Conferences/Events
Climate Dynamics Group, University of British Columbia
April 29, 2025 in Vancouver, BC, Canada
I presented a talk on "Building a data-driven framework for modeling large wildfire growth: Mapping fire progression and understanding drivers of fire spread" for the Climate Dynamics Group at UBC.
Earth Lab, University of Colorado, Boulder
March 18, 2025 (virtual)
I presented a talk on "Building a data-driven framework for modeling large wildfire growth: Mapping fire progression and understanding drivers of fire spread" for the Earth Lab Environmental Data Science Seminar Series. (abstract)
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2024
December 9, 2024 at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
I presented a talk on "Building a modeling framework to untangle the influence of suppression on wildfire growth in California" on Monday morning (9:45-9:55 AM), December 9 (abstract, profile).
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
October 8, 2024 in La Jolla, CA
I presented a talk on "Building a data-driven framework for modeling large wildfire growth: Mapping fire progression and understanding the role of suppression and other drivers of fire spread" for the Scripps Climate and Atmosphere Seminar Series.
CUHK, SUSTech, and NUIST
September 16-23, 2024 in Hong Kong; Shenzhen and Nanjing, China
I presented a talk on "Fires and Society: Connections to Air Quality, Public Health, and Land Use and Management: Excerpts from India, Equatorial Asia, and North America" at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), and Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST).
Spatial Informatics Group Webinar Series
September 13, 2024 (virtual)
I presented a talk on "The SMOKE Policy Tool: Scientific framework for evaluating public health impacts from fires" for the webinar series hosted by the Spatial Informatics Group (SIG) on "Lessons learned on Wildfire Risk Mapping, Integrated Fire Management Systems and Value Chain Assessments from Northern Thailand (and Globally)."
UBC Wildfire Forecast Research Team (WFRT) Seminar
July 25, 2024 (virtual)
I presented a talk on "Toward modeling the hourly growth of large wildfires with a suite of meteorological, human, and land-based controls" for the UBC Wildfire Forecast Research Team (WFRT) Seminar.
NOAA Summer Institute
July 16, 2024 in Steamboat Springs, CO
I presented a talk on "Toward modeling the hourly growth of large wildfires with a suite of meteorological, human, and land-based controls" at the NOAA Summer Institute as part of the NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellowship program.
SIAM Conference for Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE24)
June 11, 2024 at Hilton Hotel, Portland, OR
I presented a talk on "Toward modeling the hourly growth of large wildfires with a suite of meteorological, human, and land-based controls" for the Mini-symposium on
"Advances in the Numerical and Statistical Modeling of Wildland Fires" at the SIAM Conference for Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE24).
Climate and Wildfire Related Air Quality and Public Health Impacts Workshop
May 16-17, 2024 at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
I attended the "Climate and Wildfire Related Air Quality and Public Health Impacts Workshop" as part of the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge at UCLA and served as a panelist for the "Making the Models Work: Leveraging Observational and Modeling Data to Study Public Health Impacts" session. (agenda)
7th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference
April 15-19, 2024 at The Boise Center, Boise, ID
I presented a lightning talk on "Leveraging geostationary satellite observations for hourly mapping of large fire progression" on April 16 at the NASA booth.
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2023
December 11-15, 2023 at Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA
This year, I co-convened the session B31L Prescribed Fires and Land Management in North America (Posters). I presented a poster on "Active Fire Line as a Key Control on Hourly Fire Growth for Predictive Modeling" on Wednesday morning, December 13 (abstract).
"Measuring Wildfire-Fuel Treatment Outcomes at Large Scales” Workshop
December 4, 2023 at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Monterey, CA
I presented 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 NOAA's 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).
Stanford ECHO Lab
October 16, 2023 at Stanford University, Stanford, CA
I presented a talk on our recent work on GOES-based fire tracking and evaluation of the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product at the ECHO Lab at Stanford University.
Geo for Good Summit 2023
October 10-12, 2023 at Google, Mountain View, CA
I presented a lightning talk on GOES-based fire tracking at Geo for Good this year (info, recordings).
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wildland Fires Workshop
September 13-15, 2023 at Keck Center, Washington D.C.
I attended a National Academies workshop on "Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wildland Fires: Toward Improved Monitoring, Modeling, and Management." I moderated an in-person Breakout Session on Day 2.
AGU Atmospheric Science Early Career Webinar
August 22, 2023
I presented a talk on "Detection of Cascading Delays in the Monsoon Rice-growing Season and Post-monsoon Agricultural Burning in Punjab, India" at part of the AGU Atmospheric Science Early Career Webinar series. Please see the details here.
ACCESS XVII, Gordon Conference for Atmospheric Chemistry
July 27-August 4, 2023 in Upton, NY and Newry, ME
I was selected as a participant for the Seventeenth Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS XVII). I presented a talk at Brookhaven National Laboratory on my PhD work and a poster at the Gordon Conference for Atmospheric Chemistry on my postdoctoral work.
USFS NOAA Fire Weather Research MOU Working Group Meeting
July 25, 2023
I presented an invited virtual talk on "Systematically Tracking the Hourly Progression of Large Wildfires Using GOES."
14th Fire and Forest Meteorology Conference
May 2, 2023 at Royal Sonesta, Minneapolis, MN
I presented a talk on "Developing an Hourly Fire Progression Database for Large California Wildfires: Application for Modeling Fire Spread Rate" on May 2 (abstract).
Invited Seminar Talk at USC Department of Earth Sciences
March 27, 2023 at USC, Los Angeles, CA
I recently visited USC as the invited speaker for the Department of Earth Sciences' weekly seminar. My talk was on the "Development and Applications of an Hourly Fire Progression Database for Large California Wildfires."
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2022
December 12-16, 2022 at McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL
This year, I co-convened the session A34B/35J/42B/43A Aerosols and Air Quality over South and Southeast Asia: Observations, Modeling, and Impacts (Oral I, Oral II, Posters). I presented a talk on "Cascading delays in the monsoon rice growing season and post-monsoon agricultural fires likely exacerbate air pollution in North India" on Friday afternoon, December 16 (B56D-06: abstract) and a poster on "Assessment of digitized satellite wildfire smoke plumes with airport observations across the contiguous United States and Alaska from 2008-2021" on Thursday morning, December 15 (GH42A-25: abstract, iPoster).
Geo for Good Summit 2022
October 4-6, 2022 at Google, Mountain View, CA
I attended this year's Geo for Good Summit! (info)
10th International GEOS-Chem Meeting
June 6-10, 2022 at Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
I presented a poster (June 7) on "Smoke in the western United States: a comparison between satellite and airport observations." (poster, IGC10)
PhD Dissertation Defense
May 26, 2022 at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
I passed my dissertation defense and received my PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences! My dissertation is entitled: "Modeling the impact of human-driven fires on air quality from regional and global perspectives."
NOAA Climate & Global Change Fellowship
March 31, 2022
I will start as a NOAA C&GC Postdoctoral Fellow in August 2022 at UC Irvine with Jim Randerson!
Geo for Good Lightning Talks Series #1
April 8, 2021
I recorded a 3-minute lightning talk on my FIRECAM and HMS Smoke apps for the Geo for Good Lightning Talk Series #1 on Earth Engine Apps (recording)!
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2020
December 7-11, 2020 at Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA
This year, I again co-convened a (virtual) session with Shradda Dhungel and Ritesh Gautam: Aerosols and Air Pollution Extremes in South and Southeast Asia on December 15 (talks, posters). I also presented a talk on "Human-driven temporal shifts in fire activity: southwest Russia and north Australia as case study regions" on December 8 (abstract + recorded talk).
Geo for Good Summit 2020
October 20-21, 2020
I (virtually) attended this year's Geo for Good Summit! (info)
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019
December 9-13, 2019 at Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA
This year, I co-convened session A13M/23C with Shradda Dhungel and Ritesh Gautam: Air Pollution Extremes in South and Southeast Asia: Observations, Modelling, and Impact Studies (talks, posters). I presented a poster on "Revised estimates of agricultural fire emissions for Punjab, India: bridging gaps in satellite observations using household survey data" on Tuesday afternoon, December 10 (abstract).
Graduate Climate Conference 2019
November 7-10, 2019 at WHOI, Woods Hole, MA
I presented a poster on "Detection of delay in post-monsoon agricultural burning across Punjab, India: potential drivers and consequences for air quality."
Science-A-Thon 2019
October 14-18, 2019
Like last year, I participated in Science-A-Thon. I tweeted about my #DayOfScience on Thursday, Oct. 17.
Geo for Good Summit 2019
September 16-19, 2019 at Google, Sunnyvale, CA
I did a demo pod on the SMOKE Policy Tool on Wednesday, Sep. 18 from 6-6:30PM and participated in a Build-a-thon project on "Fires in the Amazon: characterizing the relationship between fires, deforestation, and land use." (info)
9th International GEOS-Chem Meeting
May 6-9, 2019 at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
I presented a poster (6-8PM, Monday, May 6) on "Diagnosing spatial biases and uncertainties in global fire emissions inventories: Indonesia as regional case study." (poster, IGC9)
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2018
December 10-14, 2018 at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C.
I presented a talk (4:41-4:55PM, Wednesday, Dec. 12) on "Consequences for regional air quality from temporal shifts in post-monsoon agricultural burning associated with the double-crop cycle of Punjab, India." (abstract)
Air Pollution Extremes Workshop
November 1-2, 2018 at Columbia University, New York, NY
I presented a poster on "Temporal shifts in post-monsoon agricultural fires associated with the double-crop cycle of Punjab, India."
Science-A-Thon 2018
October 15-19, 2018
I tweeted about my #DayOfScience on Thursday, Oct. 18 for #EarthDay during Science-A-Thon 2018. The purpose of Science-A-Thon is to raise money for the Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN). During Science-A-Thon, scientists share what they do daily in the lab or field on Twitter!
Google Earth Engine User Summit 2018
June 11-14, 2018 at Google, Dublin, Ireland
I attended my first Google Earth Engine summit! (workshop sessions). Here's a blog post written by the GEE team that has some recorded videos of the breakout sessions.
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2017
December 11-15, 2017 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, LA
I presented two talks on Tuesday, Dec. 12: 1) A multi-sensor burned area algorithm for crop residue burning in northwestern India: validation and sources of error (abstract), and 2) Sea surface salinity and temperature-based predictive modeling of southwestern US winter precipitation: improvements, errors, and potential mechanisms (abstract).
“Clearing up the Haze: New Research on Southeast Asian Pollution”
Monday, April 3, 2017 (4:15-5:30PM) at International Affairs Building, Room 918, Columbia University, New York, NY
Hosted by the Columbia Weatherhead East Asian Institude. Lecture and discussion on results from ongoing projects and our 2016 ERL paper, "Public health impacts of the severe haze in Equatorial Asia in September-October 2015: Demonstration of a new framework for informing fire management strategies to reduce downwind smoke exposure," which was a joint Harvard-Columbia study led by Shannon Koplitz. (event details)
Inaugural Planetary Health/GeoHealth Annual Meeting
April 29-30, 2017 at Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
I presented a poster in the "Global Pollution" category on the results from my work on the contributions of agricultural fires to air quality in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Pune and my senior thesis work on estimating winter agricultural burned area in northwestern India to build a new emissions inventory and reevalute public health impacts. (abstract)
Papers/Writing
Started as an Assistant Professor at UBC!
January 1, 2025
I started as an Assistant Professor at UBC Geography! Here is an article by our communications manager, Leslie Kennah, about my research. I am also a Faculty Associate of the Institute for Resrouces, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES) at UBC.
The Washington Post and NASA Earth Observatory highlight our research on agricultural fires and air pollution in north India
November 22, 2024 and January 22, 2025
Our research over the past few years on agricultural fires and air pollution in north India is highlighted in articles in The Washington Post by Karishma Mehrotra and NASA Earth Observatory by Adam Voiland. Check it out here and here! Related papers include Liu et al. (2022, JGR: Atmos.), Liu et al. (2021, ERL), Liu et al. (2020, Atmos. Environ. X), Liu et al. (2018, Atmos. Environ.), Cusworth et al. (2018, ERL) Lan et al. (2022, Nat. Commun.), and Gautam et al. (2023, GRL).
A Guide for Applying to Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions
October 10, 2024
Makoto Kelp and I, along with Minghao Qiu, and Dien Wu, wrote a comprehensive guide on applying to tenure-track Assistant Professor positions, mainly for Earth and Environmental Sciences. Yun Hang recently contributed some perspectives for Environmental Health positions. Check it out here!
Is the smoke aloft? Caveats regarding the use of the Hazard Mapping System (HMS) smoke product as a proxy for surface smoke presence across the United States
October 2, 2024
Our paper is published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire (main + SI)! Check out my HMS Smoke Explorer for visualizing the HMS smoke and fire products.
Air pollution and blood pressure: Evidence from Indonesia
July 2, 2024
Jaime Madrigano's paper is published in GeoHealth (main + SI)!
Systematically tracking the hourly progression of large wildfires using GOES satellite observations
March 15, 2024
Our paper is published in Earth System Science Data (main + SI)! The GOFER product associated with our paper is available on Zenodo and can be visualized on Earth Engine Apps. For all of our fire tracking datasets, please visit the UCI and NASA EIS websites.
Improved estimates of smoke exposure during Australia fire seasons: Importance of quantifying plume injection heights
March 7, 2024
Xu Feng's paper is published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (main + SI)!
Google Earth Engine Book
October 6, 2023
The open-access book, "Cloud-Based Remote Sensing with Google Earth Engine" is now published by 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 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Please visit the book's website for more info.
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)!
Prescribed burns as a tool to mitigate future wildfire smoke exposures: Lessons for states and environmental justice communities
June 14, 2023
Makoto Kelp's paper is published in Earth's Future (main + SI)! See the corresponding press release from Harvard SEAS.
Background nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over the United States and its implications for satellite observations and trends: effects of nitrate photolysis, aircraft, and open fires
June 7, 2023
Ruijun Dang's paper is published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (main + SI)!
Extreme smog challenge of northern India intensified by increasing lower tropospheric stability
June 6, 2023
Ritesh Gautam and Piyush Patel's paper is published in Geophysical Research Letters (main + SI)! Please see the corresponding press release from EDF and media coverage from Science Magazine, Times of India, and Nature India.
Towards a whole-system framework for wildfire monitoring using Earth observations
December 19, 2022
Morgan Crowley's paper is published in Global Change Biology (main + SI)!
Cascading delays in the monsoon rice growing season and post-monsoon agricultural fires likely exacerbate air pollution in north India
December 15, 2022
Our paper is published in JGR: Atmospheres (main + SI)! See the corresponding press release from Harvard SEAS.
Air quality impacts of crop residue burning in India and mitigation alternatives
November 14, 2022
Ruoyu Lan's paper is published in Nature Communications (main + SI)!
Mittal Institute Profile
May 6, 2022
Harvard's Mittal Institute, where I am currently a Graduate Student Associate, wrote a profile on my research on agricultural fires and air quality in India. Check it out here!
Chemical characterization and source apportionment of organic aerosols in the coastal city of Chennai, India: Impact of marine air masses on aerosol chemical composition and potential for SOA formation
October 14, 2021
Snehitha Kommula's paper is published in ACS: Earth and Space Chemistry (main + SI)!
Excess of COVID-19 cases and deaths due to fine particulate matter exposure during the 2020 wildfires in the United States
August 13, 2021
Our collaborators at Harvard's School of Public Health, Xiaodan Zhou, Kevin Josey, and Francesca Dominici, led our paper published in Science Advances (main + SI)! See Harvard's press releases from SEAS and the School of Public Health.
Mittal Institute July Newsletter
July 9, 2021
Harvard's Mittal Institute, where I am currently a Graduate Student Associate, interviewed me about my research for the July newsletter. Check it out here!
Global search for temporal shifts in fire activity: potential human influence on southwest Russia and north Australia fire seasons
February 4, 2021
Our paper is published in Environmental Research Letters (main + SI)! This work is mentioned by Harvard Gazette in an interview with Loretta Mickley.
Detection and impacts of tiling artifacts in MODIS burned area classification
January 4, 2021
Our paper is published in IOP SciNotes (main + SI)! The Burned Area (BA) Tiling Explorer associated with the paper can be viewed here.
Enhanced aerosol particle growth sustained by high continental chlorine emission in India
November 19, 2020
Sachin Gunthe and Pengfei Liu's paper is published in Nature Geoscience (main + SI)! See articles in Nature Research Chemistry Community, Nature Geoscience News & Views, and Chemistry World for commentary on the paper.
Detection of delay in post-monsoon agricultural burning across Punjab, India: potential drivers and consequences for air quality
November 19, 2020
Our paper is published in Environmental Research Letters (main + SI)!
Crop residue burning practices across north India inferred from household survey data: bridging gaps in satellite observations
October 21, 2020
Our paper is published in Atmospheric Environment: X (main + SI, code)! The dataset associated with the paper, SAGE-IGP agricultural fire emissions in north India, can be downloaded from Harvard Dataverse.
A Bird's-Eye View of Earth: Petabytes of Satellite Data at Our Fingertips
April 14, 2020
I wrote a blog article for Science in the News on Landsat, big data, and remote sensing with Google Earth Engine! (article).
Diagnosing spatial biases and uncertainties in global fire emissions inventories: Indonesia as regional case study
December 9, 2019
Our paper is published in Remote Sensing of Environment in the special issue on "Remote Sensing of Land Change Science with Google Earth Engine" (main + SI, code)! The FIRECAM Tool associated with the paper can be viewed here.
Living in a world of extreme droughts, floods, and storms
September 27, 2019
I wrote a blog article for the special issue on water in Science in the News (article)!
Fires, smoke exposure, and public health: an integrative framework to maximize health benefits from peatland restoration
July 24, 2019
Miriam Marlier's paper is published in GeoHealth (main + SI, code)! The SMOKE Policy Tool associated with the paper can be viewed here.
I traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia to participate in this paper's public dissemination forum! I also presented this work to WRI, WWF, Greenpeace, and BNPB. We published an article on the SMOKE Policy Tool in The Conversation Indonesia on September 9 and on Google Earth and Earth Engine's Medium channel on October 23.
Missing emissions from post-monsoon agricultural fires in northwestern India: regional limitations of MODIS burned area and active fire products
February 26, 2019
Our paper is published in Environmental Research Communications (main + SI, corrigendum)!
@LadiesOfLandsat highlighted our paper for #ManuscriptMonday on December 23, 2019! (Twitter)
Global search for autumn-lead sea surface salinity predictors of winter precipitation in southwestern United States
August 13, 2018
Our paper is published in Geophysical Research Letters (main + SI, PDF)!
Quantifying the influence of agricultural fires in northwest India on urban air pollution in Delhi, India
March 30, 2018
Dan Cusworth's paper is published in Environmental Research Letters (main, SI, press release)!
Seasonal impact of regional outdoor biomass burning on air pollution in three Indian cities: Delhi, Bengaluru, and Pune
November 3, 2017
Our paper is published in Atmospheric Environment (main + SI, SI animations, code)!