M. Tugrul Yilmaz    Student, George Mason University    Researcher: Center for Research on Environment & Water    4041 Powder Mill Road, Suite 302    Calverton, MD 20705-3106 USA    301/937-7607 Phone     301/595-9790 Fax     Email: M. T. Yilmaz

Water Cycle Research:  Accurate representation of water and energy cycling is critical to our understanding the land and atmosphere processes through their interactions. During the last two decades, advancement in satellite remote sensing led a significant improvement in our comprehending these phenomenons. My career goal is to become an expert in water and energy cycling supported by numerical models, data assimilation and remote sensing. My current research includes evaluation of precipitation products and their optimal merging through numerical analysis methods, where precipitation plays a primary role in driving the terrestrial branch of these cycles.

Education:

• Ph.D., George Mason University, Earth Systems and GeoInformation Sciences, (2006-Current)
• M.S., Vrije University Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Hydrogeology (2005)
• B.S., Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Civil Engineering (2003)

Experience

• 2006 -- current Student at GMU / researcher at CREW, Optimizing GPM Precipitation Estimation Using High Resolution Land Surface Modeling for Decision Support
• 2004 -- 2007 Visiting Scientist at U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab., Remote sensing of Vegetation Water Content studies in support of SMEX04 and SMEX05

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• M. Tugrul Yilmaz, E. Raymond Hunt, Jr. and Thomas J. Jackson. Remote Sensing of Vegetation Water Content from Equivalent Water Thickness using Satellite Imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment (in print)
• M. Tugrul Yilmaz, E. Raymond Hunt Jr., Lyssa D. Goins, Susan L. Ustin, Vern C. Vanderbilt and Thomas J. Jackson (2008). Vegetation water content during SMEX04 from ground data and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment, 112, 350-362

Conference Publications

• M. Tugrul Yilmaz, Paul Houser and Roshan Shrestha (2007). Effect of land cover classification map resolution in land surface modeling studies. Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract H31D-0635
• E. Raymond Hunt, Jr., M. Tugrul Yilmaz (2007). Remote Sensing of Vegetation Water Content using Shortwave Infrared Reflectances (Invited). Proceedings of International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), 6679, 667902
• E. Raymond Hunt, Jr., M. Tugrul Yilmaz and Thomas J. Jackson (2006). Scaling Vegetation Water Content from Thematic Mapper to MODIS during SMEX04. IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)

Workshops

• Workshop on Applications of Remotely Sensed Observations in Data Assimilation, College Park MD, July 23-August 10, 2007
• MODIS Data Workshop, Baltimore MD, January 8 - 10, 2007

Fieldwork

• 2007, Oklahoma, the Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC)
• 2005, Iowa, Soil Moisture Experiment (SMEX05)
• 2005 2004, Denizli/Turkey, Fieldwork on hydrological reconnaissance of the Curuksu River basin
• 2004, Olang/Italy, Fieldwork on hydro-geological and surface water reconnaissance of Northern Italian dolomites
• 2004, Algarve/Portugal, Fieldwork on groundwater flow investigation and water balance estimation
• 2004, Twente/Netherlands, Fieldwork on instrumentation techniques on hydro-geology

Professional Memberships: 

• American Geophysical Union

Last Updated: 20 March 2008