Amber Soja
Research Physical Scientist, Wildland Fire Science Program Management, Chemistry and Dynamics Branch, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center
About
Dr. Amber Soja is an interdisciplinary scientist, with 30 years of research experience in wildland fire and smoke science. Her goal is to connect these integral physical and chemical processes through the biosphere, atmosphere, weather, and climate systems, using Earth Observation and ground-based data. Amber’s inspiration comes from having been born into a family that spent every spare moment exploring the natural world.
Over the years, Dr. Soja has participated in and led numerous projects and field campaigns (e.g., FireBear, INTEX-A, INTEX-B, TexAQS, ARCTAS, FIREX-AQ, Fuel2Fire). She led international teams of scientists to remote Siberia, where they measured emissions from fires, spectral signatures, and biomass fuels from both wildfire and set experimental fires (1999-2014 Crimea). For decades, she continued as a lead scientist for the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership (NEESPI), working with scientists from this challenging continent to collate data and manuscripts (4 special issue, 40 books and chapters, 160 collaborative international projects, 750 scientists across 30 countries). Over her career, she served as an Associate Program Manager for the Wildland Fire Program (2014-2018), where the teams excelled at advancing a mean of 5 steps in Applications Readiness Levels (ARL), several reaching ARL 8 and 9. She led the LaRC Disasters program (2016-2018), coordinating data and multi-Center responses to volcanoes, dust events, and wildfires.
In her senior research role, she works closely with scientists across disciplines, organizations, and nations. Our key motivations are to enhance our understanding of the novel interconnected processes that advance science, especially those that have societal relevance and cannot be realized by single disciplines. Amber is proud to have worked to enhance the use of satellite data in partner agencies, and she has an affinity for guiding Earth Observations towards ‘usable’ impactful information for sustained benefit in partnership with public- and private-sector organizations. Working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), she advanced the incorporation of multiple satellite platforms in our National Fire Emissions Inventory (NFEI) to support the EPA, state and regional decisions. Her most recent work focuses on enhancing fire and smoke data to develop epidemiological studies that can target human health.
Publication Bibliography
Select Publications
Cahoon Jr DR, AJ Soja, BJ Stocks, S Potter, N Jurko, E Gargulinski, BM Rogers, SG Conard (2025) Reconstructing wildland fire burned area for Asian Russia (1979–2000) using AVHRR GAC satellite data to provide an improved baseline for assessing long-term change. J Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 230, 318-345, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2025.09.011
Wiggins EB, AJ Soja, E Gargulinski, HS Halliday, RB Pierce, CC Schmidt, JB Nowak, JP DiGangi et al. (2020) High temporal resolution satellite observations of fire radiative power reveal link between fire behavior and aerosol and gas emissions, Geophysical Research Letters 47 (23), https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090707
Sokolik IN, AJ Soja, PJ DeMott, D Winker (2019) Progress and challenges in quantifying wildfire smoke emissions, their properties, transport, and atmospheric impacts, JGR:Atmos 124 (23), 13005-13025, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029878
Soja AJ and PY Groisman (2018) Earth Science and the integral climatic and socio-economic drivers of change across northern Eurasia: The NEESPI legacy and future direction. Environ. Res. Lett.13, 040401, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab834
Thomas JL, CM Polashenski, AJ Soja, L Marelle, KA Casey, HD Choi, J-C Raut, C Wiedinmyer, et al. (2017) Quantifying black carbon deposition over the Greenland ice sheet from forest fires in Canada, Geophysical Research Letters 44 (15), 7965-7974, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073701
Rogers BM, AJ Soja, ML Goulden, JT Randerson (2015) Influence of tree species on continental differences in boreal fires and climate feedbacks, Nat. Geosci. 8 (3), 228-234, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2352
Kukavskaya EA, AJ Soja, AP Petkov, EI Ponomarev, GA Ivanova, SG Conard (2012) Fire emissions estimates in Siberia: evaluation of uncertainties in area burned, land cover, and fuel consumption Canadian J of Forest Research 43 (5), 493-506, https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2012-036
Tchebakova NM, EI Parfenova, GI Lysanova, AJ Soja (2011) Agroclimatic potential across central Siberia in an altered twenty-first century, Environmental Research Letters 6 (4), 045207, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/045207
Soja AJ, JA Al-Saadi, L Giglio, D Randall, C Kittaka, GA Pouliot, JJ Kordzi, SM Raffuse, TG Pace, T Pierce, T Moore, B Roy, B Pierce, JJ Szykman (2009) Assessing satellite-based fire data for use in the National Emissions Inventory, J of App. Remote Sens. 3 (1), https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3148859
Tchebakova NM, E Parfenova, AJ Soja (2009) The effects of climate, permafrost and fire on vegetation change in Siberia in a changing climate, Environmental Research Letters 4 (4), 045013, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045013
Soja AJ, NM Tchebakova, NHF French, MD Flannigan, HH Shugart, BJ Stocks, AI Sukhinin, EI Parfenova, FS Chapin III, PW Stackhouse Jr. (2007) Climate-induced boreal forest change: predictions versus current observations, Global and planetary change 56 (3-4), 274-296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.07.028
Soja AJ, HH Shugart, A Sukhinin, S Conard, PW Stackhouse Jr. (2006) Satellite-derived mean fire return intervals as indicators of change in Siberia (1995-2002), Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 11 (1), 75-96, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-006-1009-3
Soja AJ, WR Cofer, HH Shugart, AI Sukhinin, PW Stackhouse Jr DJ McRae, SG Conard (2004) Estimating fire emissions and disparities in boreal Siberia (1998–2002), JGR: Atmos 109 (D14), https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD004570
Awards
- 8 Fellowships awards (1998-2003)
- Top cited manuscript in Global and Planetary Change in a 5-year period “Climate-induced boreal forest change: Predictions versus current observations”
- Manuscript selected by ScienceWatch.com as one of the 17 core papers comprising the front in Boreal Forest Fires and Climate Change, Environment/Ecology (list of Top Topics April 2010).
- Best Scientific Research Article, National Institute of Aerospace (2007)
- 3 NASA Group Achievement Awards (2004-2019)
Education/Professional Experience
- B.A. 1996 University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, Environmental Sciences
- 2000 – 2003 Science To Achieve Results (STAR), EPA Fellowship
- Ph.D. 2004 University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, Environmental Sciences
- 2004 – 2005 The National Academies National Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship
National/International Leadership
- 2023: National Academies of Sciences Committee: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wildland Fires: Toward Improved Monitoring, Modeling, and Management
- 2018 – 2023: International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) Board of Directors and co-Chair IAWF Long Range Conference Planning Committee
- 2021 National Science Foundation Wildfire & the Biosphere Innovation Lab Community engagement
- 2019-2020: Aerosol Clouds Climate and Precipitation (ACCP) Application Impact Team (AIT) Mission Planning for Atmosphere Observing System AOS
- 2018- Present: Serve on several Interagency Working Groups (IWG): NOAA Interagency Council on Advancing Met. Service (ICAMS) Fire Weather WG; Wildland Fire Leadership Council; IWG Smoke Impacts Subgroup; U.S.-Canada: Interagency coordination on wildfire smoke and health research.
- 2015: Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR). Author on “Wildland Fire Science and Technology Task Force Final Report” with NSTC presented to Obama administration.
Professional Memberships
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- American Meteorological Society (AMS)
- Ecological Society of America (ESA)
- Sigma Xi