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Longtime Research Physical Scientist Terry Sohl has been named branch chief for the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center’s Integrated Science and Applications Branch, which involves about 140 government and contract staff members.

Terry Sohl
Terry Sohl

Sohl has held an acting role in the position since March 2021, but EROS Center Director Pete Doucette announced that the assignment had become permanent on January 28, 2024. 

“Terry’s breadth of experience, combined with his forward thinking, made him the right person to take on the role of EROS science branch chief,” Doucette said. “Furthermore, he’s well respected by science staff for his technical accomplishments and calm demeanor.”

Sohl’s history working in EROS science, particularly land cover and change, dates to 1993, when he arrived at EROS after working with Landsat and other imagery in the Defense Intelligence Agency. His first task at EROS turned out to be significant and enduring: helping develop the National Land Cover Database (NCLD), which stands today as the definitive land cover database for the United States.

Sohl broke ground again when he served on the team developing the Land Cover Trends project strategy and data products, and later in developing the Forecasting Scenarios of Land Use (FORE-SCE) framework to model both historical and future land use for time periods when remote sensing data are not available.

In the near term, Sohl is overseeing an effort to incorporate improvements into the NLCD that he helped originate, with a “next generation” release set for later this year. But in his new role, he also sees a broader picture.

“A primary goal for the Integrated Science and Applications Branch is to cement our reputation as the source for land-change monitoring data. And in a rapidly changing field, EROS science will continue to evolve,” Sohl said. 

“Moving forward,” he added, “priorities are embracing new artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies, developing new partnerships with not only traditional federal and academic partners but with private industry, and to explore greater harmonization and integration of commercial and data sources other than Landsat.”

Doucette added his thoughts about the future of EROS science: “A vision that Terry and I share is to continue ramping up our use of AI, high performance compute and cloud services, along with a broader spectrum of data inputs, to address pressing challenges we face in landscape and climate science. This approach captures the essence of data science.”

 

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