Sonam Futi Sherpa
Assistant Professor
School of Environment Society and Sustainability,
University of Utah
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I am an assistant professor at the University of Utah in the School of Environment, Society and Sustainability..I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Northern Change Research Laboratory (NCRL) at Brown University. My research interest is in utilizing novel remote sensing technologies (such as radar and others), combined with machine learning, to observe Earth from space for water and natural hazards. At Brown, I used NASA/CNES/CSA SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite data to observe water and proglacial environments, focusing on water resources and hazards.
Prior to Brown, I obtained my Ph.D. from the Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech in 2023 with a specialization in Radar Remote Sensing for Earth observation and was part of the Earth Observation and Innovation (EOI) Lab, where I focused my research on large-scale water mapping, sea level rise, and exposure utilizing remotely sensed big data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Interferometric SAR (InSAR) and machine learning. Additionally, I worked on GRACE/FO gravity data to understand total water storage change in High Mountain Asia and was also part of the Hydrologic Innovation & Remote Sensing (HIR) Lab.
At VT, I was NSF’s VT DRRM (Disaster Risk Resilience and Management) Fellow (2020-2023) with the Center for Coastal Studies and IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Climate Sciences Fellow (2021-2023).
Latest News
Aug. 2025 Our paper on High Mountain Asia precipitation seasonality, monsoon intensity, and total water storage is published. Check out our open-access paper here. And a press release by the University of Utah here.
May 2025 Our Nature (Cities) paper is out. Check out our open-access paper here. And coverage by the New York Times and CBS News.
Dec. 2024 I traveled to D.C. for AGU. I gave talks on two of our works on Surface Hydrology using SWOT.
June 2024 I am at SWOT Science Team meeting. I gave talks at two different sessions: Rivers and Lakes working groups.
Mar. 2024 Our Nature paper "Disappearing cities on US coasts" is out. Check out our open-access paper here.
Dec. 2023 I am at AGU. I presented my research on the SWOT mission and 3D Remote Sensing of Water.
Nov. 2023 I am featured in Brown Daily and also read about me at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society Feature.
Oct. 2023 I gave a talk at the Climate and Environment Lunch Bunch of Brown University.
Sept. 2023 I am at the SWOT Science Team Meeting in Toulouse, France! I presented a poster on Cal/Val of SWOT and compared Hydrological in-situ data and 1-day fast sampling orbit SWOT data.
July 2023 I am thrilled to receive the 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth Sciences Postdoctoral fellowship.
June 2023 I am excited to join Northern Change Research Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University. I will be working on a NASA/CNES/CSA SWOT satellite mission to observe water and the proglacial environment.
April 2023 Our research/JGR paper is featured in Virginia Tech News. See Virginia Tech press release of our recent paper.
March 2023 Our paper that assesses the impact of climate change and vertical land motion in sea level rise is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). See our open-access paper for more details.
Selected Publications
Ohenhen L. O., Shirzaei M., Ojha, C., Sherpa S.F., Nicholls R. (2024). Disappearing Cities in US Coasts. Nature 627, 108–115, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07038-3.
Sherpa, S. F., Shirzaei, M., & Ojha, C. (2023). Disruptive Role of Vertical Land Motion in Future Assessments of Climate Change-Driven Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Hazards in the Chesapeake Bay, Journal of Geophysical Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB025993.
Sherpa, S.F., & Shirzaei, M., (2021). Earth-observing Radar Satellite Data for Semi-Real Time Flood Exposure Analysis. Case Study of Iran 2019 Flood, Journal of Flood Risk Management, https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12770.
Sherpa, S. F., Shirzaei, M., Ojha, C. Werth, S. and Hostache, R. (2020) “Probabilistic Mapping of August 2018 Flood of Kerala, India, Using Space-Borne Synthetic Aperture Radar," in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, vol. 13, pp. 896-913. doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2020.2970337
Sherpa, S. F., Shrestha, M., Eakin, H., & Boone, C. G. (2019). Cryospheric hazards and risk perceptions in the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal. Natural Hazards, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3560-0
Sherpa, S. F., Wagnon, P., Brun, F., Bertheir, E., Vincent, C., Lejeune, Y., Arnaud Y., Kayastha, R.B., Sinisalo, A. (2017). Contrasted surface mass balances of debris-free glaciers observed between the southern and the inner parts of the Everest region (2007–15). Journal of Glaciology, 1-15. doi:10.1017/jog.2017.30
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