Adam Oliphant

Adam Oliphant is a geographer with the USGS based in Flagstaff Arizona.  He is part of the Western Geographic Science Center and specializes in using remote sensing to map vegetation over countries and continents.  Adam recently finished mapping cropland extent across all of Southeast and Northeast Asia using Landsat 7&8 as part of the Global Food Security-support Analysis Data at 30m (GFSAD30) project, see croplands.org and https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/node/1281

Current research focused on mapping crop type and cropland fallows in the United States and integrating NASA/USGS satellite sensors with satellite systems from ESA including Sentinel 1&2. Adam has an interest in Citizen Science and community participation in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of scientific data and projects.

Adam earned a master’s degree in Forestry with an emphasis in Remote Sensing from Virginia Tech, where he researched the spatial distribution of autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellate) on reclaimed surface coal mines in Appalachia.  He also has an interest in surface water quality and quantity monitoring and using consumer grade electronics to collect scientifically useful information.

Selected Publications

1. Teluguntla, P., Thenkabail, P.S., Oliphant, A., Xiong, J., Gumma, M.K., Congalton, R.G., Yadav, K., Huete, H. 2018. A 30-m landsat-derived cropland extent product of Australia and China using random forest machine learning algorithm on Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 144: 325-340, ISSN 0924-2716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2018.07.017
2. Oliphant, A.J., Thenkabail, P.S., Teluguntla, P., Xiong, J., Congalton, R.G., Yadav, K., Massey, R., Gumma, M.K., Smith, C., 2017. NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Global Food Security-support Analysis Data (GFSAD) @ 30-m for Southeast & Northeast Asia: Cropland Extent Product (GFSAD30SEACE) [WWW Document]. NASA EOSDIS L. Process. DAAC. https://doi.org/10.5067/MEaSUREs/GFSAD/GFSAD30SEACE.001  
3. Xiong, J., Thenkabail, P.S., Tilton, J.C., Gumma, M.K., Teluguntla, P., Oliphant, A.J., Congalton, R.G., Yadav, K., Gorelick, N., 2017. Nominal 30-m Cropland Extent Map of Continental Africa by Integrating Pixel-Based and Object-Based Algorithms Using Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 Data on Google Earth Engine. Remote Sens. 9, 1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9101065
4. Teluguntla, P., Thenkabail, P.S., Xiong, J., Gumma, M.K., Congalton, R.G., Oliphant, A., Poehnelt, J., Yadav, K., Rao, M. and Massey, R., 2017. Spectral matching techniques (SMTs) and automated cropland classification algorithms (ACCAs) for mapping croplands of Australia using MODIS 250-m time-series (2000–2015) data. International Journal of Digital Earth, 10(9), pp.944-977.  
5. Oliphant, A.J., Wynne, R.H., Zipper, C.E., Ford, W.M., Donovan, P.F., Li, J., 2017. Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) presence and proliferation on former surface coal mines in Eastern USA. Biol. Invasions 19, 179–195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1271-6
6. Li, J., Zipper, C.E., Donovan, P.F., Wynne, R.H. and Oliphant, A.J., 2015. Reconstructing disturbance history for an intensively mined region by time-series analysis of Landsat imagery. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 187(9), p.557.  
7. Oliphant, A.J., Li, J., Wynne, R.H., Donovan, P.F., Zipper, C.E., 2014. Identifying woody vegetation on coal surface mines using phenological indicators with multitemporal landsat imagery, in: International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences - ISPRS Archives. pp. 339–345. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-1-339-2014  
8. Chen, H., Wang, W., Martin, J.C., Oliphant, A.J., Doerr, P.A., Xu, J.F., DeBorn, K.M., Chen, C. and Sun, L., 2012. Extraction of lignocellulose and synthesis of porous silica nanoparticles from rice husks: a comprehensive utilization of rice husk biomass. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 1(2), pp.254-259.