Miguel O. Román III

Research Physical Scientist, NASA Goddard
Boston University, Boston, MA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center

Ethnicity: Puerto Rican

Cohort(s):
2006-2007 (Cohort 4)

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Miguel Román is a research physical scientist who in 2009 joined NASA as a civil servant in the Terrestrial Information Systems Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center. He is part of a multi-agency team of Earth scientists in charge of performing algorithm assessments and validation for the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Land Environmental Data Records (EDRs). He currently coordinates NASA's validation and scientific investigations in support of NPP-VIIRS Land EDRs. He is also a science team member for NASA’s Cloud Absorption Radiometer, the most frequently used airborne instrument built in-house at GSFC. He was a PhD Candidate at Boston University’s Center for Remote Sensing and also holds a Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

His research was centrally concerned with the development and application of satellite remote sensing and geospatial techniques to measure and monitor global biophysical variables, as well as producing long term and consistent land surface parameters for modeling studies that seek to understand the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes.

His work focused on improving satellite retrievals of surface albedo -- a quantity that measures the amount of solar energy leaving the Earth's surface. Human activities (such as farming, urbanization, and deforestation) have changed the albedo of several regions across our Planet. The problem is that scientists haven't figured out whether these activities have tended to increase or decrease the radiative forcing (a warming effect) associated to global climate change.

My goal was to improve measurements of surface albedo by collecting, processing, and analyzing a whole slew of field, tower, aircraft, and satellite measurements at several field stations in the Continental US. I have been particularly interested in assessing the accuracy of these measurements at the spatial and temporal scales adopted by the global modeling community to better understand how natural landscapes and human-driven scenarios are influencing these models.

Hobbies: Hiking, scuba diving, cooking, reading, modern history

Academic Disciplines:
Atmospheric Sciences  (PRIMARY)
Spatial/Geographic Information Systems  (PRIMARY)
Statistics  (PRIMARY)
Computer & Electrical Engineering
Computer Sciences
Forestry
Geography
International Experience
Sensor Science & Engineering
STEM Fields

Research Interests:
Climate Change  (PRIMARY)
Remote Sensing  (PRIMARY)
Spatial Engineering  (PRIMARY)
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Climatology
Forest Ecology
Image Processing
Meteorology
Modeling
Risk Engineering & Management

Last Updated: 6/15/2008
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