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Sudhanshu Pandey

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Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Tropospheric Composition

Scientist

Biography

Sudhanshu Pandey is a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research focus is on improving the understanding and modeling capability of climate and atmosphere. His work focuses on atmospheric trace gases like methane and carbon dioxide contributing to climate change and atmospheric pollution. He uses satellite remote sensing and numerical modeling techniques to estimate and understand surface emissions, atmospheric transport, and chemical processes. He is passionate about theoretical scientific advances to enhance the effectiveness of modern state-of-the-art observations for climate change prediction and emission mitigation monitoring.

Education

  • Ph.D., Physics, Utrecht University (2017)
  • BS-MS, Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Kolkata, India (2012)

Professional Experience

  • Scientist - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2022 - Present)
  • Scientist, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Leiden, The Netherlands. 2016-2022.

Community Service

  • Reviewer for scientific journals.
  • Reviewer for research proposals.
  • Mentoring students.

Research Interests

  • Carbon Emissions Monitoring: Focuses on monitoring emissions of methane and carbon dioxide.
  • Remote Sensing: Uses GOSAT, OCO-2, OCO-3, and TROPOMI to observe atmospheric gases.
  • Plume Detection: Utilizes EMIT, Sentinel-2, Landsat, AVIRIS-NG, and PRISMA.
  • Atmospheric Transport Modeling: Employs Global (TM5) and regional (WRF-CHEM) atmospheric chemical transport models.
  • Data Assimilation: Implements Bayesian methods, variational, and analytical flux inversion.
  • Machine Learning: Utilizes deep learning tools to detect and measure emissions.
  • Theoretical Development: Focuses on discovering novel information on emissions, error characterizations of observing systems, and information theory.
  • Climate Prediction: Analyzes the global carbon budget imbalance and monitors the global CO2 growth rate.

Selected Publications

  • Varon, D. J., et al: Quantifying NOx point sources with Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite observations of NO2 plumes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 121, e2317077121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2317077121, 2024.
  • Byrne, B., et al. Unprecedented Canadian forest carbon emissions during 2023. Accepted in Nature, preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3684305/v1, 2024.
  • Pandey, S. et al. Towards Low-Latency Estimation of Atmospheric CO2 Growth Rates using Satellite Observations: Evaluating Sampling Errors of Satellite and In Situ Observing Approaches, Accepted AGU Advances. Preprint: 10.22541/essoar.170758128.83990102/v1, 2024.
  • Pandey, S., et al. Daily detection and quantification of methane leaks using Sentinel-3: A tiered satellite observation approach with Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-5p. Remote Sensing of Environment, 296, 113716, 2023.
  • Schuit, B. J., et al. Automated detection and monitoring of methane super-emitters using satellite data. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9071–9098, 2023.
  • Worden, J. R., et al. Verifying Methane Inventories and Trends With Atmospheric Methane Data. AGU Adv., 4, 2023.
  • Naus, S., et al. Assessing the Relative Importance of Satellite-Detected Methane Superemitters in Quantifying Total Emissions for Oil and Gas Production Areas in Algeria. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2023.
  • Varon, D. J., et al. Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, 2023.
  • Maasakkers, J. D., et al. Reconstructing and quantifying methane emissions from the full duration of a 38-day natural gas well blowout using space-based observations. Remote Sens. Environ., 270, 112755, 2022.
  • Maasakkers, J. D., et al. "Using satellites to uncover large methane emissions from landfills." Science Advances, 8, 1–9, 2022.
  • Sadavarte, P., et al. A high-resolution gridded inventory of coal mine methane emissions for India and Australia. Elementa, 10, 1–14, 2022.
  • Pandey, S., et al. Order of magnitude wall time improvement of variational methane inversions by physical parallelization: a demonstration using TM5-4DVAR. Geoscientific Model Development, 15, 4555–4567, 2022.
  • Pandey, S., et al. Using satellite data to identify the methane emission controls of South Sudan's wetlands. Biogeosciences, 18, 557–572, 2021.
  • Cusworth, D. H., et al. Multi-Satellite Imaging of a Gas Well Blowout Enables Quantification of Total Methane Emissions. Geophys. Res. Lett., 48(2), 1–9, 2021.
  • Sadavarte, P., et al. "Methane Emissions from Super-emitting Coal Mines in Australia quantified using TROPOMI Satellite Observations." Environmental Science & Technology, 55 (24), 16573-16580, 2021.
  • Mazzini, A., et al. Relevant methane emission to the atmosphere from a geological gas manifestation. Scientific Reports, 2021.
  • Zavala-Araiza, D., et al. "A tale of two regions: methane emissions from oil and gas production in offshore/onshore Mexico." Environmental Research Letters, 2021.
  • Ma, S., et al. Satellite Constraints on the Latitudinal Distribution and Temperature Sensitivity of Wetland Methane Emissions. AGU Adv., 2(3), 1–12, 2021.
  • Zhang, Y., et al. Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space. Sci. Adv., 2020.
  • Pandey, S., et al. Satellite observations reveal extreme methane leakage from a natural gas well blowout. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 116(52), 26376–26381, 2019.
  • Ganesan, A. L., et al. Advancing Scientific Understanding of the Global Methane Budget in Support of the Paris Agreement. Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 33(12), 1475–1512, 2019.
  • Varon, D.J., et al. "Satellite discovery of anomalously large methane point sources from oil/gas production." Geophysical Research Letters, 2019.
  • Dekker, I. N., et al. What caused the extreme CO concentrations during the 2017 high pollution episode in India? Atmospheric chemistry and physics 19, 3433–3445, 2019.
  • Borsdorff, T., et al. Carbon monoxide air-pollution on sub-city scales and along arterial roads detected by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument. Atmospheric chemistry and physics 19, 3579–3588, 2019.
  • Naus, S., et al. Constraints and biases in a tropospheric two-box model of OH. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19(1), 407-424, 2019.
  • Nechita-Banda, N., et al. Monitoring emissions from the 2015 Indonesian fires using CO satellite data. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1760), 20170307, 2018.
  • Bruhwiler, L.M., et al. US CH4 emissions from oil and gas production: Have recent large increases been detected? Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 122(7), pp.4070-4083, 2017.
  • Worden, J.R., et al. Reduced biomass burning emissions reconcile conflicting estimates of the post-2006 atmospheric methane budget. Nature communications 8, no. 1: 2227, 2017.
  • Pandey, S., et al. Enhanced methane emissions from tropical wetlands during the 2011 La Niña. Scientific Reports 7, 2017.
  • Pandey, S., et al. Inverse modeling of GOSAT-retrieved ratios of total column CH4 and CO2 for 2009 and 2010. Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 16.8: 5043-5062, 2016.
  • Pandey, S., et al. On the use of satellite-derived CH4: CO2 columns in a joint inversion of CH4 and CO2 fluxes. Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 15.15: 8615-8629, 2015.

Projects

OCO-2 - Orbiting Carbon Observatory
CMS Flux (Carbon Monitoring System Flux)
OCO-3 - Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3