CIRES Council of Fellows>

Richard Armstrong

Senior Research Scientist, Interim Director
National Snow and Ice Data Center

E-mail: rlax@nsidc.org
Office: RL-2, #214
Phone: 303-492-1828
Web: http://nsidc.org/research/bios/armstrong.html

Research Interests

Remote sensing of snow, ice, and frozen ground; snow cover and glacier mass/extent as indicators of climate change; properties of avalanche snow; data set and cryospheric product development

Current Research Projects

• Enhancing methods to map global snow cover by combining optical data from MODIS and passive microwave data from AMSR-E
• Mapping glaciers at two spatial resolutions using data from ASTER (60 m) and MODIS (500 m)
• Investigating temporal and spatial snow cover distribution over the Tibetan Plateau and the synoptic patterns contributing to extreme winter snowfall events
• Studying microwave sensor calibration: Developing a systematic method to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of brightness temperatures over selected land surface types (ice sheets and tropical forests) to locate stable calibration targets
• Managing the NSIDC "State of the Cryosphere" Web site
• Passive Microwave Snow Cover Algorithm Intercomparison and Validation
• Investigation of the Seasonal Freeze/Thaw Cycle of Soils in the GEWEX American Prediction Program Regions
• A Regional, Integrated Monitoring System for the Hydrology of the Pan-Arctic Land Mass