User Working Group Member (2019 - present)
- Oak Ridge DAAC User Working Group Member (2022 - present)