Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Elizabeth E Hoy

(SUPPORT SCIENTIST-ASSOCIATE)

Elizabeth E Hoy's Contact Card & Information.
Email: elizabeth.hoy@nasa.gov
Phone: 301.614.6494
Org Code: 618
Address:
NASA/GSFC
Mail Code 618
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: GLOBAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INC

Brief Bio


Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Hoy’s scientific research interests are in geography and disturbance mapping within the high northern latitude regions of North America where she utilizes GIS and remote sensing to understand aspects of environmental change. Some of her recent research has included analyzing methane hotspots in fire-disturbed areas of the Alaskan tundra and understanding satellite-derived burn severity metrics used in boreal forests. Dr. Hoy has worked in the Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office at NASA since 2012 (now as a contractor through Global Science and Technology, Inc.) where she is a Senior Support Scientist for the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE). She supports ABoVE through implementing high-performance computing capabilities, planning airborne campaigns, and collaborating with investigators and students. Recently Dr. Hoy supported the development of the IARPC Arctic Research Plan as a co-author of the Data Management section. Dr. Hoy received her PhD in Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland in 2014.

Education


Degrees:

PhD: Geographical Science, The University of Maryland, 2014

MA: Remote Sensing/Geographical Science, The University of Maryland, 2007

BS: Environmental Science and Policy, The University of Maryland, 2005

Theses and Dissertations: 

Impacts of a changing fire frequency on soil carbon stocks in interior Alaskan boreal forests, January 2014, Advisor: Prof. E.S. Kasischke

Evaluating the potential of the normalized burn ratio and other spectral indices for assessment of fire severity in Alaskan black spruce forests, May 2007, Advisor: Prof. E.S. Kasischke

Positions/Employment


Senior Support Scientist

Global Science and Technology, Inc. - NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771

November 2016 - Present

Assist programs supported by the NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office. Responsibilities include performing geospatial and cartographic analysis and display; providing data management for the ABoVE campaign; and developing and implementing the ABoVE Science Cloud (in collaboration with the NASA High Performance Computing Center).


Support Scientist

Global Science and Technology, Inc. (2014-present) and Sigma Space (2012-2014) - Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office, NASA Goddard

April 2012 - October 2016

Provide scientific and logistical support for the various programs supported by the CCE office, most recently for the NASA ABoVE (Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment) field campaign. Lead support scientist for geospatial and cartographic analysis and display within the CCE office (including ArcGIS Desktop and Online); assist with data management, the development of the ABoVE Science Cloud (in collaboration with the NASA High Performance Computing Center), and educational materials related to ABoVE.


Graduate Research Assistant

Department of Geographical Sciences - University of Maryland

May 2005 - May 2013

Utilized remotely sensed data, including Landsat and MODIS data, to analyze and quantify disturbance events within North America. Performed analyses using a suite of geospatial software tools. Assisted in the collection of field-based data for use in comparative studies with remotely sensed data of Alaska’s boreal forests, as well as supervised multiple undergraduate interns in conducting geospatial analyses of North American disturbance events.


EPA Policy Intern

US Environmental Protection Agency - Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. Washington, DC 20460

June 2002 - May 2005

Intern for the EPA Office of Homeland Security (2003-2005) and the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (2002). Assisted in the development of homeland security policy and presentations for high level managers in federal agencies focused on homeland security including the Administrator and Assistant Administrator of the EPA as well as members of Congress. Created, developed, and edited Foresight, an inter-office monthly bulletin on current and future environmental issues.

Teaching Experience


Guest Lecturer, University of Maryland Baltimore County (2014), Boreal Forest Ecology. Geography and Environmental Science's 302: Arctic Geography.

Teaching Assistant, Department of Geography, University of Maryland - Geography 202: Introduction to Huma n Geography, Spring 2011

Guest Lecturer, University of Maryland (2011), Urban Geography. Geography 202: Introduction to Human Geography.

Guest Lecturer, University of Maryland (2011), Factors controlling carbon consumption during Alaskan wildland fires. Geography642: Ecosystem Processes and Human Habitability.

Guest Lecturer, University of Maryland (2011), Climates of the Southern Hemisphere. Geography 345: Introduction to Climatology.

Professional Societies


American Geophysical Union

2006 - Present


Association of Polar Early Career Scientists

2013 - Present


Association of American Geographers

2008 - 2016


American Association for the Advancement of Science

2013 - 2015


International Association of Landscape Ecology

2014 - 2016


Association of Fire Ecology

2006 - 2008


American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

2005 - 2007

Professional Service


Interagency Arctic Research and Policy Committee Terrestrial Ecosystem Community of Practice Co-Lead, 2021-present

Applied Earth Observations and Innovations Partnership Committee Member, 2022-present

NASA Media and Communications Engagement - Various beginning in 2019

Session Co-Chairs for various meetings such as the American Geophysical Union and the Canadian Society for Remote Sensing f

Student Poster/Presentation Judge at various conferences: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Subject Matter Reviewer: NASA; NSF; Data Science Journal; Canadian Journal of Forest Research; Environmental Monitoring and Assessment; International Journal of Wildland Fire; Environmental Research Letters; Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences.

Panelist for an American University School of Business Event on Data Analytics: 3/21/2019, 3/24/2018

Awards


2023 Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HBG) Annual Peer Award: For intern mentorship.

NASA Group Achievement Award 2018: ABoVE Airborne Science Campaign Team: For delivering new and critical scientific observations.

O.E. Baker Award, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, Spring 2013: Given by the Department of Geographical Sciences for excellence and service within the department.

Jacob K. Goldhaber Travel Grant, Graduate School, University of Maryland, December 2011

Grants


Impacts of a changing fire frequency on soil carbon stocks in interior Alaskan boreal
forests. This project was also a North American Carbon Program Core Project.

Earth and Space Science Fellow - NASA - Awarded: 2009-09-01


Dates: 2009-09-01  - 2012-08-31


Impacts of a changing fire frequency on soil carbon stocks in interior Alaskan boreal forests

Wylie Dissertation Completion Fellowship - Graduate School, University of Maryland - Awarded: 2012-09-01


Dates:  - 

Other Professional Information


Knowledge and Training: Proficiency with multiple geospatial and statistical software tools: ESRI products including ArcGIS Desktop, ArcServer, ArcPortal, ArcGIS Online; QGIS; ENVI/IDL, ERDAS Imagine, S+, R, SASS, SPSS.

Languages: Native English Speaker and Conversational German

Other Affiliations: Graduate Student Researcher, Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research Center, Fall 2009-2014

Mentor to Summer Internship Students:

  • Karla Monroy (2023): Community Engagement within the ABoVE campaign
  • Miles Moore (2023): Development of a field database to support the ABoVE UAVSAR campaign
  • Michael Howerton (2023): Analysis of LVIS lidar datasets to support the ABoVE Airborne Campaign
  • Mary Banner (2022): Showcase of ABoVE data products throughout the study domain
  • Seamore Zhu (2022): Synthesis of an Alaskan tundra database and preliminary analysis
  • Ella Hall (2021): Fire Disturbance in Tundra Regions
  • Leah Clayton (2021): Changes in Soil Moisture between burned and unburned areas of Alaska
  • Jeralyn Poe (2020): Performance of carbon flux models across the ABoVE domain using eddy covariance measurements
  • Shannon Reault (2020): Methane Emissions in the North Slope: Identifying the Source of Model and Observation Disagreement
  • Elsa Yoseph (2020): The Influence of Arctic Tundra Fires on Methane Hotspot Distribution in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
  • Darby Levin (2019): Evaluating Planet High-Res Satellite Imagery for NASA’s ABoVE Campaign
  • Daniel Rusinek (2019): LVIS Aerial Altimetry Visualization and Accuracy Assessment
  • Caileigh Shoot (2018): Detecting Aspen Leaf Miner and Evaluating Its Impacts in Interior Alaska
  • Heidi Rodenheizer (2018): Detecting Soil Moisture with L-band SAR and LiDAR
  • John Fitz (2016): Development and Testing of the Geospatial Data Management System for the ABoVE Project
  • Amy Hendricks (2016): Benchmarking the Creation of Digital Elevation Models on NASA’s Discover Supercomputer
  • Kyle Peterson (2015): Developing an Effective Geospatial Data System in Support of the ABoVE Project

 

Publications


Refereed

2023. "Summary of the ABoVE L-band and P-band Airborne SAR Surveys, 2012-2022." ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2150] [Dataset]

2023. "Tundra fire increases the likelihood of methane hotspot formation in the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, USA." Environmental Research Letters 18 (10): 104042 [10.1088/1748-9326/acf50b] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "The ABoVE L-band and P-band Airborne SAR Surveys." Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [10.5194/essd-2021-172] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "A synthesized field survey database of vegetation and active layer properties for the Alaskan tundra (1972–2020)." Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [10.5194/essd-2023-222] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Burned area and carbon emissions across northwestern boreal North America from 2001–2019." Biogeosciences 20 (13): 2785-2804 [10.5194/bg-20-2785-2023] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Disturbances in North American boreal forest and Arctic tundra: impacts, interactions, and responses." Environmental Research Letters 17 (11): 113001 [10.1088/1748-9326/ac98d7] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Spatio-temporal patterns of optimal Landsat data for burn severity index calculations: Implications for high northern latitudes wildfire research." Remote Sensing of Environment 258 112393 [10.1016/j.rse.2021.112393] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Fuel availability not fire weather controls boreal wildfire severity and carbon emissions." Nature Climate Change 10 (12): 1130-1136 [10.1038/s41558-020-00920-8] [Journal Article/Letter]

2019. "An overview of ABoVE airborne campaign data acquisitions and science opportunities." Environmental Research Letters 14 (8): 080201 [10.1088/1748-9326/ab0d44] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "Static and dynamic controls on fire activity at moderate spatial and temporal scales in the Alaskan boreal forest." Ecosphere 7 (11): e01572 [10.1002/ecs2.1572] [Journal Article/Letter]

2016. "More frequent burning increases vulnerability of Alaskan boreal black spruce forests." Environmental Research Letters 11 (9): 095001 [10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095001] [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Controls on carbon consumption during Alaskan wildland fires." Global Change Biology 18 685-699 [10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02573.x] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Model comparisons for estimating carbon emissions from north american wildland fire." Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeoscience 116 G00K05 [10.1029/2010JG001469] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "A changing boreal fire regime intensifies burning." Nature Geoscience 4 27-31 [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Mapping burned area in alaska using modis data: A data limitations-driven modification to the regional burned area algorithm." International Journal of Wildland Fire 20 (4): 487-496 [10.1071/WF10017] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Quantifying burned area from fires in north american forests - implications for direct reduction of carbon stocks." Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeoscience 116 G04003 [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Potential shifts in dominant forest cover in interior alaska driven by variations in fire severity." Ecological Applications 21 2380-2396 [10.1890/10-0896.1] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Alaska's changing fire regime - implications for the vulnerability of its boreal forests." Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40 (7): 1313 [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Seasonal and topographic effects on estimating fire severity from landsat tm/etm+ data." International Journal of Wildland Fire 17 527-534 [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Evaluation of the composite burn index for assessing fire severity in alaskan black spruce forests." International Journal of Wildland Fire 17 515-526 [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Evaluating the potential of landsat tm/etm+ imagery for assessing fire severity in alaskan black spruce forests." International Journal of Wildland Fire 17 500-514 [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Using landsat data to assess fire and burn severity in the north american boreal forest region: An overview and summary of results." International Journal of Wildland Fire 17 443-462 [Journal Article/Letter]

Non-Refereed

2023. "Field Data on Soils, Vegetation, and Fire History for Alaska Tundra Sites, 1972-2020." ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2177] [Dataset]

2022. "ABoVE: LVIS L3 Gridded Vegetation Structure across North America, 2017 and 2019." ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1923] [Dataset]

2020. "ABoVE: Synthesis of Burned and Unburned Forest Site Data, AK and Canada, 1983-2016." ORNL DAAC [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1744] [Dataset]

2019. "Pushing remote sensing capacity for climate change research in Canada’s North: POLAR’s contributions to NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE)." Polar Knowledge: Aqhaliat Report 1 (1): 53-62 [10.35298/pkc.2018.07] [Journal Article/Letter]

2018. "ABoVE: Directory of Field Sites Associated with 2017 ABoVE Airborne Campaign." ORNL DAAC [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1582] [Dataset]

2018. "CMS: Fire Weather Indices for Interior Alaska, 2001-2010." ORNL DAAC [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1509] [Dataset]

2017. "ABoVE: Study Domain and Standard Reference Grids, Version 2." ORNL DAAC [https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1527] [Dataset]

2016. "NACP Soil Organic Matter of Burned Boreal Black Spruce Forests, Alaska, 2009-2011." ORNL DAAC [10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1331] [Dataset]

Talks, Presentations and Posters


Invited

NASA ABoVE 2019 Field and Airborne Campaign Highlights, webinar presentation for the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee Terrestrial Ecosystems Team Meeting.

December 21, 2019


Fire and Smoke (Oral Presentation)

September 14, 2019

Hoy, E.E. NASA Goddard Engage Seminar Series. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.


Other

An overview of NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE): Development, implementation, advances and knowledge gaps

July 20, 2023

Elizabeth Hoy, Peter Griffith, Charles Miller and the ABoVE Science Team. Canadian Society of Remote Sensing Annual Meeting. Yellowknife, Canada.


Results from the 2022 ABoVE Airborne Campaign

15, 2022

Charles Miller, Peter Griffith, Scott Goetz, Libby Larson, Daniel Hodkinson, Hank Margolis, Elizabeth Hoy, Michael Falkowski and the ABoVE Science Team. American Geophysical Meeting 2023.


Constructing a Database to Support the Study of ABoVE-domain Tundra Fire Dynamics

12, 2022

Poster - Xiaoran Zhu, Elizabeth Hoy, Dong Chen, Maruko Kogure. American Geophysical union Fall Meeting 2022.


Coordinated Data Management to Encourage Collaborative Research During the NASA ABoVE Campaign

12, 2022

Poster Presentation - Elizabeth Hoy, Peter Griffith, Yaxing Wei, Debjani Deb, Laura Carriere, James Shute, Ellen Salmon, Matt Stroud. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2022.


The Influence of Arctic Tundra Fires on Methane Hotspot Distribution in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

13, 2021

Elizabeth Yoseph, Elizabeth Hoy, Clayton Elder, David Thompson, Charles Miller, Abhishek Chatterjee. American Geophyscial Union Fall Meeting 2022.


Active Layer Detachment Slides, Kluane Ranges, Southwest Yukon

November 13, 2021

Ackerson, C.M., Ward, B., Kennedy, K., Dai, Chunli, Griffith, P.C., Hoy, Elizabeth. Active Layer Detachment Slides, Kluane Ranges, Southwest Yukon. Geological Society of America Fall Meeting 2021 (poster-presentation co-author).


The NASA ABoVE Airborne Campaign

September 18, 2021

Hoy, E., Goetz, S.G., Miller, C., Margolis, H., Falkowski, M., Griffith, P., Larson, E., Hodkinson, D. The NASA ABoVE Airborne Campaign. International Boreal Forest Research Association conference (poster presenter).


The influence of scale on modeled carbon combustion from historical wildfires across Alaska and Canada.

2019

Stefano Potter, Sol Cooperkdock, Xanthe Walker, Sander Veraverbeke, Elizabeth Hoy (618/GST), Jennifer Baltzer, et al. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, CA (poster co-author).


Experiment (ABoVE) to Facilitate Research Collaboration.

2019

Elisabeth Larson, Peter Griffith, Daniel Hodkinson, Elizabeth Hoy, Michael J Falkowski, Scott J Goetz, Charles E Miller. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, CA (poster co-author).


Enabling Collaborative Research During ABoVE Through Coordinated Data Management.

2019

Elizabeth Hoy (618/GST), Alison Boyer, Laura Carriere, Debjani Singh, Peter Griffith (618/SSAI), Darby Levin, Megan E. McGroddy (618/SSAI), Julien Peters, Ellen Salmon, James Shute and Matthew Stroud. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, CA (poster author and presenter).


Bottom-up control of carbon combustion from boreal wildfires.

2019

Xanthe Walker, Jennifer Baltzer, Kirsten Barrett, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Nicola Day, William DeGroot, Catherine Dieleman, Scott Goetz, Elizabeth Hoy, Liza Jenkins, et al. (oral presentation co-author).


NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE): Transitioning from Phase 1 to Phase 2 (2015-2022).

2019

Goetz, S., Miller, C., Griffith, P., Larson, E., Hoy, E., Falkowski, M., and H. Margolis. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, CA. (oral presentation co-author).


Airborne Monitoring of Arctic Ecosystem Change.

2019

Miller, C., Griffith, P., Goetz, S., Hoy, E., Hodkinson, D., Larson, E., Falkowski, M., Margolis, H. and the ABoVE Science Team. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, CA. (oral presentation co-author).


The Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE Airborne Campaign (Oral presentation).

November 11, 2019

Hoy, E.E.; Miller, C.; Griffith, P.C.; Goetz, S.; Larson, E.; Falkowski, M.; Margolis, H. 2019 PECORA 21 Conference, Baltimore, MD.


Fire in the Earth System: Fire and Smoke (Oral Presentation).

October 6, 2019

Hoy, E.E. Presentation to the Government of the Northwest Territories in support of the ABoVE Campaign.


Evaluating Planet High-Res Satellite Imagery for NASA’s ABoVE Campaign (Poster)

September 1, 2019

Levin, D. and E. Hoy. NASA Goddard Earth Science Intern Poster Session Summer 2019. NASA GSFC.


LVIS Aerial Altimetry Visualization and Accuracy Assessment (Poster)

September 1, 2019

Rusinke, D.; Hoy, E.E; Hofton, M.; Douglas, T. NASA Goddard Earth Science Intern Poster Session Summer 2019. NASA GSFC.


Selected Public Outreach


NASA Studies How Arctic Wildfires Change the World

September 2019 - September 2019

This NASA-published article, written by Maria-Jose Vinas, features Dr. Liz Hoy and research done by the ABoVE campaign. There is an associated video featuring Dr.Liz Hoy as well: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13281.


NASA Explorers: Fires! Facebook Live

November 2019 - November 2019

In preparation for the NASA Explorers: Fires! videos, the NASA Communications Office produced some Facebook Live events which featured Dr.Liz Hoy:

  • 10/25/2019: https://www.facebook.com/NASAExplorersSeries/videos/709550772898072/UzpfSTE0ODI1NzY0NDY6MTAyMjA5MjIxNjgzNTIyNzg/
  • 10/15/2019: https://www.facebook.com/NASAExplorersSeries/videos/542436189916448/UzpfSTE0ODI1NzY0NDY6MTAyMjA4MDY4NjI3NDk3MTA/

NASA, NOAA Team Up In Effort To Study Impact Of Wild Fires On Air Quality

September 2019 - September 2019

NASA Liveshots on Wildfire featuring Dr. Liz Hoy. Sean Streicher of CBS Baltimore came to NASA Goddard to conduct the interview. 


NASA Science Live: Landsat - A Legacy of Seeing Earth from Space

October 2021 - October 2021

Earth is changing, and these changes can be seen from space. A series of satellites built by NASA and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have been monitoring and tracking changes across our planet for almost 50 years. Landsat 9 will continue to answer the many questions we have about Earth’s climate change, population growth and even your very own food supply. Join experts to learn more