The Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG) operates as a Research Center of Excellence under the University of Montana (UM) Office of Research & Creative Scholarship. Founded in 1987 within the UM College of Forestry & Conservation, NTSG is a nexus for UM research and technology development in satellite remote sensing and Earth system science. Our primary mission is to advance knowledge of ecosystem structure, function & resiliency through emerging technologies in remote sensing & computational modeling, grounded in the biophysical sciences. Our facilities are located on the 4th floor of the Interdisciplinary Science Building (ISB) on the UM campus.
Highlighted Recent Publications
NTSG researchers generate yearly over 20 peer-reviewed publications that receive over 7,500 citations during that same period. Above is a map of the distribution of downloaded publications over the last 5 years. Below are links to some of our most recent highlighted publications
- Decoupling of greenness and gross primary productivity as aridity decreases
- A framework to integrate innovations in invasion science for proactive management
- Earlier snowmelt may lead to late season declines in plant productivity and carbon sequestration in Arctic tundra ecosystems.
- DroughtCast: A Machine Learning Forecast of the United States Drought Monitor.
- Soil respiration is strongly reducing the Arctic-boreal carbon sink for atmospheric CO2
- A new satellite record of ENSO flood and drought impacts on global vegetation health
- Satellite monitoring of global surface soil organic carbon dynamics using the SMAP Level 4 Carbon product.
- Monitoring crop status in the Continental United States using the SMAP Level 4 Carbon product.
- Recent amplified global gross primary productivity due to temperature increase is offset by reduced productivity due to water constraints.
- IrrMapper: A machine learning approach for high resolution mapping of irrigated agriculture across the Western U.S.
- Increasing riverine heat flux triggers Arctic sea-ice decline and oceanic and atmospheric warming.
- Methane emission from high latitude lakes: methane-centric lake classification and satellite-driven annual cycle of emissions
- Multispectral high resolution sensor fusion for smoothing and gap-filling in the cloud
- Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across the northern permafrost region
- Role of surface melt and icing events in livestock mortality across Mongolia’s semi-arid landscapes
- Evaluation of real-time global flood modeling with satellite surface inundation observations from SMAP
- Increased high-latitude photosynthetic carbon gain offset by respiration carbon loss during an anomalous warm winter to spring transition
- Multi-component satellite assessment of drought severity in the contiguous United States from 2002 to 2017 using AMSR-E and AMSR2
- Impacts of the 2017 flash drought in the US Northern Plains informed by satellite-based evapotranspiration and solar-induced fluorescence
- Characterizing the impact of climatic and price anomalies on agrosystems in the northwest United States
NTSG supports several NASA satellite Earth missions and is a leader in developing operational algorithms, data products and science applications for these missions. We are a NASA Earth Science Information Partner(ESIP), developer and repository for a variety of global land data products from satellite Earth missions, including MODIS (MOD16/17) vegetation productivity and evapotranspiration, AMSR land parameters, and SMAP (L4C) carbon flux products. Access our data through the Projects and Data page.
NTSG teaching/instruction emphasizes research training for postdocs and GRAs in the skills needed to become effective research scientists in ecological remote sensing and modeling. These skills include writing competitive research proposals; writing and publishing research papers in the peer-reviewed literature; application of geospatial software and computer programming for processing and analyzing large global satellite datasets; management of interdisciplinary research projects and field campaigns. We provide our GRAs and postdoctoral scholars with state-of-the-art remote sensing data and science computing facilities; opportunities for travel, science leadership and networking, and presenting their work at national and international workshops.
For aditional information on:
- GRAs email NTSG at info@ntsg.umt.edu
- Postdoc applications are found on the NTSG Jobs page
- Current class information is found at the NTSG Teaching page
