Research Professor

Departments of Meteorology and Geography

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah

T: (301) 6SSenior14-5631

Dr. Vincent V. Salomonson was appointed a Research Professor at the University of Utah in 2005.  He brings to the University of Utah substantial depth and breadth of experience spanning nearly 40 years to NASA and the Goddard Space Flight Center relative to developing and applying space technology for basic and applied research studies of Earth system processes and applications enabling Earth resources surveys and management.  He was a Senior Scientist in the Earth Sciences Directorate at the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA from 2001-2005.  He has also been serving as the Science Team Leader for the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) facility instrument called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) that is flying on the EOS Terra and Aqua missions since 1988 to the present.  In that position he is leading a Science Team of over 90 Principal Investigators providing some 40 data products from MODIS to the Earth science and applications communities and performing scientific studies of global and regional land, ocean, and atmospheric processes and trends using MODIS observations.  Prior to being Senior Scientist he served with distinction as the Director of the Earth Sciences Directorate at the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA from 1990-2000.  In that capacity he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating the activities of approximately 300 civil service scientists and engineers in the Directorate who were actively involved in research of the Earth-Atmosphere system using advanced technology along with over 700 supporting contractors, students and visiting faculty.  He  served at Goddard as the Deputy Director for Earth Sciences in the Space and Earth Sciences Directorate (1988-1990), Chief of the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics (1980-1988), Project Scientist for Landsat 4 and 5 (1977-1989), the Head of the Hydrospheric Sciences Branch (1973-1980), and as a research meteorologist (1968-1973).  Prior to coming to Goddard, he spent three years as Weather Officer in the United States Air Force (1959-1962).  His academic training includes a B.S. degree in Agricultural Engineering from Colorado State University (1959), a B.S. degree in Meteorology from the University of Utah (1960), an M.S. degree in Agricultural Engineering from Cornell University (1964), and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University (1968).  His publication record shows over 130 publications in scientific journals, conference proceedings, and NASA reports.

Dr. Salomonson has received numerous recognitions for his work and leadership.  These include the Goddard Exceptional Performance Award (1975) for his work as Chairman of the NASA Sub-discipline Panel for Water Resources, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1976) for outstanding contributions in the practical applications of remote sensing data in the water resources field, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1983) in recognition of his extensive contributions to land remote sensing as Landsat 4 and 5 Project Scientist, the NASA/U.S. Geological Survey William T. Pecora Award (1993) for his overall contributions to satellite remote sensing, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1996) for his leadership of the Goddard Earth Sciences Directorate. In 1993 he received the rank of Meritorious Executive and in 1998 the rank of Distinguished Executive in the Senior Executive Service.  In 2002 he was named a Goddard Senior Fellow and received the William Nordberg Memorial Award from the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Dr. Salomonson has served the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRS-S) in several leadership capacities including being a member of the Executive Administrative Committee ("Ad-Com") for several years and the ASPRS where he was President of that society in 1991/1992.  He was made a Fellow of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) in 1994.   In1999 he was made a Fellow of the IEEE.  He is also a member of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union and serves as an Associate Editor for the Remote Sensing of Environment Journal.

Recent Publications in Refereed Journals

 "An Introduction to MODIS and An Overview of Associated Activities" by V. V. Salomonson, W. Barnes, and E. J. Masuoka (peer-reviewed and accepted for publication).  A  chapter in a book entitled: "Earth Science Satellite Remote Sensing" by J. J. Qu, W. Gao, M. Kafatos, R. E. Murphy and V. V. Salomonson.  Springer-Verlag and Tsinghua University Press, 2005.

"An Approach to Using Snow Areal Depletion Curves Inferred from MODIS and Its Application to Land Surface Modeling in Alaska", S. J. Dery, V. V. Salomonson, M. Stieglitz, D. K. Hall, and I. Appel.  Hydrological Processes, 18  2004.  (Published on-line in Wiley (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI:10.1002/hyp.5784)

"Estimating Fractional Snowcover from MODIS Using the Normalized Difference Snow Index", V. V. Salomonson and I. Appel.  Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 89, pp. 351-360, 2004.

"Status of Terra MODIS and Aqua MODIS", W. L. Barnes, X. Xiong, and V. V. Salomonson.  Advances in Space Research, Vol. 32, No. 11, 2099-2106, 2003

 “Foreword to the EOS Aqua Special Issue”, C. L. Parkinson, M. T. Chahine, C. D. Kummerow, and V. V. Salomonson.  IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 172, 2003.

“On-Orbit Performance of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS): First Year of Data”,  B. Guenther, X. Xiong, V. V. Salomonson, W. L. Barnes, and J. Young, Remote Sensing of Environment , Vol. 83, pp. 16-30, 2002.”

 “MODIS Snow-Cover Products”, D. K. Hall, G. A. Riggs, V. V. Salomonson, N. E. DiGirolamo, and K. J. Bayr ,  Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 83, pp. 181-  194, 2002.

 “Preliminary estimate of calibration of the moderate resolution imaging

      spectroradiometer thermal infrared data using Lake Titicaca”, Z. Wan, Y. Zhang, Z. Li, R. Wang, V. V. Salomonson, A. Yves, R. Bosseno, and J. F. Hanocq, Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 80, pp. 497-515, 2002.

     “Development of a Technique to Assess Snow-Cover Mapping Errors from Space”, D. K. Hall, J. L. Foster, V. V. Salomonson, A. G. Klein, and J.Y.L. Chien, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 39 (No. 2), pp. 432-438, 2001.