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CESSRST-II Quarterly Highlights |
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NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (CESSRST-II) | | |
At CESSRST-II, the end of 2024 and begining of 2025 was a time of much activity. In December fellows, faculty and research scientists gave 28 oral and poster presentations at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Conference as well as 16 presentations at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (AMS) in January. Additionally, at the beginning of January, CESSRST-II Cohort I fellow, Melissa Crouch, graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY) with a Masters in Earth and Atmospheric Science. From March 4-6, fellows, faculty, researchers and staff attended and actively engaged in the 11th Biennial NOAA EPP/MSI Education and Science Forum, which took place at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, Maryland. 34 fellows attend and presented their research, interacting with scientists and professionals, during the three-day event. The Center is proud to note that 4 CESSRST-II graduate fellows were awarded (1st and 3rd place) for their oral presentations, while 7 graduate fellows received awards (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place) for their poster presentations. Additionally, 1 undergraduate fellow’s poster presentation received 3rd place.
The Center's Postdoc, Dr. Luisa Feliciano Cruz, gave a workshop on tools for better academic writing; it was well attended, with over 40 participants on January 10, 2025.
The Center recruited Dr. Angelika Winner as the new social science Coordinator in January2025.
Finally, the Center has been engaged in NERTO planning and preparations for 11 CESSRST-II fellows this year; one fellow, has just started the NERTO at the Physical Science Lab in Boulder, Co, while the remaining fellows are expected to participate in their NERTOs during the summer.
| | | | CESSRST-II @ NOAA EPP/MSI Biennial Education & Science Forum | | The 11th Biennial NOAA EPP/MSI Education and Science Forum, which took place at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland, from March 4-6, 2025, was attended by members across the Center. Fellows were able to present their research and interact with scientists and professionals through the forum. The theme of this year's forum was "Educate, Innovate, Sustain: Improving America's Global Competitiveness by Preparing a Future Workforce for Ocean, Coastal, and Atmospheric Challenges". Read More | |
CESSRST-II Student Awards at the EPP/MSI Forum
Environmental Intelligence and Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies
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Timothy Medina - 1st Place, Graduate Oral Presentation
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E'lysha Guerrero - 3rd Place, Graduate Oral Presentation
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Alessandra Zuniga - 1st Place, Graduate Poster Presentation in Environmental Intelligence
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Carlos Ordaz - 1st Place, Graduate Poster Presentation in Environmental Intelligence
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Jose Keppis - 3rd Place, Undergraduate Poster Presentation in Environmental Intelligence
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Enrique Valencia - 2nd Place, Graduate Poster Presentation in Resilience Coastal Communities and Economies
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Biajani Gonzalez - 1st Place, Graduate Poster Presentation in Healthy Oceans
Weather Ready Nation
| | | CESSRST Fellows' Ryan Goldberg & Alessandra Zuniga Publish New Research Articles | | Cohort 3 Ph.D. Fellow, Ryan Goldberg published an article titled "Advancing Landslide Susceptibility Mapping across Heterogeneous Regions with Deep Learning-Based Domain Adaptation" in the proceedings of Geotechnical Frontiers - More Info | |  | Cohort 1 Ph.D Fellow, Alessandra Zuniga published a paper titled "Vitis vinifera L. varieties (cv. Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay) vary in leaf water flux in response to elevated CO2 growing conditions and a gradual water deficit" in the annals of Botany Company - More Info | | | |
NOAA Experiential Research and Training Opportunities (NERTO)
This year, the Center is preparing for the NERTOs of 14 fellows. At NOAA Research (OAR), Biajani Gonzalez, Cohort 3 Master's Fellow has began his NERTO at the Physical Science Lab (PSL) in Boulder, Colorado and the other fellows are anticipated to take part in their NERTOs over the summer.
| | Student Presentations & NOAA Seminar Series | | |
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NOAA Seminar Series: Urban Study of Excessive Rainfall Rates - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Spatiotemporal variability of heat stress in the Imperial Valley using remote sensing and weather station data - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Merged LEO-GEO Tropospheric Nitrogen Dioxide (tropNO2) Product for Air Quality Applications - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Implications of Tropospheric Mass Flux Reduction for the frequency and intensity of convective precipitation - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Characterizing Hub-height Wind Speed Dependence on Atmospheric Processes in an Offshore Wind Environment - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Phytoplankton monitoring and mapping using NOAA OAR/AOML satellite data products for urban waters ecosystems - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Societal Data Insights: Data Integration for Inland Flooding - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Historical Data Reconstruction for the California Coastal Currents using 3D Empirical Orthogonal Functions and Multivariate Regression - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Identifying local and synoptic-scale meteorological and land cover conditions favorable for the occurrence of large fires in California - Read More
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NOAA Seminar Series: Remote sensing of extreme weather events on CDOM in Long Island Sound - Read More
| | Center & Research News Updates | | JCRDP Completes Initial Design Review, Advances Air Quality Validation | | |
The CESSRST-NCASM Joint Collaborative Research and Development Project (JCRDP), a collaborative effort between CESSRST at the City College of New York and NCAS-M at Howard University, successfully completed its Initial Design Review (IDR) with the advisory board on October 31, 2024. The board provided favorable feedback, recognizing the project’s strong progress and alignment with NOAA’s goals. A key recommendation was to integrate the WRF-Chem model as an additional validation source to enhance air quality monitoring capabilities. Dr. Ming Kang, a research associate at CESSRST, will lead this effort to improve validation accuracy and provide actionable air quality insights.
The project continues to strengthen NOAA collaborations while implementing best practices in data integration and management. TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) remains the primary satellite data source, supporting a comprehensive air quality validation system. This system incorporates ground-based observations, regional campaign data, and satellite products to improve urban air quality and weather forecasting. JCRDP also contributes to NOAA’s social science efforts by advancing data visualization techniques that enhance public understanding of air pollution trends.
JCRDP remains committed to workforce development by providing research opportunities for students, including Thomas Ely, Kolawole Owoeye, and Kevin Herrera. Fellows, from both CESSRST-II and NCAS-M II, are actively involved in analyzing satellite data, refining validation techniques, and improving collocation procedures for comparing atmospheric composition products. As Dr. Kang works to integrate WRF-Chem into the validation system, students play a key role in advancing data analysis and model comparisons, ensuring that JCRDP continues to produce high-quality air quality assessments that support NOAA’s mission.
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CESSRST participates in both AGU 2024 and AMS 2025
The Center faculty, staff and students gave 28 oral and poster presentations by fellows, faculty, the distinguished research scientist (DRS), and researchers at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Conference in Washington, DC from December 9 to 13, 2024.
The Center also participated in the 105th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting from January 12 to 16, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Fellows and researchers gave 16 oral and poster presentations at the conference.
Both conferences were great opportunities for students to present and network with other academic and federal professionals including NOAA
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Workshop on Tools for Better Academic Writing
Center Post doc, Dr. Luisa Feliciano Cruz gave a workshop on tools for better academic writing on January 10, 2025. The workshop was well attended with over 40 participants. Dr. Feliciano shared various insights and tools that could improve writing productivity, reference organization and creating professional documents.
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Python Workshop to Efficiently Access, Deliver, Visualize, and Analyze Big Environmental Data in the Cloud
CESSRST-II in collaboration with CUNY CREST Institute hosted a python workshop to train students on analyzing environmental data in the cloud. The workshop was presented by Ryan Paul Lafler, the founder and chief data scientist at Premier Analytics Consulting, LLC.
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Integration of Vantage Points, Programs, and Approaches for Space-Based Earth Remote Sensing
CESSRST-II hosted a seminar presented by Jack Kaye, Associate Director for Research of Earth Science Division at NASA HQ Science Mission Directorate. The seminar was titled "Integration of Vantage Points, Programs and Approaches for Space Based Earth Remote Sensing" and took place on November 21, 2024 at the Grove School of Engineering.
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New Research Publications
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Merchant, S., Weissman, J.L. and MacLachlan, E. (2024) ‘Creating a Broader Impacts Culture’, Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 17(2), p. Article 13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.54656/jces.v17i2.613
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España, R.E., Alvarez, L.V. & Samarasinghe, J.T. (2025) Grid independence studies applied to a field-scale computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model using the detached eddy simulation (DES) technique along a reach of the Colorado River in Marble Canyon. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 50(3), e70030. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.70030
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Alessandra Zuniga, Amélie C M Gaudin, Matthew E Gilbert, Molly E Clemens, Donatella Zona, Walter C Oechel, Vitis vinifera L. varieties (cv. Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay) vary in leaf water flux in response to elevated CO2 growing conditions and a gradual water deficit, AoB PLANTS, 2025;, plaf011, https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plaf011
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Virkkala, AM., Rogers, B.M., Watts, J.D. et al. Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic–boreal CO2 uptake. Nat. Clim. Chang. 15, 188–195 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02234-5
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Ryan Goldberg, Te Pei, Fred Moshar, Yingli Tian, " Advancing Landslide Susceptibility Mapping across Heterogeneous Regions with Deep Learning-Based Domain Adaptation" Proceedings of Geotechnical Frontiers 2025, https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784485989.004
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CESSRST Welcomes Angelika Winner
Dr. Angelika Winner takes on the role of social science coordinator and will work with the CESSRST Social Science team. Dr Winner holds a master's degree in Geography (2014) and graduated from the Earth and Environmental Sciences department (Geography PhD) at CUNY Graduate Center in June 2024. She is a also researcher with CUNY Climate Initiative, and Adjunct Professor at CUNY Lehman College and New York University.
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Congratulations to Melissa Crouch, M.S (CCNY)
Congratulations to Melissa Crouch who graduated with a master's degree (M.S) in Earth and Atmospheric Science from the City College of New York on January 1, 2025. During her time at CESSRST, she worked on simulating precipitation and streamflow events in urbanized areas to understand the magnitude of flood impacts.
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Seminar on Nature of Satellite Retrievals & Data Assimilation in NOAA’s Rapid Refresh Systems - Read More
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Climate Seminar Series: The Expanding Reach of Ocean Acidification - Read More
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Seminar on Integration of Vantage Points, Programs, and Approaches for Space-Based Earth Remote Sensing - Read More
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Climate Seminar Series: An overview of the Tropospheric Ozone Pollution Project - Read More
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Top 10 Tools for Better Academic Writing Workshop - Read More
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Python Workshop to Efficiently Access, Deliver, Visualize, and Analyze Big Environmental Data in the Cloud - Read More
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CESSRST-II program is funded by NOAA/EPP Cooperative Award # NA22SEC4810016
The center aims to train cohorts of US citizen students who graduate and have the competencies needed to join the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) mission enterprise workforce.
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