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Savannah S. Cooley

Research Scientist

Contents

Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center/Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI)

Division: Earth Science Division (SG), Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)

Email: savannah.cooley@nasa.gov

Professional Biography

Dr. Savannah Cooley is a Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center / Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in the Earth Science Division, where she specializes in tropical forest dynamics, climate change, and satellite-based earth observing systems. Her current research focuses on understanding how forest structure, thermal stress, and soil greenhouse gas fluxes change during ecosystem degradation and regeneration, with particular emphasis on evaluating forest regeneration as a climate mitigation strategy. She employs a transdisciplinary approach combining novel spaceborne lidar and thermal radiometry, Bayesian statistical modeling, local community engagement, and meta-analysis to address these questions.

Currently serving as Co-Investigator on multiple NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences projects, Dr. Cooley leads investigations in the Brazilian Amazon Arc of Deforestation and collaborates with international partners including Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE). As Subject Matter Expert and Trainer for NASA’s Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) Program, she designs and delivers training programs focused on Ecological Conservation and Climate thematic areas for practitioners worldwide using NASA’s earth observation data.

Dr. Cooley brings over five years of experience from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she contributed to major Earth Science missions including the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) mission. Her work has spanned from developing Level 3 data products and conducting water use efficiency research to leading technology transition initiatives as Impact and Technology Transition Lead for NASA’s Western Water Applications Office. She has also contributed to high-level climate policy efforts—serving on the Satellite Needs Working Group for the White House National Science and Technology Council and contributing to the Global Risk Assessment Framework for the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction—helping to bridge the gap between cutting-edge Earth science research and environmental decision-making.

Education

Ph.D. Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, 2025, Columbia University

Dissertation title: “Forest dynamics and climate change: a multi-scale analysis of structure, degradation, recovery and greenhouse gas fluxes”

Dissertation advisors: Dr. Duncan Menge and Dr. Ruth DeFries

M.S. Geographic Information Science, 2017, Clark University

B.A. Economics (magna cum laude), Minors in Geography and Mathematics, 2016, Clark University

Research Interests

Thermal remote sensing, spaceborne lidar processing, land cover classification, ecosystem structure estimation, Bayesian statistical modeling, uncertainty quantification, time series analysis, spatial econometrics, differential equation modeling, machine learning algorithms (random forests, xgboost), ecosystem water use efficiency modeling, thermal and evaporative stress analysis, tropical forest biogeochemistry (carbon and nitrogen cycles), land use stewardship for climate mitigation policy.

Awards & Other

  • 2023 – Elected Ph.D. Student Representative, Columbia University Arts and Sciences Graduate Council   
  • 2022 – Member, New York Academy of Sciences
  • 2019 – One of eight selected Young Scientists presenting at the Centennial Celebration of the American Geophysical Union in “Young Scientists View of the Future”                   
  • 2017 – Graduate Student Representative, Department of Geography, Clark University    
  • 2016 – Dean’s List for Academic Excellence (GPA > 3.8), Clark University                        
  • 2016 – Traina Scholar: Full Tuition Scholarship for students in the Sciences, Clark University 

Selected Publications

  • Cooley, S. S., Moore, E., Martinez, J., Fahlen, J., Maybach, E., Gollerkeri, M., Vasa, A., Morton, L., Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Butler, A., Gan, J., Uriarte, M., Menge, D.N.L. (in press). A global ‘climate opportunity benefit’ of regeneration: meta-analysis shows warming from soil CH₄ and N₂O is small in forests relative to agriculture. Global Biogeochemical Cycles.
  • Cooley, S. S., Keller, M., Longo, M., Adami, M., Silgueiro, V., Cawse-Nicholson, K., Menge, D.N.L. (2025). Thermal stress in degraded forests in the Brazilian Amazon Arc of Deforestation. Environmental Research Letters.
  • Cooley, S. S., Pinto, N., Vela-Alvarado, J., Fahlen, J., Aguilar, N., DeFries, R., Uriarte, M. & Menge, D. (2024). Combining spaceborne lidar from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation with local knowledge for monitoring fragmented tropical landscapes: A case study in the forest–agriculture interface of Ucayali, Peru. Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.70116
  • Menge, D.N., Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Taylor, B.N., Akana, P.R., Butler, A., Carreras Pereira, K.A., Cooley, S.S., Lau, V.M. and Lauterbach, E.L. (2023). Terrestrial Phosphorus Cycling: Responses to Climatic Change. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110421-102458.
  • Cooley, S.S., Fisher, J.B. & Goldsmith, G.R. (2022). Convergence in water use efficiency within plant functional types across contrasting climates. Nature Plants. DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01131-z
  • Cooley, S.S., Jenkins, A., Schaeffer, B., Abdallah, A., Granger, S., & Friedl, L. (2022). Paths to research-driven decision making in the realms of environment and water. Technology in Society. DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101994.
  • Borges, D., Ramage, S., Green, D., … Cooley, S.S., …, Lloyd, S., & Blake, C. (2022). Earth Observations into Action: Systemic Integration of Earth Observation Applications into National Risk Reduction Decision Structures. United Nations Global Assessment Report (UNGAR) 2022. DOI: 10.1108/dpm-09-2022-0186.
  • Cooley, S.S., Pinto, N., Vela-Alvarado, J., Fahlen, J., & Aguilar, N. (2021). Vegetation typology classification and data set generation in Ucayali, Peru (Version 3.0) [Data set]. CaltechDATA. DOI: 10.22002/D1.2318.
  • Cooley, S. S., & Landerer, F. (2019). Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) Level-3 Data Product User Handbook. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC). https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/gravity/gracefo-documentation
  • Lafia, S., Jablonski, J., Kuhn, W., Cooley, S.S., & Medrano, F. A. (2016). Spatial discovery and the research library. Transactions in GIS, 20(3), 399-412. DOI: 10.1111/tgis.12235.

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