Jon Ranson

Dr. Jon Ranson has taught the Principle of Remote Sensing course for several years. He currently is the Chief of the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He received the B.S. degree in Watershed Sciences and M.S. degree in Earth Resources from Colorado State University where his graduate research involved use of Skylab and Landsat MSS data for geologic and forest cover mapping. He later joined the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS) at Purdue University where he earned the Ph.D. degree. His Doctoral research quantified bidirectional reflectance characteristics of agricultural crops. In 1986, Dr. Ranson joined the Biospheric Sciences Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center. While with the Biospheric Sciences Branch, Dr. Ranson has developed remote sensing linkages to forest ecosystem models and conducted optical and microwave research through several NASA projects.

His current research is focused on active and passive remote sensing of ecosystem dynamics of the boreal forest, especially in Siberia. He has also twice served as an acting NASA HQ Program Manager and was the Project Scientist for the EOS Terra Mission and GSFC DESDynI Lidar mission concept.