Hydrological Sciences

Zachary Fair

(Postdoctoral Fellow)

Zachary Fair's Contact Card & Information.
Email: zachary.fair@nasa.gov
Org Code: 617
Address:
NASA/GSFC
 Mail Code 617
 Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: UNIV OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK

Brief Bio

Dr. Fair received a B.S. degree in Meteorology with a minor in Physics at North Carolina State University in 2015, followed by his M.S. (2018) and Ph.D. (2021) in Climate and Space Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. His graduate research focused on ICESat-2 laser light penetration into supraglacial lakes and melting snow over the Greenland Ice Sheet. He was awarded the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) fellowship in 2021, where he shifted his research focus to ICESat-2 snow depth retrievals in support of the SnowEx mission.

Research Interests: Lidar/radar altimetry, spectroscopy, data validation and harmonization, snow, open science tools.

Positions/Employment

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (NPP)

Oak Ridge Associated Universities - Greenbelt, MD

September 2021 - Present

Funded by the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) to perform snow depths with ICESat-2 in support of the SnowEx mission.

Graduate Research Assistant

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, MI

September 2016 - May 2021

Post-Undergraduate Intern

NASA Langley Research Center - Hampton, VA

January 2016 - August 2016

Undergraduate Intern

NASA Langley Research Center - Hampton, VA

June 2015 - August 2015

Education

2021: PhD, Climate and Space Science and Engineering, University of Michigan

2018: MS, Climate and Space Science and Engineering, University of Michigan

2015: BS, Meteorology, North Carolina State University

Professional Societies

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

2017 - Present

American Meteorological Society (AMS)

2013 - Present

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

2020 - Present

Professional Service

2023: ICESat-2 Science Lead and Field Participant for the NASA SnowEx Alaska campaign

2023: Session Co-chair for Eastern Snow Conference

2022-present: Reviewer for The Cryosphere.

2022-present: Tutorial developer for the ICESat-2 Hackweek.

2022: Reviewer for Geophysical Research Letters.

2022: Reviewer for Remote Sensing of Environment.

2021-present: Contributor to the icepyx software library.

2021: Reviewer for Cold Regions Science and Technology.

Awards

NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellowship, 2021.

NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF), 2017.

Publications

Refereed

2025. "Understanding biases in ICESat-2 data due to subsurface scattering using Airborne Topographic Mapper waveform data." The Cryosphere 19 975–995 [https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-975-2025] [Journal Article/Letter]

2024. "Quantifying Volumetric Scattering Bias in ICESat‐2 and Operation IceBridge Altimetry Over Greenland Firn and Aged Snow." Earth and Space Science 11 (6): [10.1029/2022ea002479] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "icepyx: querying, obtaining, analyzing, andmanipulating ICESat-2 datasets." Journal of Open Source Software 8 (84): 4912 [10.21105/joss.04912] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Deriving Snow Depth From ICESat-2 Lidar Multiple Scattering Measurements." Frontiers in Remote Sensing 3 [10.3389/frsen.2022.855159] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "ICESat‐2 melt depth retrievals: application to surface melt on Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica." Geophysical Research Letters [10.1029/2020gl090550] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Using ICESat-2 and Operation IceBridge altimetry for supraglacial lake depth retrievals." The Cryosphere 14 (11): 4253-4263 [10.5194/tc-14-4253-2020] [Journal Article/Letter]

Talks, Presentations and Posters

Other

Using spaceborne lidar for snow depth retrievals: Best practices and recommendations for future studies

March 1, 2024

Presented (poster) at AMS Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD.

A summary of ICESat-2 snow depth acquisitions during the SnowEx 2022/2023 campaign

14, 2023

Presented (oral) at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

Assessment of ICESat-2 surface heights over Grand Mesa, CO and Fairbanks, AK in support of the SnowEx mission

13, 2022

Presented (poster) at the AGU Fall Meeting in Chicago, IL.

Quantifying volumetric scattering bias in ICESat-2 altimetry over snow covered surfaces

November 26, 2022

Presented (oral) at the ICESat-2 Science Symposium in Austin, TX.

Quantifying volumetric scattering bias in ICESat-2 altimetry over snow covered surfaces

July 3, 2022

Presented (oral) at the Eastern Snow Conference, virtual attendance.

Quantifying volumetric scattering bias in ICESat-2 and Operation IceBridge altimetry over snow covered surfaces

17, 2021

Presented (poster) at the AGU Fall Meeting in New Orleans, LA.

Sensitivity of snow grain size retrievals to dust content, ice particle asphericity, and solar zenith angle

7, 2020

Presented (poster) at the AGU Fall Meeting, virtual attendance.

Using ICESat-2 and Operation IceBridge altimetry for supraglacial lake depth retrievals

11, 2019

Presented (poster) at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

Lake and Lasers: Using ICESat-2 and Operation IceBridge altimetry for supraglacial lake depth retrievals

August 22, 2019

Presented (poster) at the Gordon Research Conference: Radiation and Climate in Lewiston, ME.

Contact Us

John Bolten
Chief
301-614-6529
john.bolten@nasa.gov
Kathleen Regul
Project Support Specialist
301-614-5734
kathleen.j.regul@nasa.gov

General inquiries about the scientific programs at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center may be directed to the Center Office of Communications at 1.301.286.8955.