Continued warming in the boreal and Arctic areas has caused widespread soil thawing and permafrost degradation. Degradation of permafrost will cause changes in terrestrial water storage from surface to below-surface storage, which will trigger profound changes to almost every aspect of the biophysical system. Therefore, my current and future research is focusing on how to integrate multi-scale observations (mostly remote sensing data) and numerical models to better quantify these changes at different scales and characterize the potential impact on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

• PhD, Remote Sensing of Hydrology, Tsinghua University, China (2008)
• Msci, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Peking University, China (2005)
• BE, Hydrology and Water Resources, Wuhan University, China (2002)

• Soil freeze-thaw dynamics and permafrost hydrology
• Permafrost carbon feedback and Arctic carbon cycle
• Cold region science

• Research Scientist at JPL (2018-present)
• Research Scientist, University of Montana (2009-2018)
• Postdoctoral researcher, University of Manitoba (2008-2009)

• Scientific Committee Member of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2014-present.
• Panel review for NSF Polar Programs (2016), NASA Water Resources Earth Science Applications (2014), NASA Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science (2013).
• Journal review for Nature Geoscience, JGR-Atmospheres, Geoscientific Model Development, Global Change Biology, ERL, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, etc.

1. Jiang, H., Zhang, W., Yi, Y., Yang, K., Li, G., Wang, G.: The impacts of soil freeze/thaw dynamics on soil water transfer and spring phenology in the Tibetan Plateau. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, in press.
2. Yi, Y., Kimball, J.S., Chen, R., Moghaddam, M., Reichle, R.H., Mishra, U., Zona, D., Oechel, W.: Characterizing permafrost soil active layer dynamics and sensitivity to landscape spatial heterogeneity in Alaska. The Cryosphere, 12, 145-161, 2018.
3. Wang, J., Dong, J., Yi, Y. et al.: Decreasing net primary production due to drought and slight decreases in solar radiation in China from 2000 to 2012. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 122, doi:10.1002/2016JG003417. 2017.
4. Zhang, W., Yi, Y., Song, K., Kimball, J.S.: Hydrological sensitivity of alpine wetlands to climate warming in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Remote Sensing, 8, 336, 2016.
5. Yi, Y., Kimball, J. S., Rawlins, M. A., Moghaddam, M., Euskirchen, E. S.: The role of snow cover affecting boreal-arctic soil freeze-thaw and carbon dynamics, Biogeosciences, 12, 5811-5829, 2015.
6. Zhang, W., Yi, Y., Kimball, J.S., Kim, Y.: Climatic controls on spring onset of Tibetan Plateau grasslands from 1982 to 2008. Remote Sensing, 7(12), 16607-16622, 2015.
7. Yi, Y., Kimball, J. S., Reichle, R. H.: Spring hydrology determines summer net carbon uptake in northern ecosystems, Environmental Research Letters, 9, 064003, 2014.
8. Yi, Y., Kimball, J. S., Jones, L. A., Reichle, R. H., Nemani, R., Margolis, H. A.: Recent climate and fire disturbance impacts on boreal and arctic ecosystem productivity estimated using a satellite-based terrestrial carbon flux model, Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 118, 606-622, 2013.
9. McGuire, A. D. et al. (including Yi, Y.): An assessment of the carbon balance of Arctic tundra: comparisons among observations, process models, and atmospheric inversions, Biogeosciences, 9, 3185-3204, doi:10.5194/bg-9-3185-2012, 2012.
10. Yi, Y., Kimball, J. S., Jones, L. A., Reichle, R. H., McDonald, K. C.: Evaluation of MERRA land surface estimates in preparation for the Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission, Journal of Climate, 24, 3797-3816, 2011.
11. Yi, Y. and Yang, D.: An operational method to estimate evapotranspiration using MODIS data during winter wheat growing season, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32, 4915-4932, 2011.
12. Yi, Y., Yang, D., Huang, J., Chen, D.: Evaluation of MODIS surface reflectance products for wheat leaf area index (LAI) retrieval, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 63, 661-677, 2008.