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Abhishek Chatterjee

Photo of Abhishek Chatterjee

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Website:

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Member of:

Carbon Cycle And Ecosystems

Project Scientist for OCO-3 and Deputy Project Scientist for OCO-2

Biography

Dr. Chatterjee is an expert in carbon cycle science, Earth system models, and utilization of remote-sensing data for tackling large-scale geophysical problems. His research focuses on understanding the interactions between climate variability and the carbon cycle, globally in key regions of change, such as the high latitudes and the Tropics, and locally over urban areas and megacities. Dr. Chatterjee is part of multiple NASA mission and science Teams. He has also served on multiple synthesis reports, including the 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2), the 5th National Climate Assessment (NCA5) and is currently serving as one of the lead authors for the Third Decadal U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan.

Dr. Chatterjee is currently the Project Scientist for the OCO-3 mission and the Deputy Project Scientist for the OCO-2 mission.

Education

  • B.E., Civil and Environmental Engineering, Delhi College of Engineering, (2002-2006)
  • M.S., Environmental Engineering, The University of Michigan, (2007-2008)
  • Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, The University of Michigan, (2009-2012)

Professional Experience

  • Project Scientist, OCO-3 and Deputy Project Scientist, OCO-2, 2022-Present
  • Scientist, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Group, Earth Science Section, 2021-Present
  • Senior Scientist and Group Lead, USRA/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 2019-2021
  • Scientist, USRA/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 2015-2019
  • NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 2013-2014

Community Service

(Selected few – please see CV for details)

  • Committee Chair and/or Committee Member Roles for AGU and AMS
    • Member, Atmospheric Sciences Fall Committee Meeting, Student Travel Grants, American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2024–present
    • Chair, Charles S. Falkenberg Award Selection Committee, American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2019–2023
    • Conference Co-Chair, Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry, AMS Annual Meeting, 2021–2024
  • North American Carbon Program (NACP) and US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP)
    • Co-lead, Third Decadal U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan
    • Co-chair. NACP Science Leadership Group
    • Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group, U.S. Global Change Research Program
    • Chapter co-lead, 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2), “Chapter 19 - Future of the North American Carbon Cycle
    • Chapter coauthor, Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), “Chapter 3 – Climate Trends"
  • World Meteorological Organization and World Climate Research Programme
    • Member, Expert Team on the Atmospheric Composition Network Design and Evolution, Environmental Pollution and Atmospheric Chemistry Scientific Steering Committee (EPAC SSC), WMO
    • Member, Global Emissions Initiative (GEIA), Near Real Time (NRT) Emissions Exper Workgroup
    • Affliate Member, Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity, Understanding High-Risk Events and Perturbed Carbon Cycle, WCRP
  • Journal Editorial Roles
    • Editor, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Copernicus GmbH
    • Associate Editor, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT), Copernicus GmbH
    • Associate Editor, Data-driven Climate Sciences, Frontiers in Big Data, Frontier
  • Session Convener and Chair Duties
    • American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting
      • The Resilience and Vulnerability of Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems to Climate Change, 2017 - present
      • Constraining Biosphere-Atmosphere Exchange Processes using Remote-sensing and In Situ Observations, 2011 – present
    • American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting
      • Greenhouse Gases, 2015 – present
  • Scientific Research Proposal Review Panel Member, DOE, ERC, NOAA, NASA programs

Research Interests

  • Understanding the interactions between climate and the carbon cycle, with specific focus on the response of the carbon cycle to extreme events and disturbances
  • Understanding the linkages between the carbon and the water cycle over ‘tipping-point’ regions, such as the Northern high-latitudes, by exploiting the synergy between remote-sensing missions and field campaigns
  • Improving accounting of local and urban greenhouse gas emission estimates using space-based observations to support national and sub-national policy and decision-making process
  • Developing and implementing Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSE) to define NASA’s next generation of missions for observing greenhouse gases from space

Selected Awards

  • JPL Team Award, JPL, 2024
  • JPL Voyager Award, JPL, 2022
  • NASA Group Achievement Award, ABoVE Airborne Science Campaign, NASA, 2018
  • NASA Group Achievement Award, OCO-2 Core Science Team, NASA, 2018
  • GESTAR Excellence Award, Universities Space Research Association, 2018
  • Outstanding Scientific Contribution by a new GMAO member, NASA Goddard Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, 2017
  • AAAS/Science Program for Excellence in Science Recipient, 2012-2014
  • Distinguished Leadership Award, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, 2008

Selected Publications

  1. Moeni, O. et al. (2025) Quantifying CO2 emissions from smaller anthropogenic point sources using OCO-2 Target and OCO-3 Snapshot Area Mapping mode observations, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, doi: 10.1029/2024JD042333
  2. Virkkala, A. et al. (2025) Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic-boreal CO2 uptake, Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/s41558-024-02234-5
  3. Feldman, A. et al. (2024) Large global scale vegetation sensitivity to daily rainfall variability, Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08232-z
  4. Madani, N. et al. (2024) A machine learning approach to produce a continuous solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence dataset for understanding ocean productivity, Journal of Geophysical Research - Machine Learning and Computation, 1 (4), e2024JH000215, doi: 10.1029/2024JH000215
  5. Liu, Z. et al. (2024) Seasonal CO2 amplitude in northern high latitudes, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 5, 802–817, doi:10.1038/s43017-024-00600-7
  6. Hugelius, G. et al. (2024) Two decades of permafrost region CO2, CH4, and N2O budgets suggest a small net greenhouse gas source to the atmosphere, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 38, e2023GB007969, doi: 10.1029/2023GB007969
  7. Byrne, B. et al. (2024) Carbon emissions from the 2023 Canadian wildfires, Nature, 633, 835–839, doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07878-z
  8. Zhu, X. et al. (2024) A synthesized field survey database of vegetation and active-layer properties for the Alaskan tundra (1972–2020), Earth System Science Data, 16, 3687–3703, doi:10.5194/essd-16-3687-2024
  9. Pandey, S. et al. (2024) Toward Low-Latency Estimation of Atmospheric CO2 Growth Rates Using Satellite Observations: Evaluating Sampling Errors of Satellite and In Situ Observing Approaches, AGU Advances, 5, e2023AV001145, doi:10.1029/2023AV001145
  10. Treat, C. et al. (2024) Permafrost carbon: progress on understanding controls, stocks, and fluxes across northern terrestrial ecosystems, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, doi: 10.1029/2023JG007638
  11. Jacobs, N. et al. (2024) The importance of digital elevation model accuracy in XCO2 retrievals: improving the OCO-2 ACOS v11 product, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, doi: 10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024
  12. Murray-Tortarolo, G. et al. (2024) A Greenhouse Gas Budget for Mexico during 2000-2019, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, doi: 10.1029/2023JG007667
  13. Gaubert, B. et al. (2023) Neutral tropical African CO2 exchange estimated from aircraft and satellite observations, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, doi: 10.1029/2023GB007804
  14. Marvel, K. et al. (2023) Ch. 2. Climate trends. In: Fifth National Climate Assessment. Crimmins, A.R., C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock, Eds. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA. doi:10.7930/NCA5.2023.CH2
  15. Taylor, T. E. et al. (2023) Evaluating the consistency between OCO-2 and OCO-3 XCO2 estimates derived from the NASA ACOS version 10 retrieval algorithm, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 16, 3173–3209, doi:10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023
  16. Feldman, A. et al. (2023) A multi-satellite framework to rapidly evaluate extreme biosphere cascades: The Western US 2021 drought and heatwave, Global Change Biology, doi: 10.1111/gcb.16725
  17. Ramonet, M., A. Chatterjee, et al. (2023), CO₂ in the Atmosphere, Growth and Trends Since 1850, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.863
  18. Feldman, A. et al. (2023) Remotely sensed soil moisture can capture dynamics relevant to plant water uptake, Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2022WR033814
  19. Byrne, B. et al. (2023) National CO2 budgets (2015–2020) inferred from atmospheric CO2 observations in support of the Global Stocktake, Earth System Science Data, doi: 10.5194/essd-2022-213
  20. Feldman, A. et al. (2023) Using OCO-2 column CO2 retrievals to rapidly detect and estimate biospheric surface carbon flux anomalies, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi: 10.5194/acp-23-1545-2023
  21. Nassar, R. et al. (2022) Tracking CO2 emission reductions from space: A case study at Europe’s largest fossil fuel power plant, Frontiers in Remote Sensing, doi: 10.3389/frsen.2022.1028240
  22. Keller, G. R. et al. (2022) Inflight Radiometric Calibration and Performance of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) for Version 10 Products, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 60, pp. 1-18, 2022, Art no. 5413518, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2022.3216825
  23. Feldman, A. et al. (2022) Using OCO-2 column CO2 retrievals to rapidly detect and estimate biospheric surface carbon flux anomalies, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi: 10.5194/acp-2022-506
  24. Murray-Tartorolo, G. et al. (2022) A process-model perspective on recent changes in the carbon cycle of North America, Journal of Geophysical ResearchBiogeosciences, 127, e2022JG006904, doi: 10.1029/2022JG006904
  25. Byrne, B. et al. (2022) Multiyear observations reveal a larger than expected autumn respiration signal across northeast Eurasia, Biogeosciences, doi: 10.5194/bg-2022-40
  26. Zhang, Z. et al. (2022) Effect of Assimilating SMAP Soil Moisture on CO2 and CH4 Fluxes through Direct Insertion in a Land Surface Model, Remote Sensing, 14(10), doi: doi.org/10.3390/rs14102405
  27. Ma, L. et al. (2022) Global Evaluation of the Ecosystem Demography Model (ED v3.0), Geoscientific Model Development, doi:10.5194/gmd-2021-292
  28. Taylor, T. et al. (2022) An 11-year record of GOSAT XCO2 measurements from the NASA ACOS build 9 retrieval algorithms: bias correction against TCCON and models, and comparison to OCO2, Earth System Science Data, 14, 325–360, doi:10.5194/essd-14-325-2022
  29. Lovenduski, N. et al. (2021) On the detection of COVID driven changes in atmospheric CO2, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2021GL095396
  30. Zhang, Z. et al. (2021) Anthropogenic emission is the main contribution to the rise of atmospheric methane during 1993-2017, National Science Reviews, doi:10.1093/nsr/nwab200
  31. Sweeney, C. et al. (2021), Atmospheric carbon cycle dynamics over the ABoVE domain: an integrated analysis using aircraft observations (Arctic-CAP) and model simulations (GEOS), Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi: 10.5194/acp-2020-609
  32. Laughner, J. et al. (2021) Societal shifts due to COVID-19 reveal large scale complexities and feedbacks between atmospheric chemistry and climate change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2109481118
  33. Weir, B. et al. (2021) Regional impacts of COVID-19 on carbon dioxide detected from space, Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf9415
  34. Madani, N., et al. (2021), The impacts of climate and wildfire on ecosystem Gross Primary Productivity in Alaska, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, doi: 10.1029/2020JG006078
  35. Weir, B. et al. (2021), Calibrating satellite-derived carbon fluxes for retrospective and near real-time assimilation systems, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, doi:10.5194/acp-2020-496
  36. Bruhwiler, L. et al. (2021) Observations of greenhouse gases as climate indicators, Climatic Change, 165 (12), doi: 10.1007/s10584-021-03001-7
  37. Crowell, S. et al. (2019) The 2015–2016 carbon cycle as seen from OCO-2 and the global in situ network, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19, 9797–9831, doi:10.5194/acp-19-9797-2019
  38. Huntzinger, D. N. et al. (2018) "Chapter 19: Future of the North American Carbon Cycle." In Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report, doi:10.7930/soccr2. 2018.ch19
  39. Jacobson, A. R. et al. (2018) "Chapter 8: Observations of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Methane. " In Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report, doi: 10.7930/soccr2.2018.ch8
  40. Zhang, Z. et al. (2018), Enhanced response of global wetland methane emissions to recent El Niño-Southern Oscillation events, Environmental Research Letters, 13(7), doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aac939
  41. Fisher, J. B. et al. (2018), Missing pieces to modeling the Arctic-Boreal puzzle, Environmental Research Letters, 13(2), 020202, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aa9d9a
  42. Chatterjee, A., et al. (2017), Influence of El Niño on atmospheric CO2 over the tropical Pacific Ocean: findings from NASA’s OCO-2 mission, Science, 358 (6360), doi:10.1126/science.aam 5776
  43. Eldering, A., et al. (2017), Evaluation of the flux of carbon dioxide to and from the atmosphere: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 Early Science Investigations, Science, 358 (6360), doi: 10.1126/science. aam5745
  44. Patra, P., et al. (2017), Orbiting carbon observatory (OCO-2) tracks 2-3 peta-grams increase of carbon release to the atmosphere during the 2014-2016 El Niño, Scientific Reports – Nature, 7, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13459-0