Dr Gareth Roberts

My research interests focus on the measurement and monitoring of land surface dynamics using optical and thermal remote sensing methods. The former involved the application of bidirectional reflectance function models (BRDF) to characterise land surface change and to model the influence of vegetation biophysical characteristics on remotely sensed measurements. My research using thermal observations has focused on improving the understanding of fire in the natural environment and on the utilisation of satellite observations to address key questions regarding fire effects and their impacts. This involves the development of thermal EO methods and their use in quantifying the amount of terrestrially stored carbon released through biomass burning. Previous collaborative research in this area has involved developing methods to quantify fuel consumption using fire radiative power retrievals. More recent research has focussed on quantifying the impact of landscape fires on air quality and human health and validating satellite fire radiative power retrievals using thermal camera imagery. I am currently co-chair of the CEOS Land Product Validation ‘Fire Disturbance’ theme.