Steiner Lab | Remote Sensing of Terrestrial Hydrology

The Steiner Lab is led by Nicholas C. Steiner in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York . We study how microwave remote sensing captures terrestrial water and carbon cycle processes across scales.

Our team develops radar, thermal, and lidar approaches with missions such as NASA NISAR , SMAP , ECOSTRESS , and CYGNSS to resolve wetland dynamics, flood hazards, and ecosystem resilience from the Arctic to the Amazon.

We pair field campaigns such as SMAPVEX19-22 and WETVEX with physics-based modeling and open data pipelines to deliver decision-ready environmental intelligence. Reach out if you are interested in collaborating or joining the lab's research efforts.

Let's Connect

We enjoy teaming with municipal agencies and academic collaborators. Connect with Nick to talk about remote sensing campaigns, open datasets, or mentoring opportunities for students.

📢📢 Interested in ECOSTRESS, NISAR, or NYC urban forest resilience projects? Email nsteiner@ccny.cuny.edu to discuss student collaborations and data partnerships.

Projects

Co-Investigator

NISAR Wetlands & Freeze/Thaw Validation

Operations Science Team effort validating wetlands inundation and freeze/thaw algorithms for NASA's global NISAR mission.
- Developing the freeze/thaw Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for the NISAR Science Data System.
- Benchmarking wetland inundation accuracy with multi-mission SAR time series across Arctic, tropical, and temperate testbeds.
Read the project update →
Principal Investigator

HiFLOWS Arctic Flood Surveillance

High-Latitude Flood and Open Water Surveillance delivers rapid-tasked SAR flood intelligence for Alaskan communities.
- Reducing flood mapping latency to under 12 hours using commercial SAR constellations from ICEYE, Capella, and Umbra.
- Building a validation archive that supports NISAR and Sentinel-1 inundation requirements in permafrost terrain.
Read the project update →
Lead Investigator

ECOSTRESS Urban Forest Resilience

ECOSTRESS thermal time series quantify how New York City's urban forests mitigate heat and water stress during extremes.
- Partitioning shade and evapotranspiration benefits with ECOSTRESS, UAVSAR, flux towers, and canopy inventories.
- Co-designing analytics with NYC partners to target investments in heat-vulnerable neighborhoods.
Read the project update →

Research Interests

Validating NISAR L- and S-band observables for wetlands inundation and freeze/thaw transitions.
Rapid-tasked small-satellite SAR workflows for near-real-time flood intelligence in the Arctic.
Heat mitigation and water stress analytics for urban forests using ECOSTRESS thermal time series.

News

[2025]: SMAPVEX19-22 field campaign results publish in IEEE JSTARS, highlighting the lab's contributions to forest soil moisture calibration.
[2025]: NASA Earth Science to Action funds HiFLOWS to deliver hourly-scale SAR flood surveillance across Alaska.
[2024]: NISAR Operations Science Team renews our wetlands and freeze/thaw validation work ahead of launch.
[2023]: ECOSTRESS urban forest partnership expands with new canopy flux stations in the Bronx and Queens.

Recent research

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Soil Moisture Active/Passive Validation Experiment Within the Canadian Boreal Forest in 2022 (SMAPVEX22‑Boreal)

Aaron A. Berg, Kayla Wicks, Jaison Thomas Ambadan, Alexandre Roy, Ramata Magagi, Warren Helgason, Andreas Colliander, Zohreh Alijani, Yasaman Amini, Michael H. Cosh, Jay Creen, Azza Gorrab, Heather MacRae, Kyle McDonald, Koreen Millard, Sidharth Misra, Arnab Muhuri, Mehmet Ogut, Nathan Riis, Camille Roy, Hesam Salmabadi, Nicholas Steiner, Erica Tetlock, Hongquan Wang, Xiaoyong Xu, Simon Yueh

Paper

In
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing

Boreal forest field sampling and in‑situ networks for SMAP/SMOS validation within a single SMAP footprint near Candle Lake, Saskatchewan.
SMAP Validation Experiment 2019–2022 (SMAPVEX19–22): Field Campaign to Improve Soil Moisture and Vegetation Optical Depth Retrievals in Temperate Forests

Andreas Colliander, Michael H. Cosh, Laura Bourgeau‑Chavez, Victoria R. Kelly, Simon Kraatz, Paul Siqueira, Victoria A. Walker, Xingjian Chen, Alexandre Roy, Tarendra Lakhankar, Kyle C. McDonald, Nicholas Steiner, Mehmet Kurum, Seung‑bum Kim, Aaron Berg, Xiaolan Xu, Sidharth Misra, Mehmet Ogut, Cristina Vittucci, John S. Kimball, Dara Entekhabi, Simon H. Yueh

Paper

In
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing

Comprehensive field campaign and findings improving SMAP soil moisture and VOD retrievals in northeastern U.S. forests.
Full-wave Simulations of Forest at L-band with Fast Hybrid Multiple Scattering Theory Method and Comparison with GNSS Signals

Jongwoo Jeong, Leung Tsang, Mehmet Kurum, Abesh Ghosh, Andreas Colliander, Simon Yueh, Kyle C. McDonald, Nicholas C. Steiner, Michael H. Cosh

Paper Web

In
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing

IEEE JSTARS article evaluating fast hybrid scattering simulations against GNSS‑R observations to improve L‑band forest retrievals in support of NISAR.

Latest posts

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