Alexandra Konings

Dr. Konings' research focuses on remote sensing of water, and how it can be used to characterize for differences in ecosystem drought response across regional scales. In particular, she has pioneered the use of microwave satellites for measuring the water content in live vegetation, known as live fuel moisture. Remote sensing of live fuel moisture is important because its response to atmospheric drought can be quite variable from location to location as a result of difference in soil and plant properties, in turn propagating to affect both forest resilience and burned area.

As part of the WFFRC, she will derive new high-resolution maps of LFMC across the Western United States, use them to provide alternative ways of parametrizing future wildfire and forest simulations, and use them to study how forest management influences forest' drought sensitivity.