Associate Professor Dept. Earth System Science and Policy University of North Dakota Research Interests: Oceanography and Limnology, Optics and Scintillometry, Remote Sensing Telephone: Fax: E-mail: Office: Address: 701.777.6087 701.777.2940 zhang@aero.und.edu Clifford Hall room 326 4149 University Avenue Stop 9011   Instructor Webpage

Xiaodong Zhang joined the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium in April 2002 after receiving a Ph.D. in Oceanography from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, where he studied the optical properties of microbubbles in the ocean and their effect on the hyperspectral reflectance at the surface. Xiaodong had been working for 7 years at Ocean Remote Sensing Institute, Ocean University of China, studying satellite remote sensing and its application in oceanography. He also holds a M.S. degree in Oceanography from Dalhousie University, and a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Nanjing University, China.

As a founding member of the Earth System Science and Policy program, Xiaodong was appointed as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He teaches the ESSP 502 Hydrologic Cycle and ESSP 520 Earth System Modeling. His general research interests include radiative transfer, applications of remote sensing, and geographic information systems. Two of his early efforts in bringing spatial technology into decision making for precision agriculture are the Digital Northern Great Plains Project, Digital-NGP , an online database system providing easy and intuitive access for end users to remote sensing images that are being collected at UMAC, and Zone Mapping Application for Precision-farming, ZoneMAP . He was also involved in radiometric calibration and atmospheric correction for the International Space Station Agriculture Camera (ISSAC), which was delivered to the ISS on November 14, 2008.

Of course, Xiaodong is always passionate about studying the ocean using optical observations. Evolving from that context, he developed new interests in turbulence observation through scintillometry and its application in deriving sensible and latent heat transfer, response of inland lakes to climate change, and remote sensing of water and its transfer across ocean- and land-air interfaces.