Department of Forest Resources, College Natural Resources, UI PO 441133
University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844-1133 USA

 

Dr. Smith joined the Department of Forest Resources in 2003 as a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the  Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC) to organize and coordinate regional extension of forestry-remote sensing research. As part of this hire, Dr. Smith serves as the National Coordinator for ForestPARC which since 2003 has, working with partners in the USFS has organized three national stakeholder orientated workshops. In 2007 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Forest Measurements at the University of Idaho, where he currently heads the Forest and Rangeland Measurements Lab. Dr. Smith holds a B.S. in Physics, University of Edinburgh, a M.S. with Distinction in Imaging and Digital Image Processing, Department of Physics, King's College London, University of London, and a Ph.D. in Remote Sensing, Department of Geography, King's College London, University of London, which focused on quantifying nitrogen and carbon emission from southern African savannah fires through a novel remote sensing analysis approach. Throughout his PhD, Dr. Smith worked in Africa conducting prescribed fires and through his postdoctoral experience at the University of Idaho, continues to analyze fire behavior and fire effects. These days, Dr. Smith’s research can be broadly described at trying to improve the physical linkages between remote sensing and ground measurements to reduce uncertainties in various biogeoscience cycles; such as the biogeochemical cycles and radiative transfer budgets. His current research themes include, (1) improving ground and remote measurements of fire-effects to better quantity carbon and water cycles, (2) using optical and thermal imagery to improve regional assessment of the impact on fires on smoke and regional air quality; and (3) developing approaches to characterize vegetation structure with LiDAR and aerial photography to improve our understanding of carbon, water, and energy budgets.

The link at left provides further details of these and other research topics. Those interested in possible postgraduate study of research fellowships are welcome to enquire by email.

Dr. Smith has published in excess of 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals, frequently reviews proposals for the Joint Fire Sciences Program, and sits on the organizing committee for the Biogeosciences section of the American Geophysical Union. He is the a member of IEEE and in 2005 was voted by fellow to be a member of the Institute of Physics.

Evans, J.S., Hudak, A.T., Faux, R., and Smith, A.M.S. Discrete Return lidar in Natural Resources: Towards Development of Multi-Discipline Standards in Project Planning, Processing, and Data Utilization, PE&RS. In Review.

Holden, Z.A., Morgan, P., Smith, A.M.S., and Vierling, L.A. Beyond Landsat: Multi-scale Assessment of Four Satellite Sensors for Detecting Burn Severity in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Gila Wilderness, NM, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire. Accepted Pending Revisions.
 
Dickinson, J, Robinson, A.P., Gessler, P.E., Harrod, R., and Smith, A.M.S. Flatland in flames: a two-dimensional canopy fire propagation model, International Journal of Wildland Fire. Accepted Pending Revisions.

Sesnie, S.E., Finegan, B., Gessler, P.E., Rahaniemi, S., Thessler, S., Brendana, Z.R., and Smith, A.M.S. 2009. The multispectral separability of Costa Rica rain forest types with support-vector machines and Random Forest decision trees, International Journal of Remote Sensing. In Press.

Lentile, L.B*., Smith, A.M.S*., Hudak, A.T., Morgan, P., Bobbitt, M., Lewis, S.A., and Robichaud, P. [*Equal Contribution] 2009. Remote sensing for prediction of 1-year post-fire ecosystem condition, International Journal of Wildland Fire. In Press.

Smith, A.M.S., Wynne, R., and Coops, N. (refereed introduction) 2008. Special issue on the Remote Characterization of Vegetation Structure and Productivity: Plant to Landscape Scales, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. In Press.

Falkowski, M.J., Smith, A.M.S., Gessler, P.E., Hudak, A.T., and Vierling, L.A. 2008. The influence of forest canopy cover upon the accuracy of two LiDAR-based individual tree measurement algorithms, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. In Press.

Smith, A.M.S., Strand, E.K., Steele, C.M., Hann, D.B., Garrity, S.R., Falkowski, M.J., and Evans, J.S. 2008. Production of vegetation spatial-structure maps by per-object analysis of juniper encroachment in multi-temporal aerial photographs, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. In Press.

Garrity, S.R., Vierling, L.A., Smith, A.M.S., Hann, D.B., and Falkowski, M.J. 2008. Suitability of Spatial Wavelet Analysis (SWA) for the automatic assessment of shrubs within an arid environment, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. In Press.

Smith, A.M.S., Greenberg, J., and Vierling. L.A. 2008. Introduction to Special Section: The Remote Characterization of Vegetation Structure: New methods and applications to landscape-regional-global scale processes, J. Geophys. Res., 113, G03S91, doi:10.1029/2008JG000748.

Strand, E.K., Vierling, L.A., Smith, A.M.S., and Bunting, S.C. 2008. Net Changes in Above Ground Woody Carbon Stock in Western Juniper Woodlands, 1946-1998. J. Geophys. Res., 113, G01013, doi:10.1029/2007JG000544.
Lentile, L.B., Morgan, P., Hudak, A.T., Bobbitt, M.J., Lewis, S.A., Smith, A.M.S., and Robichaud, P.R. 2007. Burn Severity and Vegetation Response Following Eight Large Wildfires across the western US, Journal of Fire Ecology, 3,1, 91-108.

Hudak A.T., Morgan P., Bobbitt M.J., Smith A.M.S., Lewis S.A., Lentile L.B., Robichaud P.R., Clark J.T., and McKinley R.A. 2007. The relationship of multispectral satellite imagery to immediate fire effects, Journal of Fire Ecology, 3,1, 64-90.

Smith, A.M.S., .Lentile, L.B., Hudak, A.T., and Morgan P. 2007. Evaluation of linear spectral unmixing and dNBR for predicting post-fire recovery in a N. American ponderosa pine forest, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 22, 20, 5159-5166.

Eitel, J.U.H., Long D., Gessler, P.E., and Smith, A.M.S. 2007. Using in-situ spectroradiometery to evalaute new RapidEye satellite data for prediction of wheat nitrogen status, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 28, 18, 4183–4190.

Holden, Z.A., Morgan, P., Crimmins, A., Steinhorst, R.K., and Smith, A.M.S. 2007. Fire Season Precipitation Variability Influences Fire Extent and Severity in a Large South-western Wilderness Area, USA, Geophysical Research Letters, 4, L16708, doi:10.1029/2007GL030804.

Smith, A.M.S., Drake, N.A., Wooster, M.J., Hudak, A.T., Holden, Z.A., and Gibbons C.J. 2007. Production of Landsat ETM+ Reference Imagery of Burned Areas within Southern African Savannahs: Comparison of Methods and Application to MODIS, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 28, 12, 2753-2775.

Eitel, J.U.H., Gessler, P.E., Smith, A.M.S., and Robberecht, R. 2006. Suitability of existing and Novel spectral indices to remotely detect water stress in Populus spp., Forest Ecology and Management, 229, 170-182.

Falkowski, M.J., Smith, A.M.S., Hudak, A.T., Gessler, P.E., Vierling, L.A., and Crookston, N.L. 2006. Automated estimation of individual conifer tree height and crown diameter via Two-dimensional spatial wavelet analysis of lidar data, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, No. 2, 153-161.

Hudak, A.T., Crookston, N.L., Evans, J.S., Falkowski M.J., Smith A.M.S., Gessler, P.E., and Morgan, P. 2006. Regression modeling and mapping of coniferous forest basal area and tree density from discrete-return lidar and multispectral data, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, No. 2, 126-138.

Lentile, L.B*., Holden, Z*., Smith A.M.S*., Falkowski M.J., Hudak, A.T., Morgan, P., Lewis, S.A., Gessler, P.E., and Benson, N.C. [*Equal Contribution] 2006. Remote sensing techniques to assess active fire and post-fire effects, International Journal of Wildland Fire, Feature Paper, 15, 3, 319-345.

Strand, E., Smith, A.M.S., Bunting, S.C., Vierling, L.A., Hann, D.B., and Gessler, P.E. 2006. Wavelet estimation of plant spatial patterns in multi-temporal aerial photography, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 27, 9-10, 2049-2054.

Falkowski, M.J., Gessler, P.E., Morgan, P., Hudak, A.T., and Smith A.M.S. 2005. Evaluating ASTER satellite imagery and gradient modelling for mapping and characterizing wildland fire fuels, Forest Ecology and Management, 217, 129-146.

Holden, Z., Smith, A.M.S., Morgan, P., Rollins, M.G., and Gessler, P.E. 2005. Evaluation of novel thermally enhanced spectral indices for mapping fire perimeters and comparisons with fire atlas data, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 26, 21, 4801-4808.

Smith A.M.S., and Hudak, A.T. 2005. Estimating combustion of large downed woody debris from residual white ash, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 14, 245-248.

Smith A.M.S., and Wooster, M.J. 2005. Remote classification of head and backfire types from MODIS fire radiative power observations, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 14, 249-254.

Smith A.M.S., Wooster M.J., Drake N.A., Dipotso F.M., Falkowski M.J., and Hudak, A.T. 2005. Testing the Potential of Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing for Retrospectively Estimating Fire Severity in African Savanna Environments, Remote Sensing of Environment, 97, 1, 92-115.

Smith, A.M.S., Wooster, M.J., Drake, N.A., Perry, G.L.W., and Dipotso, F.M. 2005, Fire in African savanna: Testing the impact of incomplete combustion on pyrogenic emissions estimates, Ecological Applications,15, 1074-1082.

Hann, D.B., Smith, A.M.S., and Powell, A.K. 2003. Technical Note: Classification of off-diagonal points in a co-occurrence matrix, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24, 1949-1956