Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Robert E Wolfe

(EMERITUS)

Robert E Wolfe's Contact Card & Information.
Email: robert.e.wolfe@nasa.gov
Org Code: 610
Address:
NASA/GSFC
 Mail Code 610
 Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: EMERITUS

Brief Bio

Robert Wolfe has worked in the areas of satellite remote sensing and computer science for 43 years. He has been a key member of NASA GSFC's Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory (Code 619) for 28 years starting as a contractor in the early MODIS years and then as a NASA civil servant for the last 18 years. During this time, Wolfe played many important roles in important core laboratory activities such as the design, development, deployment, and enhancement of the laboratory’s data systems, including MODAPS, LAADS and the VIIRS Land SIPS. Mr. Wolfe became Code 619 Laboratory Chief in 2020 and is responsible for ensuring the laboratory is responsive to NASA’s Earth science mission. In 2022, when the manager of the Global Change Data Center (Code 610.2) retired, he managed the merger of that laboratory with Code 619. The combined Code 619 is a large laboratory with 17 civil servant and ~180 contractor staff and is responsible for producing, archiving, and distributing stable, well calibrated, and scientifically validated products from Earth observing satellites that advance our understanding of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere on a global scale. Code 619 also partners with other federal agencies to develop and operate computing systems that provide custom products in near real-time for applied research and applications. As lab chief of the combined laboratory, he empowers staff members and has enables them to grow in their roles and responsibilities. He oversees management of three NASA DAACs, several large scientific data processing systems, many contractor tasks and manages the large number of IT resources that are key to the laboratory’s success.  

Prior to becoming Code 619 laboratory chief, Mr. Wolfe was the Assistant Chief of the Code 619 for three years starting in 2017 and then in 2018 was also the LAADS DAAC manager. Prior to that, Wolfe was the laboratory’s main interface to the MODIS land science team for more than a decade and worked closely with others in the laboratory to develop essential areas such as starting the MODIS Land quality assurance team as well as the MODIS Land validation activities. Mr. Wolfe has represented the laboratory in interactions with its many partners including GSFC management, NASA HQ, ESDIS, the LP and NSIDC DAACs, Individual Mission Teams, NOAA, and the US Forest Service. He has also participated in laboratory staffing and resource decisions and representing the laboratory at meetings such as the ESIP Federation and the ESDS WGs. Plus, he has documented and publicized many of the laboratory’s accomplishments through many external publications as well as presentations at conferences. During Wolfe’s tenure with the laboratory, he has led and collaborated with the lab’s civil servants and contractors and understands how their strengths can be leveraged to meet the laboratory commitments and to continue to make significant contributions to NASA’s Earth Science mission.

In 2016, he completed a two-year detail at the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) as the technical leader of the Global Change Information System (GCIS). At USGCRP, he led the successful deployment of GCIS in support of the 2014 National Climate Assessment (NCA). He also helped deploy the NCA website and a new version of the USGCRP home page. Wolfe led the GCIS team to add more information to the GCIS system, included structured data for a set of USGCRP Climate Indicators, more detailed information supporting the NCA, and structured data for USGCRP's 2016 Climate and Health Assessment and the 2018 NCA.

For the last 17 years Wolfe has been NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra Satellite Deputy Project Scientist for Data and played a key role in preparing six successful senior review mission extension proposals that justified extending the unique 23-year Earth Science data record produced by Terra's five instruments.

Wolfe has led the development of advanced algorithms to accurately Earth-locate (geolocate) NASA’s EOS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data and to grid land science data using both proven and innovative techniques. He extended these techniques for other instruments including the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data from the on Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) and NOAA/NASDA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), and the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data on the NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 16 and 17 satellites.

Starting in 2005, Robert led the team selected to create and operate the Land Product Evaluation and Test Element (PEATE), then part of NASA’s Science Data Segment’s effort to evaluate the operational Land algorithms that are being used for the VIIRS on the SNPP satellite. This system has evolved into the VIIRS Land Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) and is producing a long-term VIIRS Level 1 and Land product data stream for NASA.

For more than 25 years, he has played a key role within the MODIS science support team contributing to a number of areas of including integration and testing of MODIS science algorithms and science data processing. This important and complex activity involved the integration of a large number of interdependent algorithms and coordination among many scientists and engineers spread across government and university organizations.

In addition to his project related work, Wolfe has participated as Co-I or collaborator on a number of competitively funded research activities, including teams that: 1) developed a Landsat based map of the global urban areas; 2) developed a global forest disturbance map from Landsat data; 3) made MODIS products more accessible to the North American Carbon Project investigators by filling temporal and spatial gaps in MODIS standard products; 4) used MODIS phenology to help predict the spread of Africanized Honey Bees; 5) developed a new service for Data Quality Screening; 6) developed a new Terrestrial Surface Climate Data Record; and 7) developed a new Global Urban Map. He continues to work on proposals for new funding for additional projects and activities.

Over his career, Wolfe published almost 130 scientific, technical, and symposia papers, has a research h-index of 28, and his publications have been sited almost 8300 times (based on 101 publications in Web of Science, May 2023). Wolfe has made presentations at numerous domestic and international meetings, peer-reviewed scientific papers for many publications, and has been a key participant in many NASA science team meetings, advisory panels, and review panels.

Research Interests

Satellite Navigation (Geolocation)

Earth Science: Remote Sensing

Developing techniques for accurate navigation (geolocation) of satellite data.

Scientific Data Systems

Earth Science: Analysis

Advancing data systems for remote sensing data processing, archiving and distribution. Working with complex algorithm workflows that produce high quality scientific data products. Developing semantic web technologies for understanding traceability and provenance of scientific data as well as increasing its usability.

Land use and change

Earth Science: Human Dimensions

Understanding the impacts of human land use and change on our planet.

Current Projects

Terra Deputy Project Scientist for Data

Remote Sensing

Starting in 2006 as the Terra Mission Deputy Project Scientist for Data, Mr. Wolfe played key roles in the Terra mission, particularly related to the task of Terra data production, archive and distribution. As part of his duties he has also been a key participant in the last six Terra mission extension proposals that resulted in funding to continue Terra’s very valuable science mission into the future. Wolfe has presented the Terra budget in annual budget reviews and participated in understanding and developing solutions for a number of spacecraft and instrument anomalies. As the Terra spacecraft and instruments age, anomalies have occurred such as the spacecraft battery anomaly. Along with the Terra Project Scientist Dr. Kurt Thome, Wolfe worked with the Terra spacecraft operations and instrument science teams to understand the impact of these anomalies and to help find solutions that would maximize the scientific return from the remaining mission lifetime. He also participates in monthly status meetings with the EOS project scientist reporting on both the Terra mission and data system related issues. During this time with the Terra project scientist and others, he participated in several areas of research that used NASA remote sensing data including developing a better understanding of urban heat islands.

Positions/Employment

Computer Scientist

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD

August 2005 - Present

Robert Wolfe joined NASA as a civil servant in 2005 after having worked in private industry for 25 years. After joining the government, he continued his primary work on the MODIS and VIIRS missions and soon assumed broader programmatic roles, such as the Terra Mission Deputy Project Scientist for Data. In 2017, Mr. Wolfe became the Assistant Chief of the Terrestrial Information System Laboratory (Code 619) and in 2018 became the LAADS DAAC Manager. In 2020, Wolfe became the Code 619 Laboratory Chief. Code 619 is a large laboratory with 17 civil servant and ~180 contractor staff and is responsible for producing, archiving and distributing stable, well calibrated, and scientifically validated products from Earth observing satellites that advance our understanding of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere on a global scale. Code 619 also partners with other federal agencies to develop and operate computing systems that provide custom products in near real-time for applied research and applications. As lab chief of the combined laboratory, he empowers staff members and has enables them to grow in their roles and responsibilities. He oversees management of three NASA DAACs, several large scientific data processing systems, many contractor tasks and manages the large number of IT resources that are key to the laboratory’s success.

In May 2016, Mr. Wolfe completed a two-year detail at the US Global Change Research Program as the technical leader of the Global Change Information System (GCIS). During his first year at USGCRP, he led the successful deployment of GCIS in support of the 2014 National Climate Assessment (NCA). He also helped deploy the NCA website and a new version of the USGCRP web site and participated in activities to support the Sustained National Climate Assessment.

Starting in 2006 as the Terra Mission Deputy Project Scientist for Data, Mr. Wolfe played key roles in the Terra mission, particularly related to the task of Terra data production, archive, and distribution. As part of his duties he has also been a key participant in the last six Terra mission extension proposals that resulted in funding to continue Terra’s very valuable science mission into the future. Wolfe has presented the Terra budget in annual budget reviews and participated in understanding and developing solutions for spacecraft and instrument anomalies. As the Terra spacecraft and instruments age, anomalies have occurred such as the spacecraft battery anomaly. Along with the Terra Project Scientist Dr. Kurt Thome, Wolfe worked with the Terra spacecraft operations and instrument science teams to understand the impact of these anomalies and to help find solutions that would maximize the scientific return from the remaining mission lifetime. He also participates in monthly status meetings with the EOS project scientist reporting on both the Terra mission and data system related issues. During this time with the Terra project scientist and others, he participated in research that used NASA remote sensing data to better understand the urban heat islands.

In 1995, Robert Wolfe began supporting the MODIS Science Team. His duties included: development of an approach for the Level 3 mapping software for the land team scientists, coordinating and providing support for MODIS meetings and coordinating the deliveries of an integrated package of MODIS software. This was a very important and complex activity that involved integration of a large number of interdependent algorithms. In this work, he worked well across the different organizations involved: NASA headquarters, government and university science team members and their associates, and multiple NASA data centers. He played a key role in 20 years of MODIS Level 1, Land and Atmosphere science data processing, which included several full reprocessing that have created a decadal time-series of high-quality MODIS products. Starting in 2005, he led the team selected to create and operate the Land Product Evaluation and Test Element (PEATE), part of NASA’s Science Data Segment’s effort to evaluate the operational Land algorithms that are being used for the VIIRS sensor on the Suomi NPP (SNPP) satellite. This system has evolved into the VIIRS Land Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) and is producing a long-term VIIRS Level 1 and Land product data stream for NASA.

In addition to these duties, he has been involved in EOS community efforts such as chairing the EOS Science Working Group on Data (SWGD). During this time, he helped organize and lead the 2002 EOS Data Access and Usability Workshop. This workshop provided valuable feedback from the Earth science and application communities that helped improving the EOS data systems. Mr. Wolfe Co-chaired the Earth Science Data Systems Reuse Working Group from 2004 to 2009. He led this group of both NASA and University Investigators to lower barriers for reusing software in the Earth Science community. In 2009 and 2010, Wolfe participated in the Data Systems Working Group for the Decadal Survey Era.

Another of Robert Wolfe’s technical responsibilities has been to oversee MODIS, VIIRS and GOES geolocation (earth location). Work in this area includes understanding and providing feedback on the geometric performance of these instruments. MODIS land science is the primary driver for very accurate geolocation knowledge. Since the launch of MODIS on Terra in Dec. 1999, the team lead by Wolfe used a global network of ground control points to operationally reduce the location errors to the accuracy required for terrestrial global change applications. Wolfe and his team used the same techniques for MODIS on Aqua (launched in May 2002) to achieve nearly the same accuracy as MODIS on Terra. Soon after VIIRS was launched in Oct. 2012, Wolfe’s team also achieved similar accuracy and is continuing to improve the VIIRS geolocation accuracy as this new instrument’s on-orbit geometric performance is better understood. This work was extended to the VIIRS instrument launched in 2017 on the NOAA/NASA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), and the first Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) launched in 2016 on the NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 16, and a second ABI launch on GEOS-17 launched in 2018.

In addition to his project related work and beginning in 2003, Mr. Wolfe also performed the duties of either Principal Investigator (PI), Co-Investigator (Co-I) or Collaborator on several peer-review funded mission science teams and individual research efforts. These include serving as: PI on the SNPP science team from 2003 to 2013; PI on the MODIS science team from 2007 to 2010; Co-I on the Landsat Ecosystem and Disturbance Mapping Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) project from 2003 to 2008; Co-I on the MODIS for North American Carbon Project (MODIS 4 NACP) from 2006 to 2009; Co-I on the Improving Prediction of Africanized Honey Bee Distribution project from 2008 to 2011; Co-I on the Data Quality Screening Service project 2009 to 2011; Co-I on the Terrestrial Surface Climate Data Record project from 2009 to 2014; and Co-I on the Global Urban Mapping project from 2011 to 2014. Mr. Wolfe also continues to work on proposals for new funding for additional projects and activities.

Over his career, Mr. Wolfe has mentored many other scientists and colleagues. Recently, he mentored NASA early-career scientists Miguel Román, Ping Zhang, Bin Tan and Joanne Nightingale. With Wolfe’s help and encouragement, these young scientists are developing the personal and scientific skills needed to make significant contributions toward NASA’s long-term goals as well as their personal goals.


Chief Scientist

Raytheon Technical Services Company - Lanham, MD

August 1984 - July 2005

[Note: Mr. Wolfe’s original employer starting in 1984 was STX. STX was acquired Hughes Aerospace in 1993 and became Hughes STX. This company was subsequently acquired by Raytheon in 1999.]

Before joining NASA, Mr. Wolfe worked for Raytheon for 21 years. He began many activities mentioned above when working at Raytheon and has continued to perform them as a NASA civil servant. This section discusses other activities he performed at Raytheon.

As a Raytheon task lead on several NASA projects from 1993 until 2005, Robert Wolfe reported progress and performed various task-related management duties. In this position, Mr. Wolfe provided the NASA customer excellent support. Wolfe also supported Raytheon proposal activities for new and follow-on work on NASA projects.

In addition to Mr. Wolfe's duties at NASA, he also worked on the China Brazil Earth Remote Sensing (CBERS) Satellite Data Processing System (CDPS) contract. After helping to win this contract, his main duty was to oversee the CBERS geometric algorithm development for the three unique CBERS sensors. The system that Mr. Wolfe helped develop began processing data from CBERS in 1999.

From 1985 to 1992, Robert Wolfe participated in several commercial Earth remote sensing projects for several US and international satellites. During these years, Mr. Wolfe helped develop and maintain ground systems for acquiring and processing data from satellites, including Landsat 4, 5 and 6, RADARSAT and SPOT. Customers included EOSAT, USGS, NASA, China, and the Swedish Space Corporation. He played several technical and leadership roles, as a programmer/analysis early in his career, and later as chief scientist and deputy project manager. His main technical expertise was in the geolocation and resampling of satellite data. In addition, Mr. Wolfe was a key developer of end-to-end satellite data systems. During this time, he made key contributions to the development of efficient algorithms for terrain correction of satellite data. He also contributed to improving satellite data geolocation accuracy and generating digital terrain models from SPOT stereo pairs.

Programmer/Analyst

DBA Systems - Lanham, MD

May 1980 - July 1984

Mr. Wolfe was responsible for developing the NASA System Model for Image Registration (SMIR). The SMIR is a computer model of a spacecraft imaging system that employs linear array instrumentation (push-broom sensor) used to simulate the effects of various spacecraft perturbations on image registration. In addition, Mr. Wolfe worked on a real-time system for laser-ranging to satellites for the NASA satellite geodesy project, a NASA launch vehicle range safety system, and an FBI finger-print matching system.

Education

B.S. Mathematics and Physics, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA, 1980

Professional Societies

IEEE Society for Geoscience and Remote Sensing

1998 - Present

American Geophysical Union

1999 - Present

Professional Service

Robert Wolfe has performed numerous peer-reviews of articles for many scientific publications including: Remote Sensing of the Environment, Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing, and Science of the Total Environment. Wolfe also serves on NASA and NSF peer-review panels that evaluated scientific research proposals.

Awards

NASA GSFC Robert H. Goddard Engineering Group Award (2021)

Pecora Group Award (as part of the Terra Mission Team, 2019)

NASA GSFC Robert H. Goddard Science Group Award (2018)

NASA Outstanding Leadership Metal (2017)

NASA New Technologies Awards (3 in 2003, 2017)

NASA Group Achievement Award (2016)

NASA GSFC Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Awards (2007, 2 in 2012)

NASA Exceptional Achievement Metal (2009)

NASA GSFC Group Achievement Awards (2001 and 2003)

Young Alumni of the Year Award, Bridgewater College, VA (1996)

Other Professional Information

Professional Training:

  • NASA GSFC Unconscious Bias Foundations, 2018
  • NASA GSFC Power and Privilege: Disability, 2018
  • NASA GSFC Power and Privilege: Generations, 2017
  • NASA GSFC Power and Privilege: Race, 2016
  • NASA GSFC Leadership Development Excellence in Management Program C (LDEM-C), 2014
  • NASA GSFC Road to Mission Success, 2012
  • NASA GSFC Introduction to Project Scientist, 2012
  • NASA GSFC Technical Managers Training, 2010
  • NASA GSFC Diversity Dialogue, 2009
  • NASA GSFC Leadership Education Series (GLES), 2007
  • cmi Course, Raytheon, 1993

Selected Public Outreach

Our Changing Planet

2008 - Present

Robert Wolfe first presented a public talk about NASA Earth Science on Earth Day in 2008.  He has presented this talk numerous times since then at training sessions for teachers of the Advanced Placement Human Geography course.

Publications

Refereed

2024. "Continuity between NASA MODIS Collection 6.1 and VIIRS Collection 2 land products." Remote Sensing of Environment 302 113963 [10.1016/j.rse.2023.113963] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "JPSS-2/NOAA-21 VIIRS early on-orbit geometric performance." Earth Observing Systems XXVIII [10.1117/12.2677378] [Proceedings]

2022. "Ten Years of VIIRS On-Orbit Geolocation Calibration and Performance." Remote Sensing 14 (17): 4212 [10.3390/rs14174212] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Seasonal Variation in the Measurement of GOES-16 ABI Channel-to-Channel Registration." IGARSS 2020 - 2020 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 6405-6408 [10.1109/igarss39084.2020.9324127] [Proceedings]

2020. "Comparison of MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Air Temperature Over Global in 2015." IGARSS 2020 - 2020 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 4403-4406 [10.1109/igarss39084.2020.9324516] [Proceedings]

2020. "SNPP and NOAA-20 VIIRS on-orbit geolocation trending and improvements." Earth Observing Systems XXV 11501 1150112 [10.1117/12.2569148] [Proceedings]

2020. "GOES-R series image navigation and registration performance assessment tool set." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 14 (03): 1 [10.1117/1.jrs.14.032405] [Journal Article/Letter]

2019. "On-Orbit Measurement of the Effective Focal Length and Band-to-Band Registration of Satellite-Borne Whiskbroom Imaging Sensors." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 12 (11): 4622-4633 [10.1109/jstars.2019.2949677] [Journal Article/Letter]

2019. "Thirty-six combined years of MODIS geolocation trending." Earth Observing Systems XXIV 11127 1112715 [10.1117/12.2529447] [Proceedings]

2019. "GOES-16 and GOES-17 ABI INR assessment." Earth Observing Systems XXIV 11127 111271D [10.1117/12.2529336] [Proceedings]

2019. "Joint 3D-Wind Retrievals with Stereoscopic Views from MODIS and GOES." Remote Sensing 11 (18): 2100 [10.3390/rs11182100] [Journal Article/Letter]

2019. "Understanding the Various Perspectives of Earth Science Observational Data Uncertainty." ESIP Report. Figshare. pp 34 [https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.10271450.v1] [Report]

2018. "JPSS-1/NOAA-20 VIIRS early on-orbit geometric performance." Earth Observing Systems XXIII (107641H ): 10 [10.1117/12.2320767] [Proceedings]

2018. "GOES-16 ABI navigation assessment." Earth Observing Systems XXIII (107640G): 12 [10.1117/12.2321170] [Proceedings]

2018. "NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite." Remote Sensing of Environment 210 113-143 [Full Text] [10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.017] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "On-Orbit Line Spread Function Estimation of the SNPP VIIRS Imaging System From Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge Images." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 10 (11): 5056-5072 [10.1109/jstars.2017.2729879] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "On-orbit measurement of the focal length of the SNPP VIIRS instrument." 2017 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 4056-4059 [10.1109/igarss.2017.8127890] [Proceedings]

2017. "A 30+ Year AVHRR Land Surface Reflectance Climate Data Record and Its Application to Wheat Yield Monitoring." Remote Sensing 9 (3): 296 [10.3390/rs9030296] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "Impact of Spatial Sampling on Continuity of MODIS–VIIRS Land Surface Reflectance Products: A Simulation Approach." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 55 (1): 183-196 [10.1109/tgrs.2016.2604214] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "JPSS-1 VIIRS at-launch geometric performance." Earth Observing Systems XXI 9972 (99721L): [10.1117/12.2238804] [Proceedings]

2016. "Trending of SNPP ephemeris and its implications on VIIRS geometric performance." Earth Observing Systems XXI [10.1117/12.2239043] [Proceedings]

2016. "Modeling impact of urbanization in us cities using simple biosphere model SiB2." 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) [10.1109/igarss.2016.7730764] [Proceedings]

2016. "Tracking and Establishing Provenance of Earth Science Datasets: A NASA-Based Example." Provenance and Annotation of Data and Processes 9672 226-229 [10.1007/978-3-319-40593-3_27] [Article in Book]

2015. "Modeling Surface Climate in US Cities Using Simple Biosphere Model SiB2." Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 41 (6): 525-535 [10.1080/07038992.2015.1110013] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Impact of urbanization on US surface climate." Environ. Res. Lett. 10 (8): 084010 [10.1088/1748-9326/10/8/084010] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Providing provenance to instruments through the US global change information system." 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 143-145 [10.1109/igarss.2015.7325719] [Proceedings]

2015. "Linking from observations to data to actionable science in the climate data initiative." 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 1354-1357 [10.1109/igarss.2015.7326027] [Proceedings]

2015. "Normalizing Resource Identifiers using Lexicons in the Global Change Information System." Linked Data on the Web (LDOW2015) [Full Text] [Proceedings]

2015. "Evapotranspiration trends over the Eastern United States during the 20th Century." Hydrology 2 (2): 93-111 [10.3390/hydrology2020093] [Journal Article/Letter]

2015. "Supporting Trust with Provenance of the Findings of the National Climate Assessment." Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Methods for Establishing Trust of (Open) Data [Proceedings]

2015. "Mapping Biophysical Parameters for Land Surface Modeling over the Continental US Using MODIS and Landsat." Dataset Papers in Science 2015 (Article ID 564279): 11 pp. [10.1155/2015/564279] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "Comparison of MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Air temperature over the Continental USA Meteorological Stations." Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 40 (2): 110-122 [10.1080/07038992.2014.935934] [Journal Article/Letter]

2014. "Early On-Orbit Performance of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Satellite." IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing 52 (2): 1142-1156 [10.1109/TGRS.2013.2247768] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "SNPP VIIRS spectral bands co-registration and spatial response characterization." Earth Observing Systems XVIII 88661G [10.1117/12.2023367] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Regional distribution models with lack of proximate predictors: Africanized honeybees expanding north." Diversity and Distributions 20 (2): 193-201 [10.1111/ddi.12143] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Suomi NPP VIIRS prelaunch and on-orbit geometric calibration and characterization." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118 (20): [10.1002/jgrd.50873] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Global surface reflectance products from Landsat: Assessment using coincident MODIS observations." Remote Sensing of Environment 134 276-293 [10.1016/j.rse.2013.02.031] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Land and cryosphere products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and status." J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 118 (17): 9753-9765 [10.1002/jgrd.50771] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Improved forest change detection with terrain illumination corrected Landsat images." Remote Sensing of Environment 136 469–483 [10.1016/j.rse.2013.05.013] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Exploring the influence of impervious surface density and shape on urban heat islands in the northeast United States using MODIS and Landsat." Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 38 (4): 441-451 [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "MODIS and VIIRS geometric performance comparison." Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2012 IEEE International 5017 - 5020 [10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6352484] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "NPP VIIRS early on-orbit geometric performance." Proc. SPIE 8510, Earth Observing Systems XVII 8510 851013 [10.1117/12.929925] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Generating ground reference data for a global impervious surface survey." Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2012 IEEE International (5993-5996): 5993-5996 [10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6352242] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Status of the Suomi NPP visible/infrared imager radiometer suite's (VIIRS) land environmental data records (EDRs) after early evaluation of on-orbit performance." Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2012 IEEE International 1084-1087 [10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6351360] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Impact of sensor degradation on the MODIS NDVI time series." Remote Sensing of Environment 119 55-61 [10.1016/j.rse.2011.12.001] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Global characterization and monitoring of forest cover using Landsat data: opportunities and challenges." International Journal of Digital Earth 5 (5): 373-397 [10.1080/17538947.2012.713190] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Exploring the influence of impervious surface density and shape on urban heat islands in the northeast United States using MODIS and Landsat." Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 38 (4): 441-451 [10.5589/m12-036] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "MODIS and VIIRS geolocation error and long-term trend analysis with automated correction techniques using Kalman filtering." 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 4002-4005 [10.1109/igarss.2011.6050109] [Proceedings]

2011. "Accurate MODIS global geolocation through automated ground control image matching." Image Registration for Remote Sensing 437-455 [10.1017/cbo9780511777684.022] [Article in Book]

2011. "MODIS Land Data Products: Generation, Quality Assurance and Validation." Land Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Change 11 509-532 [10.1007/978-1-4419-6749-7_22] [Article in Book]

2011. "Terra and Aqua MODIS Design, Radiometry, and Geometry in Support of Land Remote Sensing." Land Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Change 11 133-164 [10.1007/978-1-4419-6749-7_7] [Book]

2011. "Pre-launch evaluation of the NPP VIIRS Land and Cryosphere EDRs to meet NASA's science requirements." Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 2011 IEEE International 154-157 [10.1109/IGARSS.2011.6048921] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "NPP VIIRS geometric performance status." Proc. SPIE 8153, Earth Observing Systems XVI 8153 81531V [10.1117/12.894652] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "An Enhanced TIMESAT Algorithm for Estimating Vegetation Phenology Metrics From MODIS Data." IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing 4 (2): 361-371 [10.1109/JSTARS.2010.2075916] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "An illumination correction algorithm on Landsat-TM data." 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 1964-1967 [10.1109/igarss.2010.5653492] [Proceedings]

2010. "Urban heat island effect across biomes in the continental USA." 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 1920-1923 [10.1109/igarss.2010.5653907] [Proceedings]

2010. "Evaluation of the VIIRS Land algorithms at Land PEATE." 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 304-307 [10.1109/igarss.2010.5652831] [Proceedings]

2010. "An overview of NASA NPP SDS-NICSE activities on VIIRS SDR assessment." 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 296-299 [10.1109/igarss.2010.5652599] [Proceedings]

2010. "A quality screening service for remote sensing data." Proceedings of the 19th ACM International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing - HPDC '10 554-559 [10.1145/1851476.1851557] [Proceedings]

2010. "Characterizing urban heat islands of global settlements using MODIS and nighttime lights products." Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 36 (3): 185-196 [10.5589/m10-039] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Building consistent medium resolution satellite data set using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer products as reference." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 4 (1): 043526 [10.1117/1.3430002] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Scaling the pipe: NASA EOS Terra data systems at 10." 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 1300-1303 [10.1109/IGARSS.2010.5652069] [Article in Book]

2010. "Remote sensing of the urban heat island effect across biomes in the continental USA." Remote Sensing of Environment 114 (3): 504-513 [10.1016/j.rse.2009.10.008] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Normalizing Landsat and Aster Data Using MODIS Data Products for Forest Change Detection." Proceedings of IGARSS 3206-3209 [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "Trends in MODIS geolocation error analysis." Earth Observing Systems XIV 7452 74520L [10.1117/12.826598] [Proceedings]

2009. "MODIS science algorithms and data systems lessons learned." 2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 5 473-476 [10.1109/igarss.2009.5417627] [Proceedings]

2009. "Temporally smoothed and gap-filled MODIS land products for carbon modeling: application of the fPAR product." International Journal of Remote Sensing 30 (4): 1083-1090 [10.1080/01431160802398064] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "An Overview of Terra Mission Results Related to the Carbon Cycle." Geography Compass 3 (2): 536-559 [10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00183.x] [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "Automated registration and orthorectification package for Landsat and Landsat-like data processing." J Applied Remote Sens 3 (1): 033515 [10.1117/1.3104620] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "North American forest disturbance mapped from a decadal Landsat record." Remote Sensing of Environment 112 (6): 2914-2926 [10.1016/j.rse.2008.02.010] [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "Monitoring vegetation phenology using improved MODIS products." Electronic Imaging and Multimedia Technology V 6833 X8332-X8332 [10.1117/12.757743] [Proceedings]

2007. "NASA’s NPP Land Earth Science data records evaluation facility." 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 4765-4768 [10.1109/igarss.2007.4423925] [Proceedings]

2007. "A disk-based system for producing and distributing science products from MODIS." 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 3043-3046 [10.1109/igarss.2007.4423486] [Proceedings]

2007. "Improving access to MODIS biophysical science products for NACP investigators." 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 1012-1015 [10.1109/igarss.2007.4422972] [Proceedings]

2007. "Large seasonal swings in leaf area of Amazon rainforests." PNAS 104 (12): 4820-4823 [10.1073/pnas.0611338104] [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "Analysis of MODIS–MISR calibration differences using surface albedo around AERONET sites and cloud reflectance." Remote Sensing of Environment 107 (1-2): 12-21 [10.1016/j.rse.2006.09.028] [Journal Article/Letter]

2006. "Improving Satellite Moderate Resolution Instrument Geolocation Accuracy in Rough Terrain." 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 1123-1125 [10.1109/igarss.2006.290] [Proceedings]

2006. "MODIS Land Products and Data Processing." Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing 1 111-122 [10.1007/978-3-540-37293-6_7] [Article in Book]

2006. "MODIS Geolocation." Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing 1 50-73 [10.1007/978-3-540-37293-6_4] [Article in Book]

2006. "A Landsat Surface Reflectance Dataset for North America, 1990–2000." IEEE Geosci. Remote Sensing Lett. 3 (1): 68-72 [10.1109/LGRS.2005.857030] [Journal Article/Letter]

2005. "Earth Observing System snow and ice products for observation and modeling." Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 86 (7): 67-67 [10.1029/2005EO070004] [Journal Article/Letter]

2004. "Strategies for enabling software reuse within the earth science community." IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS '04. Proceedings. 2004 2196-2199 [10.1109/igarss.2004.1370796] [Proceedings]

2004. "Global land-water mask derived from MODIS Nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectances (NBAR) and the MODIS land cover algorithm." IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS '04. Proceedings. 2004 239-241 [10.1109/igarss.2004.1369005] [Proceedings]

2004. "LEDAPS: mapping North American disturbance from the Landsat Record." IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS '04. Proceedings. 2004 1-4 [10.1109/igarss.2004.1368929] [Proceedings]

2003. "MODIS geolocation approach, results and the future." IEEE Workshop on Advances in Techniques for Analysis of Remotely Sensed Data, 2003 2196-2199 [10.1109/warsd.2003.1295225] [Proceedings]

2002. "Achieving sub-pixel geolocation accuracy in support of MODIS land science." Remote Sensing of Environment 83 (1-2): 31-49 [10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00085-8] [Journal Article/Letter]

2002. "The MODIS Land product quality assessment approach." Remote Sensing of Environment 83 (1-2): 62-76 [10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00087-1] [Journal Article/Letter]

2002. "An overview of MODIS Land data processing and product status." Remote Sensing of Environment 83 (1-2): 3-15 [10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00084-6] [Journal Article/Letter]

2002. "MODIS geolocation error analysis developments." IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 3661-3663 [10.1109/igarss.2002.1027283] [Proceedings]

2001. "MODIS level 2 grid with the ISIN map projection." IGARSS 2001. Scanning the Present and Resolving the Future. Proceedings. IEEE 2001 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 3291-3293 [10.1109/igarss.2001.978332] [Proceedings]

2000. "MODIS band-to-band registration." IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Taking the Pulse of the Planet: The Role of Remote Sensing in Managing the Environment. Proceedings 887-889 [10.1109/igarss.2000.861735] [Proceedings]

2000. "The MODIS operational geolocation error analysis and reduction early results." IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Taking the Pulse of the Planet: The Role of Remote Sensing in Managing the Environment. Proceedings 2065-2067 [10.1109/igarss.2000.858273] [Proceedings]

2000. "The MODIS land quality assessment approach." IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Taking the Pulse of the Planet: The Role of Remote Sensing in Managing the Environment. Proceedings 2056-2058 [10.1109/igarss.2000.858270] [Proceedings]

2000. "MODIS geolocation algorithm and error analysis tools." IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Taking the Pulse of the Planet: The Role of Remote Sensing in Managing the Environment. Proceedings 2053-2055 [10.1109/igarss.2000.858269] [Proceedings]

2000. "Preliminary land surface products from the NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)." IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Taking the Pulse of the Planet: The Role of Remote Sensing in Managing the Environment. Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37120) 1157-1162 [10.1109/igarss.2000.858054] [Proceedings]

2000. "Resources for developing algorithms and processing Level 1A and geolocation information." IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Taking the Pulse of the Planet: The Role of Remote Sensing in Managing the Environment. Proceedings 2047-2049 [10.1109/igarss.2000.858263] [Proceedings]

1999. "The MODIS operational geolocation error analysis and reduction methodology." IEEE 1999 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IGARSS'99 1 449-451 [10.1109/igarss.1999.773529] [Proceedings]

1998. "MODIS land data storage, gridding, and compositing methodology: Level 2 grid." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 36 (4): 1324-1338 [10.1109/36.701082] [Journal Article/Letter]

1998. "Key characteristics of MODIS data products ." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 36 (4): 1313-1323 [10.1109/36.701081] [Journal Article/Letter]

1998. "The MODIS land data storage methodology: level 2 grid." IGARSS '98. Sensing and Managing the Environment. 1998 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Symposium Proceedings. 1585-1589 [10.1109/igarss.1998.691629] [Proceedings]

1998. "The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS): Land Remote Sensing for Global Change Research." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 36 (4): 1228-1249 [10.1109/36.701075] [Journal Article/Letter]

1995. "Geolocation of data from the Earth Observing System's MODIS instrument: an analysis of location accuracy." 1995 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS '95. Quantitative Remote Sensing for Science and Applications 1 129-131 [10.1109/igarss.1995.519668] [Proceedings]

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1985. "Examination of a Rapid Computational Approach Aimed at the High Precision Adjustment of TM Imagery for Distortions Due to Effects of Terrain." International Symposium - Machine Processing of Remotely Sensed Data 342 [Journal Article/Letter]

Non-Refereed

2008. "Software Reuse to Support Earth Science." Journal of Frontiers of Computer Science and Technology 2 (3): 296-310 [10.3778/j.issn.1673-9418.2008.03.006] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Assessing Honey Bee Equilibrium Range and Forage Supply using Satelite-Derived Phenology." IGARSS 2008 - 2008 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 3 III-763 - III-766 [10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779460] [Other]

2008. "Vegetation Phenology Metrics Derived from Temporally Smoothed and Gap-Filled MODIS Data." IGARSS 2008 - 2008 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 3 III-593 - III-596 [10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779417] [Proceedings]

2007. "The Software Reuse Working Group: A Case Study in Fostering Reuse." Information Reuse and Integration, IRI 2007 IEEE International Conference on 24-29 [10.1109/IRI.2007.4296592] [Proceedings]

2007. "Assessing North American forest disturbance from the landsat archive." IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2007 (IGARSS 2007) 5294-5297 [10.1109/IGARSS.2007.4424057] [Proceedings]

2007. "Reusing Software to Build Data Processing Systems: NPP Science Data Segment Case Study." 2007 IEEE Aerospace Conference 1-12 [10.1109/AERO.2007.352814] [Proceedings]

2006. "Analysis of calibration differences between MODIS and MISR." Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng 6298 9 pp [10.1117/12.680896] [Proceedings]

2006. "A Study of Earth Science Software Reuse Enablement Systems." Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2006 IGARSS 2006 IEEE International Conference on 2832-2835 [10.1109/IGARSS.2006.728] [Proceedings]

2006. "Software Reuse Within the Earth Science Community." Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2006 IGARSS 2006 IEEE International Conference on 2880-2883 [10.1109/IGARSS.2006.740] [Proceedings]

2006. "MODIS solar diffuser Earthshine modeling and analysis." Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng 6296 8 pp [10.1117/12.679081] [Other]

2006. "Improvement of MODIS RSB Calibration by minimizing the Earthshine Impact on Solar Diffuser Observations." Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng 6296 10 pp [10.1117/12.679081] [Other]

1988. "A methodology to account for terrain relief distortion in earth viewing satellite imagery." Technical papers: 1988 ACSM-ASPRS Annual Convention; St. Louis, Missouri, March 13-18; ACSM 48th Annual Meeting, ASPRS 54th Annual Meeting 3 137-149 [Proceedings]

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