Team
Stefanie Kirschke
Email: stkirsch@u.washington.edu
Educational Background:
Ph.D., Geography/Environmental Science, German Aerospace Center in association with Würzburg University, Germany, 2008.
M.Sc., Geoecology, Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, Germany, 2004.
Research Interests:
Remote sensing of land surface and coastal ecosystems
Biogeochemical process-based modeling (vegetation and trace gas modeling)
Trace gas exchange between biosphere/atmosphere
Carbon cycle modeling
Climate change/global change related studies
Biography:
Stefanie is a postdoctoral research associate in the River Systems Research Group at the University of Washington, School of Oceanography. She came to Seattle in July 2008 for postdoctoral studies combining her optical remote sensing and process-based modeling expertise she gained during her Ph.D. research project. Stefanie earned her Ph.D. in Geography/Environmental Science from Würzburg University, Germany in association with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen in July 2008. At DLR Stefanie worked on her thesis entitled "Balancing Methane Exchange between Biosphere and Atmosphere in Periglacial Regions Using Remote Sensing and Modeling: A Case Study for the Lena River Delta". For her Ph.D. project she applied and modified process-based models (a vegetation model and a methane emission model) to calculate methane (CH4) fluxes for permafrost soils in the Siberian Arctic. She used MODIS and MERIS-FR satellite data to derive plant biophysical indices such as NDVI and LAI. For her research project, Stefanie went on a 6 week field campaign to the Lena River Delta in the Siberian Arctic where she took field spectral measurements of the tundra vegetation.
In the River Systems Research Group, Stefanie now studies large tropical river systems. She uses remote sensing data (MODIS, MERIS, and ASTER) to calculate time series of turbidity for the Mekong River Basin, the Tonle Sap Lake and the associated coastal waters to study the distribution of particulates in the surface waters of the river system (for example images, click here), as well as their change over time/with climate, global, natural and anthropogenic changes.
Stefanie is also interested in the interactions of science and society in terms of global and climate change. In almost any given global change topic, there is a variety of relevant socio-economic, ecologic, environmental, political etc. aspects to be taken into account. Stefanie is interested in multidisciplinary approaches that seek to combine and interrelate all these different aspects as well as to communicate these aspects and scientific results to all members of society.
Current projects
Remote sensing of turbidity in the project ‘Connectivity of the Landscape of Southeast Asia with the South China Sea - Scaling of Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Processes'
