Dr. Justin Pflug is an Associate Research Scientist with the University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) and the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory at NASA Goddard. Prior to joining Goddard in 2022, Justin earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington in 2021, and was a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Justin works with the Land Information System (LIS) team, where his research focuses on modeling and remote sensing of snow water resources.
Justin Pflug
(Associate Research Scientist)
| Email: | justin.pflug@nasa.gov |
| Org Code: | 617 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 617 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: | UNIV OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK |
Brief Bio
Positions/Employment
Associate Research Scientist
University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center - College Park, MD
March 2025 - Present
Assistant Research Scientist
University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center - College Park, MD
April 2022 - March 2025
Postdoctoral Researcher
CIRES - Boulder, CO
August 2021 - April 2022
Future Park Leaders of Emerging Change intern
National Park Service - Port Angeles, WA
May 2017 - September 2017
Education
Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2021
M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2018
B.A. in Physics, Hastings College, Hastings, NE, 2016
Awards
NASA Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics Peer Award, 2023
Nece Endowed Fellowship, University of Washington, 2021
Best student presentation award, American Meteorological Society, 2021
Student oral presentation award, American Meteorological Society Conference on Mountain Meteorology, 2020
Best student presentation award, American Meteorological Society, 2019
Best poster award, Western Snow Conference, 2019
Best poster award, Eastern Snow Conference, 2019
Earth and Space Science Fellowship recipient, NASA, 2018 - 2021
Other Professional Information
Participant of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, chapters focused on Water and Compound Climate Hazards
Selected Publications
Refereed
2025. "An Observation‐Driven Framework for Modeling Post‐Fire Hydrologic Response: Evaluation for Two Central California Case Studies." Water Resources Research 61 (2): [10.1029/2023wr036582] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "Comparisons of Montane Snow Water Equivalent Projections: Calculating Total Snow Mass in Regions with Projection Agreement and Divergence in the Western United States." Journal of Climate 38 (3): 855-874 [10.1175/jcli-d-24-0128.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Using Commercial Satellite Imagery to Reconstruct 3 m and Daily Spring Snow Water Equivalent." Water Resources Research 60 (11): [10.1029/2024wr037983] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Can precipitation intermittency predict flooding?." Science of The Total Environment 945 173824 [10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173824] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Extending the utility of space-borne snow water equivalent observations over vegetated areas with data assimilation." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 28 (3): 631-648 [10.5194/hess-28-631-2024] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Focus on compound events. In: Fifth National Climate Assessment." Fifth National Climate Assessment [https://doi.org/10.7930/NCA5.2023.F1] [Report]
2023. "Ch. 4. Water. In: Fifth National Climate Assessment." Fifth National Climate Assessment [https://doi.org/10.7930/NCA5.2023.CH4] [Report]
2023. "Interactions between thresholds and spatial discretizations of snow: insights from estimates of wolverine denning habitat in the Colorado Rocky Mountains." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 27 (14): 2747-2762 [10.5194/hess-27-2747-2023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Can Remotely Sensed Snow Disappearance Explain Seasonal Water Supply?." Water 15 (6): 1147 [10.3390/w15061147] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Inferring watershed‐scale mean snowfall magnitude and distribution using multidecadal snow reanalysis patterns and snow pillow observations." Hydrological Processes 36 (6): [10.1002/hyp.14581] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington—The Past and Future 100 Years." Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 127 (4): [10.1029/2022jf006670] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Downscaling Snow Deposition Using Historic Snow Depth Patterns: Diagnosing Limitations From Snowfall Biases, Winter Snow Losses, and Interannual Snow Pattern Repeatability." Water Resources Research 57 (8): [10.1029/2021wr029999] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Snow Ensemble Uncertainty Project (SEUP): Quantification of snow water equivalent uncertainty across North America via ensemble land surface modeling." The Cryosphere 15 (2): 771-791 [10.5194/tc-15-771-2021] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Evaluating Wind Fields for Use in Basin‐Scale Distributed Snow Models." Water Resources Research 57 (2): [10.1029/2020wr028536] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Inferring Distributed Snow Depth by Leveraging Snow Pattern Repeatability: Investigation Using 47 Lidar Observations in the Tuolumne Watershed, Sierra Nevada, California." Water Resources Research 56 (9): [10.1029/2020wr027243] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Comparing Aerial Lidar Observations With Terrestrial Lidar and Snow‐Probe Transects From NASA's 2017 SnowEx Campaign." Water Resources Research 55 (7): 6285-6294 [10.1029/2018wr024533] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Revisiting Snow Cover Variability and Canopy Structure Within Forest Stands: Insights From Airborne Lidar Data." Water Resources Research 55 (7): 6198-6216 [10.1029/2019wr024898] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Testing Model Representations of Snowpack Liquid Water Percolation Across Multiple Climates." Water Resources Research 55 (6): 4820-4838 [10.1029/2018wr024632] [Journal Article/Letter]