October 2024, Volume 5

CESSRST-II Quarterly Highlights

Dr. Fred Moshary

Director, NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (CESSRST-II)

The past three months have been very active at NOAA EPP/MSI CESSRST-II, with eleven fellows of the Center engaged in NERTOs during this past summer at offices and laboratories of NESDIS, OAR, NOS, and Fisheries. At the same time, CESSRST-II has onboarded Cohort III fellows (7 PhD and 11 Masters students), and we anticipate onboarding an additional three fellows (1 PhD, 1 Masters, and 1 undergraduate) shortly, bringing the Cohort III recruitment to 21 fellows in total. We also had five Master’s students graduate at the end of summer 2024, and Harold Gamarro, one of our PhD students, successfully defended and deposited his dissertation. Harold has taken on a Postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley, and looks forward to joining the NOAA workforce in the future. Another graduate, Maria Novoa-Garcia (Masters degree) joined the National Weather Service (NWS) in Puerto Rico.

On October 30th, we had a successful review of our Joint Center Research and Development Project (JCRDP) on a validation system for TEMPO/GOES-R atmospheric composition products, underpinned by local/regional ground-based observations, collected by CESSRST-II, NCAS-M-II, and local/regional campaign data (e.g. AEROMMA, CUPIDS); the project Included validation with polar orbiting satellites – JPSS – VIIRS, OMPS, and comparisons to NOAA weather and air quality forecasts (e.g. NCEP NAQFC). Finally, CESSRST-II faculty affiliates are continuing their success in receiving research awards from federal agencies including NSF, DOE, etc. We look forward to sustaining our level of success in the months to come.

Student News Highlights

Keneshia Hibbert receives Prestigious Graduate Fellowship Program (GFP)

Keneshia Hibbert, a Ph.D. Fellow from CESSRST II Cohort 2 was selected for the NOAA EPP/MSI Graduate Fellowship Program (GFP) in June 2024. Her year-long engagement in the GFP starts on September 1, 2024, at NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service’s Center for Satellite Applications and Research (NOAA/NESDIS/STAR) in College Park, MD, under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Smith, a NOAA Research Scientist.

Student Presentations & NOAA Seminar Series

NOAA Seminar Series Presentations

The Path to Justice40: Indicators and Metrics for Assessing and Engaging Frontline Communities by Gwendolyn Damestoit
Implementation and Sustainability of the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Program by Wendy Prudencio
Carbon Sequestration and Storage in Puerto Rico Mangroves by Jahnelle Howe
11 Fellows completed their NERTO internship this summer and will give a summary of their experience at the NOAA Seminar Series later this fall.

Center & Research News Updates

Two CESSRST-II Scientists honored by American Meteorological Society

CESSRST-II Mentors, Dr. Jorge Gonzalez, Professor at the Department of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences at University of Albany (SUNY) and Dr. Reginald Blake, Professor of Physics at the New York City College of Technology (CityTech) were both recently honored for their efforts and contributions to the STEM community by the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Gonzalez received the Helmut E. Landsberg award, which recognizes his significant contributions in modeling and observations of urban climate and its impact in California. Dr. Blake received the Charles E. Anderson award for being a champion of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPoC) students, an inspiring mentor, and a treasured colleague, who enriches Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) efforts in the atmospheric sciences.

CESSRST hosted scientists from the NOAA Global Systems Laboratory (GSL)

Senior Scientist, Dr Dave Turner and Data Assimilation Scientist, Dr. Amanda Bark met with faculty and students to discuss potential collaborations between GSL and the Center including NERTO opportunities. Additionally, they gave a presentation on the Nature of Satellite Retrievals & Data Assimilation in NOAA’s Rapid Refresh Systems

CESSRST-II & CCNY Faculty Receives NSF Grant to study the use of AI and ML Technologies

The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided funding to Dr. Yingli Tian, an electrical engineering professor and Dr. Te Pei, an assistant professor of civil engineering, both from The City College of New York (CCNY), as co-PIs for their study, "Unifying Landslide Domain Knowledge and AI to Understand Landslide Causality." By fusing cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology with well-established geoscientific domain expertise, this award promotes research to understand the cause of landslides.

Their project will investigate hydro-eco-geomorphic synergy across scales, periods, and various habitats, while looking at creating AI-physics hybrid models, and creating a deeper understanding of the components, that contribute to landslide occurrences and their causality. Dr. Tian, contributes a vast knowledge of MI and computer vision to the project, and Dr. Pei will focus on geohazards modeling.

New Research Publications

Zhang, Q., Yi, C., Destouni, G. Krakauer, N., et al. Water limitation regulates positive feedback of increased ecosystem respiration. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 1870–1876 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02501-w
Natalie Mladenov, Trent Biggs, Keyshawn Ford, Stephany Garcia, Yongping Yuan, Alexandra Grant, Elise Piazza, Elisa Rivera, Federick Pinongcos, Scott P. Keely, Callie Summerlin, Jeffrey A. Crooks, Douglas Liden, “Evaluation of real-time fluorescence sensors and benchtop fluorescence for tracking and predicting sewage contamination in the Tijuana River Estuary at the US-Mexico border”, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 950,2024,175137, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175137
Boakye, O. F., Keneshia, H., and Jorge, G. (September 18, 2024). "Extreme Heat in the Caribbean: Impacts on Wellbeing and Buildings Energy Infrastructure—The 2023 Summer Case." ASME. J. Eng. Sustain. Bldgs. Cities. August 2024; 5(3): 031007. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4066382
Zuniga A, Monteverde C and Quandt A. 2024. Grapegrower perceptions of climate change impacts and adaptive capacity in Southern California. Am J Enol Vitic 75:0750021. https://doi.org/10.5344/ajev.2024.24031

Alumni & Graduation News

Congratulations to Julio Ceniceros and Maria Novoa-Garcia on their NOAA jobs

Julio Ceniceros, a former University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Cohort 2 PhD Fellow, was recently hired by the NOAA Physical Sciences Lab (PSL) as a Research Physical Scientist. He is also a representative for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility task for, focused on Minority Serving Institution engagement, visibility.

Maria Novoa-Garcia, a former University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) Cohort 1 Masters Fellow, was recently hired by the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS), San Juan, as a Meteorologist. "I hope other students get the opportunity to be part of the Center and see all the opportunities they have with NOAA as I did," Maria said, "because this has been my dream even before CESSRST-II. I'm so grateful for the opportunity Weather Forecast Office, San Juan (WFO SJU) is giving me."

This illustrates the significance and worth of CESSRST-II development and training for NOAA. Alumni from the Center are doing well in NOAA mission areas.

Congratulations to Amy Carrillo, Harold Gamarro, and Stephany Garcia on graduation and their new jobs

Three CESSRST-II alumni have secured jobs across the United States. Amy Carrillo, former CUNY Hunter College Cohort 2 Masters Fellow recently began working at the Hawai‘i Monitoring and Reporting Collaborative (HIMARC) as a Geospatial Analyst. Harold Gamarro, former CUNY CCNY Cohort 1 PhD Fellow, was recently hired at the University of California, Berkeley as a Post Doctoral Research Associate. Stephany Garcia, former SDSU Cohort 1 Masters Fellow was hired at the Southwest Wetlands interpretive Association as a Research Associate.

We wish them the best on this next step in their journey.