Prasad S. Thenkabail, PhD
Dr. Prasad S. Thenkabail, Senior Scientist (ST), United States Geological Survey (USGS), is a world-recognized expert in remote sensing science with major contributions in the field sustained for nearly 40 years. Dr. Thenkabail’s career scientific achievements can be gauged by successfully making the list of world’s top 1% of scientists across fields (22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields).
Global Food Security-Support Analysis Data at 30 m (GFSAD)
Global Hyperspectral Imaging Spectroscopy of Agricultural-Crops & Vegetation (GHISA)
Remote Sensing of Agriculture, Water, and Food Security
- Download Landsat Derived Global Rainfed and Irrigated Cropland Product at 30m (…
- Download Landsat Derived Global Cropland Extent Product at 30m (GCEP30) from LP…
- Browse Full Resolution View of Global Cropland Products
- Global Crop Water Productivity and Savings through waterSMART (GCWP)
- Global Irrigated and Rainfed Cropland Mask at 1km
- Global Cropland Dominance Product at 1km
Dr. Thenkabail has conducted pioneering research in hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation and in that of global croplands and their water use for food security. In hyperspectral remote sensing he has done cutting-edge research with wide implications in advancing remote sensing science in application to agriculture and vegetation. This body of work led to more than ten peer-reviewed research publications with high impact. For example, a single paper entitled “Hyperspectral vegetation indices and their relationships with agricultural crop characteristics” has received 1500 citations (3/14/23). In studies of global croplands for food and water security, he has led the release of the world’s first Landsat-derived: 1. global cropland extent product @ 30m (GCEP30), and 2. global rainfed and irrigated area product @ 30m (LGRIP30). This work demonstrates a “paradigm shift” in how remote sensing science is conducted. As per Google Scholar, the papers Dr. Thenkabail's research are cited 14,235 times. His h-index is 58 and i10-index is 113.
Dr. Thenkabail’s contributions to series of leading edited books on remote sensing science places him as a world leader in remote sensing science advances. He edited three-volume book entitled Remote Sensing Handbook published by Taylor and Francis, with 82 chapters and more than 2000 pages, widely considered a “magnus opus” encyclopedic standard reference for students, scholars, practitioners, and major experts in remote sensing science. He has recently completed editing Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation published books by Taylor and Francis in four volumes with 50 chapters. This is the second edition that is currently in press and is a follow-up on the earlier single-volume Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation. He has also edited a book on Remote Sensing of Global Croplands for Food Security.
He obtained his PhD from the Ohio State University in 1992 and has 168 publications including 9 books, 146 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 13 major data releases. Dr. Thenkabail is at the center of rendering scientific service to the world’s remote sensing community in roles that include Editor-in-Chief (2011-present) of Remote Sensing Open Access Journal and Associate Editor (2017-present) of American Society’s Journal Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. Dr. Thenkabail was recognized as Fellow of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) in 2023. His scientific papers have won several awards over the years demonstrating world class highest quality research. These include: 2023 Talbert Abrams Grand Award, the highest scientific paper award of the ASPRS, 2015 ASPRS ERDAS award for best scientific paper in remote sensing, and 1994 Autometric Award for the outstanding paper in remote sensing. He was a Landsat Science Team Member (2007-2011).
Professional Experience
2022 - present - Senior Scientist (ST), United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Oct. 2008-2022 - USGS: Supervisory Research Geographer-15 (2017-present), Research Geographer-15 (2011-2017), Research Geographer-14 (2008-2011), United States Geological Survey (USGS), Flagstaff, AZ.USA.
March 2003-Sept. 2008 - IWMI: Principal Researcher, Global Research Division group and Head of Remote Sensing and GIS Unit, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka.
April 1997-March 2003 - Yale University: Associate Research Scientist, Center for Earth Observation, Yale University, New Haven, CT,USA.
Nov. 1995-March 1997 - ICIMOD: Remote Sensing Specialist, International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal.
July 1992-Nov. 1995 - IITA: Remote Sensing Specialist, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Sept. 1998-June 1992 - OSU: Graduate Research Assistant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Dec. 1984-Nov. 1986 - Mysore and Bangalore University: Teaching hydraulics and water resources, India.
The countries he has worked in include China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Israel, Syria, United States, Canada, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Education and Certifications
1992 - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Agricultural Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
1983 - Master of Engineering (M.E.) in Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering, Mysore University (India).
1981 - Bachelor of Civil Engineering (B.E.), Mysore University (India).
Affiliations and Memberships*
Editor-in-Chief, Remote Sensing Open Access Journal; 2011-present.
Associate Editor, American Society of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS), a Journal of the Imaging and Geospatial Information Society (ASPRS).
Editorial Advisory Board, International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Journal of Photo. & Remote Sensing, 2014-present.
Editorial Board Member, Remote Sensing of Environment (2007-2016)
Core member, NASA South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI): 2014-present
Member, American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (1988-present)
Chair: International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Working Group WG VIII/7: Land cover and its dynamics, including Agricultural & Urban Land Use (2013-2016)
Global Coordinator, Committee for Earth Observing Systems Agriculture Societal Beneficial Areas (CEOA SBA) (2010-2013)
Co-lead, IEEE “Water for the World” (2007-2011)
Member, Landsat Science Team (2007-2011)
Honors and Awards
2023 Fellow, American Society of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (ASPRS)
2023 Talbert Abrahms Grand Award, highest paper award from American Society of Photogrammetric Enginering and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).
2022 - PESEP Scholar. The NASA-ISRO Professional Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program (PESEP). USA (NASA) and India (ISRO) scientific exchange scientist for 2022-2023.
2020 - Proposal evaluation panel for Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, to their bi-national Italy-Israel joint laboratory in Precision Agriculture.
2019 - Advisory Board member, Taylor and Francis Inc., online library collection to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
2019 - USGS STAR award for supervision
2019 - Member, NASA Surface Biology Geology (SBG)-Applications. For the SBG hyperspectral remote sensing mission (replacing former HyspIRI program).
2019 - Member, NASA Calibration and Validation Working Group. For the SBG hyperspectral remote sensing mission (replacing former HyspIRI program).
2019 - USGS 10-year service recognition
2018 - The Excellent Reviewer of Remote Sensing of Environment
2018 - Honored by the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain and the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) for giving the keynote lecture.
2016 - NASA Group Achievement Award, 2016. (Member of Team) Fallowed Area Map
2015 - ASPRS Best Scientific Paper Award, 2015: ASPRS ERDAS award for best scientific paper in remote sensing (given annually for the papers published in American Society of Photogrammetry
2015 - Task Force Member NASA, SARI, 2015-present. South Asia Regional Initiative (SARI), A response to regional needs in Land Cover/Land Use Change (LCLUC) Science and Education (NASA)
2015 - Innovations Inventory, PARIS21, 2015: 'Remote Sensing Data for Drought Assessment and Monitoring' monograph authors (as first author) is in the PARIS21.
2013 - Panel chair, 2013, USGS RGE. For the Spring 2013 GIS and Remote Sensing USGS Research Grade Evaluation (RGE) panel.
2008 - ASPRS President’s award for practical papers: American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) John I. Davidson President’s Award for practical papers, 2008.
2007 - Special achievement in GIS award from ESRI, awarded by ESRI President Mr. Jack Dangermond during the 2007 annual ESRI conference in San Diego.
2006 - Best team award for my remote sensing and GIS team @ the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) during Institute’s Annual Research Meeting 2006.
2005 - Best paper award (5 best paper awards given) by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) during Institute’s Annual Research Meeting 2005.
2004 - Best paper award (5 best paper awards given) by International Water Management Institute (IWMI) during Institute’s Annual Research Meeting 2004.
2001 - Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Rapideye, a Private German Satellite Company.
1994 - Autometric award for outstanding paper by American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).
Abstracts and Presentations
As a result of Dr. Thenkabail’s scientific accomplishments, standing, and stature, he is a highly sought-after speaker. Since 2011, he has given 117 talks (averaging ~12 per year) of which 40% (47/117) were invited. He has been invited as a speaker in Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and various places in USA (e.g., Purdue, OSU).
Science and Products
Dr. Thenkabail’s contributions to series of leading edited books on remote sensing science places him as a world leader in remote sensing science advances. He edited three-volume book entitled Remote Sensing Handbook published by Taylor and Francis, with 82 chapters and more than 2000 pages, widely considered a “magnus opus” encyclopedic standard reference for students, scholars, practitioners, and major experts in remote sensing science.
He has recently completed editing Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation published books by Taylor and Francis in four volumes with 50 chapters: This is the second edition that is currently in press and is a follow-up on the earlier single-volume Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation (also published by Taylor and Francis Inc.). He has also edited a book on Remote Sensing of Global Croplands for Food Security (Taylor and Francis). These books are widely used and widely referenced in institutions worldwide.
Mapping cropland extent of Southeast and Northeast Asia using multi-year time-series Landsat 30-m data using Random Forest classifier on Google Earth Engine
A bibliometric profile of the Remote Sensing Open Access Journal published by MDPI between 2009 and 2018
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
Accuracies achieved in classifying five leading world crop types and their growth stages using optimal Earth Observing-1 Hyperion hyperspectral narrowbands on Google Earth Engine
Spaceborne hyperspectral EO-1 hyperion data pre-processing: Methods, approaches, and algorithms
Fifty-years of advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture and vegetation-Summary, insights, and highlights of Volume IV
Fifty-years of advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture and vegetation: Summary, insights, and highlights of volume III
Fifty years of advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture and vegetation—Summary, insights, and highlights of volume II
Characteristics of tropical tree species in hyperspectral and multispectral data
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
Mapping cropland fallow areas in myanmar to scale up sustainable intensification of pulse crops in the farming system
Spectral matching techniques (SMTs) and automated cropland classification algorithms (ACCAs) for mapping croplands of Australia using MODIS 250-m time-series (2000–2015) data
Led the release of the world’s first Landsat 30-m derived global cropland extent product.The data is already widely used worldwide and is downloadable from the NASA\USGS LP DAAC site:
https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/news/release-of-gfsad-30-meter-cropland-extent-products/
Science and Products
- Science
- Data
- Publications
Dr. Thenkabail’s contributions to series of leading edited books on remote sensing science places him as a world leader in remote sensing science advances. He edited three-volume book entitled Remote Sensing Handbook published by Taylor and Francis, with 82 chapters and more than 2000 pages, widely considered a “magnus opus” encyclopedic standard reference for students, scholars, practitioners, and major experts in remote sensing science.
He has recently completed editing Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation published books by Taylor and Francis in four volumes with 50 chapters: This is the second edition that is currently in press and is a follow-up on the earlier single-volume Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation (also published by Taylor and Francis Inc.). He has also edited a book on Remote Sensing of Global Croplands for Food Security (Taylor and Francis). These books are widely used and widely referenced in institutions worldwide.
Filter Total Items: 75Mapping cropland extent of Southeast and Northeast Asia using multi-year time-series Landsat 30-m data using Random Forest classifier on Google Earth Engine
Cropland extent maps are useful components for assessing food security. Ideally, such products are a useful addition to countrywide agricultural statistics since they are not politically biased and can be used to calculate cropland area for any spatial unit from an individual farm to various administrative unites (e.g., state, county, district) within and across nations, which in turn can be usedAuthorsAdam Oliphant, Prasad S. Thenkabail, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Jun Xiong, Murali Krishna Gumma, Russell G. Congalton, Kamini YadavA bibliometric profile of the Remote Sensing Open Access Journal published by MDPI between 2009 and 2018
Remote Sensing Open Access Journal (RS OAJ) is an international leading journal in the field of remote sensing science and technology. It was first published in the year 2009 and is currently celebrating tenth year of publications. In this research, a bibliometric analysis of RS OAJ was conducted based on 5588 articles published during the 10-year (2009–2018) time-period. The bibliometric analysisAuthorsYuYing Zhang, Prasad S. Thenkabail, Peng WangNominal 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
A satellite-derived cropland extent map at high spatial resolution (30-m or better) is a must for food and water security analysis. Precise and accurate global cropland extent maps, indicating cropland and non-cropland areas, are starting points to develop higher-level products such as crop watering methods (irrigated or rainfed), cropping intensities (e.g., single, double, or continuous cropping)AuthorsJun Xiong, Prasad S. Thenkabail, James C. Tilton, Murali Krishna Gumma, Pardhasaradhi G. Teluguntla, Adam Oliphant, Russell G. Congalton, Kamini Yadav, Noel GorelickAccuracies achieved in classifying five leading world crop types and their growth stages using optimal Earth Observing-1 Hyperion hyperspectral narrowbands on Google Earth Engine
As the global population increases, we face increasing demand for food and nutrition. Remote sensing can help monitor food availability to assess global food security rapidly and accurately enough to inform decision-making. However, advances in remote sensing technology are still often limited to multispectral broadband sensors. Although these sensors have many applications, they can be limited inAuthorsItiya Aneece, Prasad S. ThenkabailSpaceborne hyperspectral EO-1 hyperion data pre-processing: Methods, approaches, and algorithms
No abstract available.AuthorsItiya P. Aneece, Prasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo Huete, E. Terrence SloneckerFifty-years of advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture and vegetation-Summary, insights, and highlights of Volume IV
No abstract available.AuthorsPrasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo HueteFifty-years of advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture and vegetation: Summary, insights, and highlights of volume III
The goal of this summary chapter is twofold. The first is to provide the reader an overview of the content of the preceding chapters. This they can read at the very beginning, before moving on to individual chapters in detail. Alternatively, they may read it at the very end to refresh their memory and to summarize the contents of the Volume. Second, this summary provides the editors’ perspective,AuthorsPrasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo HueteFifty years of advances in hyperspectral remote sensing of agriculture and vegetation—Summary, insights, and highlights of volume II
No abstract available.AuthorsPrasad S. Thenkabail, John G. Lyon, Alfredo HueteCharacteristics of tropical tree species in hyperspectral and multispectral data
Remote sensing has been hailed as a promising technology to provide spatially explicit information on tree species distribution. Such information is of high value for ecologists and forest managers, particularly in tropical environments in which it is acquired by costly field inventories performed at the plot level (∼1 ha). Over the last decade, hyperspectral sensors, usually on board airborne plaAuthorsMatheus Pinheiro Ferreira, Cibele Hummel do Amaral, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Raymond F. Kokaly, Carlos Roberto de Souza Filho, Yosio Edemir ShimabukuroA 30-m landsat-derived cropland extent product of Australia and China using random forest machine learning algorithm on Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform
Mapping high resolution (30-m or better) cropland extent over very large areas such as continents or large countries or regions accurately, precisely, repeatedly, and rapidly is of great importance for addressing the global food and water security challenges. Such cropland extent products capture individual farm fields, small or large, and are crucial for developing accurate higher-level croplandAuthorsPardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Prasad S. Thenkabail, Adam Oliphant, Jun Xiong, Murali Krishna Gumma, Russell G. Congalton, Kamini Yadav, Alfredo HueteMapping cropland fallow areas in myanmar to scale up sustainable intensification of pulse crops in the farming system
Cropland fallows are the next best-bet for intensification and extensification, leading to increased food production and adding to the nutritional basket. The agronomical suitability of these lands can decide the extent of usage of these lands. Myanmar’s agricultural land (over 13.8 Mha) has the potential to expand by another 50% into additional fallow areas. These areas may be used to grow short-AuthorsMurali Krishna Gumma, Prasad S. Thenkabail, Kumara Charyulu Deevi, Irshad A. Mohammed, Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla, Adam Oliphant, Jun Xiong, Tin Aye, Anthony M. WhittbreadSpectral matching techniques (SMTs) and automated cropland classification algorithms (ACCAs) for mapping croplands of Australia using MODIS 250-m time-series (2000–2015) data
Mapping croplands, including fallow areas, are an important measure to determine the quantity of food that is produced, where they are produced, and when they are produced (e.g. seasonality). Furthermore, croplands are known as water guzzlers by consuming anywhere between 70% and 90% of all human water use globally. Given these facts and the increase in global population to nearly 10 billion by thAuthorsPardhasaradhi G. Teluguntla, Prasad S. Thenkabail, Jun Xiong, Murali Krishna Gumma, Russell G. Congalton, Adam Oliphant, Justin Poehnelt, Kamini Yadav, Mahesh N. Rao, Richard Massey - News
Led the release of the world’s first Landsat 30-m derived global cropland extent product.The data is already widely used worldwide and is downloadable from the NASA\USGS LP DAAC site:
https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/news/release-of-gfsad-30-meter-cropland-extent-products/
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government