Bradley Alan Gay
(ASST RESEARCH SCIENTIST)
| Email: | bradley.a.gay@nasa.gov |
| Org Code: | |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 618 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: | UNIV OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK |
Brief Bio
Bradley A. Gay received his PhD in Earth Systems and Geoinformation Science from George Mason University in 2023. During his NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship at JPL (2023-2025), Bradley pioneered the development of GeoCryoAI, a physics-informed artificial intelligence framework that integrates multimodal Earth observation data (ERA5, SMAP, UAVSAR/NISAR, Landsat, ArcticDEM) to quantify permafrost carbon feedback dynamics and freeze-thaw processes across Alaska as well as Circumpolar zero-curtain phenomena with artificial intelligence. His work was a product of the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment Phase 3 synthesis investigation focused on enhanced methane emissions in transitional permafrost environments and culminated in multiple high-impact publications including ERL, JGR-MLC, and Nature Machine Intelligence.
In his current position as Assistant Research Scientist at UMD ESSIC and NASA GSFC (2025-Present), he is seeking to expand this research framework by advancing LPJ-EOSIM through the integration of artificial intelligence, remote sensing, and novel subsurface insights into the permafrost and Arctic-Boreal components of the model. He is also reconciling the BVOC and soil carbon modules, permafrost thermodynamic drivers, and implementing global-scale GHG (CO2, CH4, N2O, NO2) flux parameterizations with quantum-enhanced physics-informed neural networks informed by EDGAR inventories, OCO-2/3 and TROPOMI retrievals, and a vast network of flux tower observations while simultaneously addressing the Reconciliation Challenge by harmonizing methane plume detection with wetland flux inventories using interactive atmospheric inversion infrastructure.
His technical leadership spans end-to-end simulation pipelines, high-performance data engineering, and the development of scalable processing architectures that bridge fundamental principles, physical sciences, and systems engineering. It is with this background and these efforts he hopes to position himself at the forefront of Arctic earth system science while paving the trajectory to establishing an Arctic Quantum AI Earth Systems Laboratory for next-generation cryosphere-climate simulations.
Positions/Employment
Assistant Research Scientist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | University of Maryland, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center - Greenbelt, MD, United States
June 2025 - Present
NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | Oak Ridge Associated Universities - Pasadena, CA, United States
June 2023 - June 2025
Education
BS, Biology, University of Nebraska
MS, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Johns Hopkins University
PhD, Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences, George Mason University
Selected Publications
Refereed
2025. "Sensitivity of dryland plant water availability to changes in carbon and water fluxes.", Journal of Hydrology, 662 133966 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.133966] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "A U.S. Scientific Community Vision for Sustained Earth Observations of Greenhouse Gases to Support Local to Global Action.", AGU Advances, 6 (6): e2025AV001914 [10.1029/2025av001914] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "Assessing the impacts of mitigation and geoengineering intervention scenarios on Earth system dynamics and climatological variability with multimodal simulations.", Scientific Reports, 15 (1): 8158 [10.1038/s41598-025-91195-6] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "Decoding the Spatiotemporal Complexities of the Permafrost Carbon Feedback With Multimodal Ensemble Learning.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Machine Learning and Computation, 2 (1): e2024JH000402 [10.1029/2024jh000402] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "Non-traditional data to inform modern climate science.", Frontiers in Communication, 10 1518768 [10.3389/fcomm.2025.1518768] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "Advancing the Arctic Methane Permafrost Challenge (AMPAC) With Future Satellite Missions.", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 18 6279-6298 [10.1109/jstars.2025.3538897] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Investigating permafrost carbon dynamics in Alaska with artificial intelligence.", Environmental Research Letters, 18 (12): 125001 [10.1088/1748-9326/ad0607] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Evolution of land surface feedbacks on extreme heat: Adapting existing coupling metrics to a changing climate.", Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10 949250 [10.3389/fenvs.2022.949250] [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2021. "Understanding Active Layer Thickness Variability Under Changing Climatic Conditions Across the North American Taiga-Tundra Ecotone.", AGU 2021 Fall Meeting, [10.1002/essoar.10509696.1] [Proceedings]