USDA ARS Website: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/site_main.htm?modecode=53-42-45-00

Research Interest:  Research is concentrated on critical arid and semiarid regions with a broad focus on the impact of global change on natural resources management and a specialized focus on the application of remote sensing to difficult problems.  Research is conducted in cooperation with scientists from Europe, Asia and the Americas, including large scale experiments in France, Niger, Argentina and the US/Mexico border. 

Employment:

2006-present:   Hydrologist, USDA Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson, AZ
2000-2005:      Research Leader, USDA Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson,                         Az.
1991-present:   Adjunct Professor, U.A. Dept. of Soil, Water and Env. Sci., Tucson, Az.
1984-1999:      Physical Scientist, USDA U.S. Water Conservation Lab., Phoenix, Az.

Professional Societies and Memberships:
Fellow, American Society of Agronomy                   
Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Editorial Board of Remote Sensing of Environment
Associate Editor of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
                       
Fellowships and Awards:
1987,1991,1993, 2004  Grant Awards from USDA Off. of Intl. Coop. Dev., Wash. D.C.
1992-1999       Research Grant Award from NASA/Eos Interdis. Sci. Prog., Co-I.
1993-1994       USDA-ARS Remote Sensing Tech. Trans. Award
1994-1997       Research Grant Award from Natl. Inst. for Ag. and Env. Studies, Japan, P.I.
1994-1995       Research Grant Award from Natl. Sci. Foundation, P.I.
1994    USDA-ARS Research Grant Award, P.I.
1995-1997       Research Grant Award from Electric Power Res. Inst., Palo Alto, Ca., P.I.
1996-1999       Research Grant Award: NASA Landsat Science Team, P.I.
1996    Award for Best Symposium Paper from Canadian Rem. Sens. Society
2000-2002       Research Grant Award: NASA EO1 Validation Team, P.I.
2000    Award for Best Conference Paper from Veridian ERIM International
2001    Group Honor Award from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
2002    USDA ARS Outstanding Senior Research Scientist of the Year
2002-2007       Interagency Research Agreement with U.S. Army, P.I.

Publications

Holifield, C.D., S. McElroy, M.S. Moran, R. Bryant and T. Miura, Temporal and spatial changes in grassland transpiration detected using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery (2003) Canadian J. of Rem. Sens. 29:259‑270.

Moran, M.S., Bryant, R., Thome, K., Ni, W., Nouvellon, Y., Gonzalez-Dugo, M.P., Qi, J., Clarke, T.R. A refined empirical line approach for reflectance factor retrieval from Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ (2001) Rem. Sens. Env. 78:71-82. 

Moran, M.S., C.D. Peters-Lidard, J.M. Watts, and S. McElroy, Estimating soil moisture at the watershed scale with satellite-based radar and land surface models (2004) Canadian J. Rem. Sens. 30:1-22.

Moran, M.S., Clarke, T.R., Inoue, Y., Vidal, A. Estimating crop water deficit using the relation between surface-air temperature and spectral vegetation index (1994) Rem. Sens. Env. 49:246-263. 

Moran, M.S., D.C. Hymer, J. Qi and Y. Kerr, Comparison of ERS-2 SAR and Landsat TM imagery for monitoring agricultural crop and soil conditions (2001) Rem. Sens. Env. 79:243-252.

Moran, M.S., Inoue, Y., Barnes, E.M., Opportunities and limitations for image-based remote sensing in precision crop management (1997) Rem. Sens. Env. 61:319-346.

Moran, M.S., Jackson, R.D. Assessing the spatial distribution of evapotranspiration using remotely sensed inputs (1991) J. Env. Quality, 20:725-737. 

Moran, M.S., Kustas, W.P., Vidal, A., Stannard, D.I., Blanford, J.H., Nichols, W.D. Use of ground-based remotely sensed data for surface energy balance evaluation of a semiarid rangeland (1994) Water Res. Research, 30:1339-1350. 

Moran, M.S., Maas, S.J., Pinter Jr, P.J. Combining remote sensing and modeling for estimating surface evaporation and biomass production (1995) Rem. Sens. Reviews 12:335-353. 

Moran, M.S., Rahman, A.F., Washburne, J.C., Goodrich, D.C., Weltz, M.A., Kustas, W.P. Combining the Penman-Monteith equation with measurements of surface temperature and reflectance to estimate evaporation rates of semiarid grassland  (1996) Agr. For. Meteorol. 80:87-109. 

Moran, M.S., Vidal, A., Troufleau, D., Qi, J., Clarke, T.R., Pinter Jr., P.J., Mitchell, T.A., [...], Neale, C.M.U. Combining multifrequency microwave and optical data for crop management (1997) Rem. Sens. Env. 61:Pages 96-109. 

Nouvellon, Y., Moran, M.S., Lo Seen, D., Bryant, R., Rambal, S., Ni, W., Bégue, A., [...] Coupling a grassland ecosystem model with Landsat imagery for a 10-year simulation of carbon and water budgets (2001) Rem. Sens. Env. 78:131-149. 

Rahman, M.M., M.S. Moran, D.P. Thoma, R. Bryant, C.D. Holifield Collins, T. Jackson, B. J. Orr and M. Tischler (2008) Mapping surface roughness and soil moisture using multi-angle radar imagery without ancillary data, Rem. Sens. Env. 112:391-402.

Thoma, D.P., M.S. Moran, R. Bryant, M. Rahman, C.D. Holifield-Collins, S. Skirvin, E.E. Sano and K. Slocum. Comparison of four models for determining surface soil moisture from C-band radar imagery (2006) Water Res. Research 42:1-12.