Susan Stillman Email & Phone Number

Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States

Las Vegas, Nevada

As a postdoctoral researcher at Desert Research Institute, I have had the opportunity to work on a diverse set of multi-disciplinary projects relating to climate and extreme weather. Some key projects I have played major roles in are listed below. In addition to research, I develop and review technical reports and proposals, participate in field campaigns, and participate in community outreach events.Assessed the impacts of climate change on playa lakebed inundation frequency and duration using LandSat imagery and a limited number of precipitation and runoff gauges using a probabilistic approach.Collected data and summarized literature for the preparation of a website for scientists and emergency responders interested in hydrologic impacts of wildfireAnalyzed climate change impacts on sediment transport in the Nevada National Security Sites, with the aim of understanding whether radionuclide contaminated soils are likely to spread beyond the contamination zones.Working to identify characteristics of atmospheric rivers that influence orographic precipitation and understand how these characteristics may change in the futureIdentified mechanisms that drive interannual snowpack variability in the upper Colorado River Basin, with the intent to use this knowledge to inform seasonal prediction and future changes in snowpack.Analyzed the relationship between antecedent soil moisture and afternoon precipitation using remotely sensed precipitation and soil moisture products, and incorporated atmospheric data to understand when and where wet versus dry soil favors convection.

Tucson, Arizona Area

My postdoctoral research includes a performance evaluation NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite relative to five state-of-the-science passive microwave satellite-based soil moisture products using ground based observed data over a variety of land cover types. Uncertainties due to the representativeness of point measurements in comparison with satellite pixels are considered in this evaluation.

As a graduate research assistant, my research can be broadly characterized as a quality assessment and improvements to the current global hydrologic observing system. Several key projects are highlighted below: Identified deficiencies in the only 100+ year precipitation frequency product, developed an improved 110-year precipitation frequency product by combining the superior spatial coverage of satellite data with long-term ground based measurements, and evaluated it against high quality regional products with far more observations than the input data.Evaluated the performance of 22 precipitation and 23 soil moisture products including climate models, reanalyses, and remotely sensed data over a densely instrumented watershed in Southern Arizona.In order to extend the measurement period of soil moisture over a watershed with soil moisture probes installed in 2002, I developed a physically-based, observationally constrained soil moisture model. The model calibration included precipitation, soil moisture, and flux tower data. Running the model only requires precipitation data, and therefore the measurement period of soil moisture was extended to the duration of precipitation gauges, which were installed in the 1950's.Analyzed spatiotemporal variability and trends of precipitation and soil moisture within a watershed in Southern ArizonaContributed to the development of the Cosmic Ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS) probe effective measurement depth function and collected field samples for probe calibration

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Hydrometeorology

Master'S Degree, Hydrometeorology

Bachelor'S Degree, Physics