Publications

ContextYellow sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis; YSC) is an invasive biennial legume that bloomed across the Northern Great Plains in 2018–2019 in response to above-average precipitation. YSC can increase nitrogen (N) levels and potentially cause substantial changes in the composition of native plant species communities. There is little knowledge of the spatiotemporal variability and conditions c

The dimethyl sulfoxide reductase (or MopB) family is a diverse assemblage of enzymes found throughout Bacteria and Archaea. Many of these enzymes are believed to have been present in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all cellular lineages. However, gaps in knowledge remain about how MopB enzymes evolved and how this diversification of functions impacted global biogeochemical cycles thro

This research builds upon the extensive body of work to model exotic annual grass (EAG) characteristics and invasion. EAGs increase wildland fire risk and intensifies wildland fire behavior in western U.S. rangelands. Therefore, understanding characteristics of EAG growth increases understanding of its dynamics and can inform rangeland management decisions. To better understand EAG phenology and s

A large sample of ground-based evapotranspiration (ET) measurements made in the United States, primarily from eddy covariance systems, were post-processed to produce a benchmark ET dataset. The dataset was produced primarily to support the intercomparison and evaluation of the OpenET satellite-based remote sensing ET (RSET) models and could also be used to evaluate ET data from other models and ap

Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD), a product suite produced through the MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) consortium, is an operational land cover monitoring program. Starting from a base year of 2001, NLCD releases a land cover database every 2–3-years. The recent release of NLCD2019 extends the database to 18 years. We implemented a stratified random sample to collect land cover

Remotely sensed surface temperature (ST) has been widely used to monitor and assess landscape thermal conditions, hydrologic modeling, and surface energy balance. Landsat thermal sensors have continuously measured the Earth surface thermal radiance since August 1982. The thermal radiance measurements are atmospherically compensated and converted to Landsat STs and delivered as part of the U.S. Geo

We proposed a new image compositing algorithm (MAX-RNB) based on the maximum ratio of Near Infrared (NIR) to Blue band (RNB), and evaluated it together with nine other compositing algorithms: MAX-NDVI (maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), MED-NIR (median NIR band), WELD (conterminous United States Web-Enabled Landsat Data), BAP (Best Available Pixel), PAC (Phenology Adaptive Composite)

The use of remote sensing in time series analysis enables wall-to-wall monitoring of the land surface and is critical for assessing and understanding land cover and land use change and for understanding the Earth system as a whole. However, variability in remote sensing observation frequency through time and across space presents challenges for producing consistent change detection results through

Droughts that are hotter, more frequent, and last longer; pest outbreaks that are more extensive and more common; and fires that are more frequent, more extensive, and perhaps more severe have raised concern that forests in the western United States may not return once disturbed by one or more of these agents. Numerous field-based studies have been undertaken to better understand forest response t

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2016 products show that, between 2001 and 2016, nearly half of the land cover change in the conterminous United States (CONUS) involved forested areas. To ensure the quality of NLCD land cover and land cover change products, it is important to accurately detect the location and time of forest disturbance. We designed a comprehensive strategy to integrate a c

The Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) project quantifies the percentage cover of rangeland components across the western United States using Landsat imagery from 1985 to 2021. The RCMAP product suite consists of nine fractional components: annual herbaceous, bare ground, herbaceous, litter, nonsagebrush shrub, perennial herbaceous, sagebrush, shrub, and tree, in addi