Mark James Chopping

E-mail: chopping@pegasus.montclair.edu
Current affiliation : Department of Earth & Environmental Studies at Montclair State University, NJ, USA.
Previous affiliation : USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, NM, USA
Previous affiliation : USDA-ARS Hydrology & Remote Sensing Lab, Beltsville, MD USA
Previous affiliation : School of Geography, University of Nottingham, England
Previous affiliation : Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, England

You could be playing badminton!

  • Previous experience not in my resume: I have worked on farms (hay baling, potato-picking), in warehouses, paintin'/decoratin'/fixin' up houses, in retail, in catering, and in a pulverising mill that exploded shortly after I left (nothing to do with me! the mill processed agricultural fertilizers and employed some careless smokers).
  • In September 2007 I obtained tenure.
  • In September 2006 I was promoted to Associate Professor.
  • In late 2006 our NASA project was incorporated into the North American Carbon Program
  • In 2004 I started as principal investigator on a NASA-sponsored research program.
  • In December 2003 I was appointed to the MISR Science Team and the NASA Land Cover Land Use Change Science Team.
  • In September 2002 I took up the position of Assistant Professor in the department of Earth and Environmental Studies at Montclair State University, one of the other State Universities of New Jersey.

    From July 2001 - September 2002 I was affiliated with the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Previously I was at the Hydrology & Remote Sensing Laboratory, BARC-W, Beltsville, MD. (In 2002 the NEW JORNADA EXPERIMENTAL RANGE BUILDING was opened!).

    At the end of January 1999 I took up a postdoctoral position in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); first in the Hydrology & Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, MD and from February 2001 with the Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

    I graduated on 18th December 1998, having passed the viva for the PhD on 22nd October 1998. For three years, I had been a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography, University of Nottingham, England (supervisors : Dr. Roy Haines-Young and Dr. Michael Steven). Prior to this I read for the M.Phil. in Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems at Cambridge University, having worked for almost three years on a Cambridge University research project investigating Environmental and Cultural Conservation in Inner Asia. At Cambridge I was sent the 'best of the year' letter and in 1996 I received the Remote Sensing Society's (now The Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society) award for the best Masters dissertation. You used to be able to see a thinly-veiled reference to me at this location ("...one music graduate..."!); now only a reference to my MPhil thesis is available somewhere around here or see the skinny.

    I am married to Xiaohong (...don't know why she puts up with me though). I appear rather ragged below since this photograph was taken at the end of a somewhat gruelling three-week field campaign in the desert and typical steppe zones of Inner Mongolia.

    Photograph taken at the end of a somewhat gruelling three-week field campaign in the desert and typical steppe zones of Inner Mongolia

    Mutiny on the Starship " Radiometry " : Captain Mark 'Kirk' Chopping sets his phazer on stun.

    The research goals addressed by my PhD are outlined below.

    Land surface monitoring with Remote Sensing from Space : Accounting for and Using the BRDF in Monitoring Semiarid Grasslands

    Of the five sources of information available in optical remote sensing (spectral, temporal, locational, directional and wave polarity), little use has been made of the last two. This research aims to explore the impact and information potential of the directional variation in the satellite signal through estimation of the surface BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) from spaceborne sensors and the AVHRR in particular.

    BRDF effects make quantitative analysis via other sources of information (multispectral, multitemporal) highly problematic. The nature and extent of the impact of the BRDF on VIS and NIR reflectance is investigated using observations over different vegetated canopies in a semiarid zone, both at ground level and from two spaceborne sensors which view at large incidence angles, the AVHRR and the ATSR-2.

    Linear semiempirical kernel-driven models suitable for operational use are evaluated for their ability to describe and explain the BRDF, adjust the signal for BRDF effects and obtain useful surface information. Initial results indicate that the new models provide enormous scope for improving data quality and also provide useful additional information on surface structure.

    That was so interesting wasn't it? Better go visit Gerhard. ...or...here is a link to my sister and brother-in-law's site in the UK.

    BTW, if you hadn't guessed already, I come from this island.

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