I'm currently a NOAA C&GC postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. James Randerson in the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. My current research focuses on mapping the satellite-derived progression of wildfires in the western United States, investigating the climate and active fire suppression controls on fire spread, and quantifying related air quality and public health impacts. During my Ph.D. in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group at Harvard University, my research focused on 1) investigating trends in the timing and magnitude of crop residue burning in northwestern India (Punjab and Haryana), as well as the drivers and air quality consequences of these shifts; 2) quantifying smoke exposure and public health impacts associated with fire emissions in Indonesia; and 3) assessing satellite-derived fire-related smoke in North America. I use a combination of remote sensing, GIS, statistics, and atmospheric modeling with both ground-based and satellite-derived datasets. In the past, I worked at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on a variety of topics from physical oceanography to paleoceanography to organic biogeochemistry: 1) identifying autumn-lead global sea surface salinity predictors for prediction of winter precipitation in southwestern United States; 2) reconstructing the strength of the biological pump with carbon isotopes of benthic and planktonic foraminifera in the North Pacific in the last 600,000 years; and 3) reconstructing the late Holocene paleoclimate and paleo-vegetation of Middleton Island, Alaska with with n-alkane distributions and hydrogen isotopes. In my spare time, I enjoy poetry, photography, TV/movie/game soundtracks, basketball, ceramics, chess puzzles, and crime dramas.
Conferences/Events
"Measuring Wildfire-Fuel Treatment Outcomes at Large Scales” Workshop
December 4, 2023 in Hyatt Regency Hotel, Monterey, CA
I will present a coding and online app demo on GOES-based wildfire tracking in Google Earth Engine at the "Measuring Wildfire-Fuel Treatment Outcomes at Large Scales” workshop during the 10th Annual International Fire Ecology and Management Congress (info).
EPA Model Applications Weekly Meeting
November 15, 2023
I presented a talk on the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product and its biases and uncertainties compared to ground-based observations and model estimates of smoke at the EPA Model Applications Weekly Meeting.
BBURNED/HTAP Fire Emissions Workshop
November 7-9, 2023
I presented a talk on a comparison of global fire emissions inventories for Indonesia fires on the third day of the workshop (info).
Papers/Writing
Google Earth Engine Book
October 6, 2023
The Google Earth Engine open-access book, "Cloud-Based Remote Sensing with Google Earth Engine" is now published in Springer and available here! Morgan Crowley and I contributed a chapter on "Active Fire Monitoring" (Chapter 46). We did a video walkthrough of our chapter on October 23.
Data-driven placement of PM2.5 air quality sensors in the United States: an approach to target urban environmental injustice
September 13, 2023
Makoto Kelp's paper is published in GeoHealth (main + SI)!
Rapid growth and high cloud-forming potential of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol in a thermal power plant plume during COVID lockdown in India
August 3, 2023
Aishwarya Singh's paper is published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (main + SI)!