Planet Lab

Blue Marble  (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Reto Stöckli)

      My name is Yulong Zhang. I am a research scientist in Duke University and a visiting researcher in USDA Forest Service and Oak Ridge National Lab. Before joining in Duke, I conducted my post-doctoral research in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I also had a short-term industrial experience in EMDO as a research scientist, and worked as a research assistant professor in University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). My ultimate mission is to understand how the terrestrial biosphere works as a key piece of the breathing Earth System. Remote sensing, ecological modeling and ground observing are my primary tools to achieve this goal. Specifically, my research foci are to:

• monitor terrestrial vegetation activity and retrieve plant hydraulic traits based on multi-source remote sensing and ground measurements 

• model atmospheric exchanges of carbon and water with terrestrial biosphere and explore how they are shaped by climate change and human-induced land use/cover change

• explore the potential linkages of terrestrial vegetation variability with large-scale atmospheric teleconnections such as ENSO and Arctic Oscillation

• develop land surface products based on optical, thermal & microwave remote sensing

      The Earth, composed of land, ocean & atmosphere, runs as a huge dynamic system in its own amazing way. Our understandings on mechanisms behind this habitable planet is not only linked with human benefits in this home cradle, but also the theoretical basis for human to terraform other planets (e.g. build ecosystems on Mars) in the future. 

      My previous research work have been funded by NASA, Oak Ridge National Lab, USDA Forest Service, U.S. National Science Foundation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Recently, I turn to advanced statistics, machine learning and cloud computing systems to develop fine-scale land surface products based on multi-sources remote sensing measurements (i.e. optical, thermal & microwave) and aim to solve the pressing geophysical and ecological problems in a state-of-the-art manner. Please contact me if you are interested in my research, and want to seek potential collaborations. Besides research, I'm also interested in art, hiking, badminton and scientific fiction.

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