Remote sensing

Our lab has expertise in microwave remote sensing (scatterometer and GNSS-R) and solar-induced fluorescence satellite data. We are interested in using these tools to understand large-scale water-carbon relations across ecosystems types. Recently, we developed an algorithm to analyze and process CYGNSS data to map tropical wetlands. These maps have helped improve methane emissions models and predictions.

Relevant publications

1.  C. Gerlein-Safdi, P. Köhler, S. Wang, M. Flanner, G. Keppel-Aleks, and C. Frankenberg, 2023. Algae blooms on the Greenland Ice Sheet detected through solar-induced fluorescence. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, in press, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2023.3305194

2.  C. Gerlein-Safdi, A.A. Bloom, E. Kort, G. Plant, and C.S. Ruf, 2021. Improving representation of tropical wetland methane emissions with CYGNSS inundation maps. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35, e2020GB006890, doi: 10.1029/2020GB006890

3.  C. Ruf, C. Chew, C. Gerlein-Safdi, and A. Warnock, 2021. Resolving Inland Waterways with CYGNSS. 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS, 954-957, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS47720.2021.9554192

4.  C. Gerlein-Safdi, 2021, Seeing dew deposition from satellites: leveraging microwave remote sensing for the study of water dynamics in and on plants, New Phytologist, 231, 5–7, doi: 10.1111/nph.17418 

5.  M.M. Al-Khaldi, J.T. Johnson, S. Gleason, C.C. Chew, C. Gerlein-Safdi, R. Shah and C. Zuffada, 2021. Inland water body mapping using CYGNSS coherence detection, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.3047075

6.  C. Gerlein-Safdi, G. Keppel-Aleks, F. Wang, S.E. Frolking, and D.L. Mauzerall, 2020. Satellite monitoring of natural reforestation efforts in China’s drylands, One Earth, 2 (1), 98–108, doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.015

7.  C. Gerlein-Safdi and C.S. Ruf, 2019. A CYGNSS-based algorithm for the detection of inland waterbodies, Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 12065–12072, doi: 10.1029/2019GL085134