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52.2297° N, 21.0122° E · WARSAW · POLAND

Monika Anna
Tomaszewska

· Adjunct Professor @ Michigan State University ·
· MatSat Monika Tomaszewska ·
· Ph.D. ·

Earth Observation SAR · Optical · Thermal Land Surface Phenology HPC Workflows NASA · ESA Programs
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About

Earth Observation scientist with 10+ years of experience in large-scale satellite data analysis, environmental monitoring, and geospatial modeling. Specialized in optical, thermal, and radar (SAR) data processing and multi-sensor integration on high-performance computing (HPC).

My work has ranged widely — agricultural land cover and land-use change, snow-cover seasonality, highland pasture phenologies, human exposure to urban heat and greenness, and assessment of new EO and geospatial products — contributing to NASA and ESA programs across Central Asia, Europe, and North America.

Skilled in R, Python, and Julia for automating data ingestion, time-series modeling, and EO and geospatial data processing and product generation. Extensive collaboration record advancing satellite data analytics for agricultural, climate, and land-use research.

Research Interests
Land Surface Phenology Snow-Cover Seasonality Crop Monitoring Urban Heat Exposure Vegetation Dynamics HPC Time-Series Multi-Sensor Integration Mountain Ecosystems Agricultural Land Use Machine Learning Thermal Remote Sensing
Career

Experience

2025 – Present
Adjunct Assistant Professor – Research
Center for Global Change & Earth Observations · Michigan State University
  • Co-Investigator, MSU Health Equity Research – EO and geospatial data processing for heat and vegetation greenness exposure mapping in Detroit; meteorological data processing for UTCI, trend analyses.
2024 – 2025
Assistant Professor – Research
Center for Global Change & Earth Observations · Michigan State University
  • Led EO and geospatial data processing for large multi-sensor datasets integrating Sentinel-2, MODIS/VIIRS, and HLS imagery using HPC.
  • Co-Investigator, NASA CNVOE SmallSat SAR evaluation (Capella & UMBRA X-band).
  • Member, NASA LP DAAC and NASA Surface Biology and Geology User Working Groups (UWG).
2020 – 2024
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Center for Global Change & Earth Observations · Michigan State University
  • Developed scalable HPC workflows for time-series fusion of MODIS, VIIRS, and Sentinel-2 imagery.
  • Field campaigns for NASA LCLUC projects in Romania and Kyrgyzstan.
  • Phenological metrics for bird migration analyses across CONUS.
  • Snow-cover seasonality trends over Tian Shan and Pamir mountain systems.
2016 – 2019
Graduate Research Assistant
Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence · South Dakota State University
  • Reprocessed 35,000+ Landsat scenes to model land-surface phenology and snow seasonality in Central Asia.
  • Quantified terrain and climate effects on vegetation dynamics.
  • Field campaigns for NASA LCLUC project in Kyrgyzstan.
2011 – 2016
Research Assistant
Institute of Geodesy & Cartography, Remote Sensing Center · Warsaw, Poland
  • Supported ESA/EU projects (GEOLAND, MONINA, Finegrass) on vegetation monitoring and wetland mapping.
  • Led field campaigns for validation over agricultural and wetland regions.
2013
Visiting Researcher
South Dakota State University
  • MODIS MIR data analysis for characterizing urbanized areas within NASA LCLUC project on urban canopy and severe weather.
2010
GIS Software Tester
Neokart GIS Ltd. · Warsaw, Poland
  • Testing GIS and database software for the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA).

Education

2019
Ph.D., Geospatial Science & Engineering
South Dakota State University · Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence

    How Are Interannual Variations Of Land Surface Phenology In The Highland Pastures Of Kyrgyzstan Modulated By Terrain, Snow Cover Seasonality, And Climate Oscillations? An Investigation Using Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data.

2012
PgDip, Geographic Information Systems
Warsaw University of Technology · Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography

    Use of "Topographic Map of the Kingdom of Poland (1822 – 1843)" to study the changes of topography of a Brańszczyk borough.

2010
M.S., Remote Sensing of Environment
University of Warsaw · Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies

    Use of MODIS Satellite Images to Study the Percentage of Vegetation Cover.

2008
B.A., Geography
University of Warsaw · Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies

    Using remote sensing in a zoning plan of the country.

Technical

Core Expertise

Programming & Tools
PythonRJulia BashGit DockerConda / Mamba
Big Data & HPC
HPC (MSU ICER)Parallel Processing Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFTime-Series Modeling
EO Platforms & Sensors
Sentinel-1 SARSentinel-2 Landsat 5–9MODIS / VIIRS ECOSTRESSDESIS VENµSCapella / UMBRA ConstellR
Geospatial Software
GDALR terra / tmap QGISArcGIS ENVIERDAS PCI Geomatica
Applications
Land Surface PhenologyCrop Monitoring Snow-Cover AnalysisMountain Environment Multi-Sensor FusionMachine Learning
Missions

Selected EO Projects

Co-PI · Active
2025 – 2026
MSU Health Equity – Urban Heat & Green Space Mapping
EO-based mapping of green space and urban heat exposure in Detroit to support community resilience.
Co-I · NASA CNVOE
2023 – 2025
X-band SAR SmallSat Evaluation
Evaluating Capella & UMBRA commercial X-band SAR data accessibility, calibration, and workflow integration for crop phenology.
NASA LCLUC
2023 – 2025
Post-Socialist Agricultural Land-Use Change
Agricultural land-use change in post-socialist Europe; field validation and land-surface phenology modeling in Romania.
NASA Biodiversity
2022 – 2024
EO Variables for Avian Migration Modeling
Linking land surface phenology to bird migration timing across CONUS using dense satellite time series.
NASA LCLUC
2016 – 2023
Central Asian Highlands – Land Change
Atmospheric teleconnections and telecouplings driving land change; snow seasonality and phenology over Tian Shan and Pamir.
ESA Finegrass
2013 – 2016
Remote Sensing Grassland Monitoring
Effect of climatic changes on grassland growth, its water conditions and biomass.
Transmissions

Selected Publications

Ecology · 2025
Shifts in avian migration phenologies do not compensate for changes to conditions en route in spring and fall
Adams, C. A., Tomaszewska, M. A., Henebry, G. M., & Horton, K. G. DOI →
Environmental Research Letters · 2025
Snow-cover seasonality in Kyrgyzstan: Variation and change over 20 years (2001–2021) as observed by the MODIS Terra snow product
Henebry, G. M., & Tomaszewska, M. A. DOI →
Int. J. Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation · 2025
Characterizing phenological differences of invasive shrubs in a forest matrix using high resolution VENµS time series
Liang, L., Yang, J., Wittenbraker, W. C., Crocker, E. V., Tomaszewska, M. A., & Henebry, G. M. DOI →
Journal of Animal Ecology · 2024
Chasing and surfing seasonal waves: Avian migration through the US tracks land surface phenology in fall, but not spring
Adams, C. A., Tomaszewska, M. A., Henebry, G. M., & Horton, K. G. DOI →
Nature Communications · 2023 High Impact
Artificial light at night is a top predictor of bird migration stopover density
Horton, K. G., Buler, J. J., Anderson, S. J., Burt, C. S., Collins, A. C., Dokter, A. M., Guo, F., Sheldon, D., Tomaszewska, M. A., & Henebry, G. M. DOI →
Remote Sensing · 2021
Remote sensing of pasture degradation in the highlands of the Kyrgyz Republic: Finer-scale analysis reveals complicating factors
Tomaszewska, M. A., & Henebry, G. M. DOI →
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. · 2021
Exploring how DESIS imagery can enhance the characterization of land surface phenologies in montane pastures
Henebry G., Tomaszewska M., Zhumanova M., Mambetov A., Orunbaev S., Kulenbekov Z. DOI →
Remote Sensing of Environment · 2020
Land surface phenology in the highland pastures of montane Central Asia: Interactions with snow cover seasonality and terrain characteristics
Tomaszewska, M. A., Nguyen, L. H., & Henebry, G. M. DOI →
Int. J. Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation · 2020
How much variation in land surface phenology can climate oscillation modes explain at the scale of mountain pastures in Kyrgyzstan?
Tomaszewska, M. A., & Henebry, G. M. DOI →
Environmental Research Letters · 2018
Changing snow seasonality in the highlands of Kyrgyzstan
Tomaszewska M., Henebry G.M. DOI →
Remote Sensing · 2018
Comparison of Global and Continental Land Cover Products for Selected Study Areas in South Central and Eastern European Region
Manakos, I., Tomaszewska, M., Gkinis, I., et al. DOI →
Remote Sensing · 2016
Urban-rural contrasts in Central-Eastern European cities using a MODIS 4 micron time series
Tomaszewska, M., & Henebry, G. M. DOI →
IEEE J. Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing · 2016
Viewing global megacities through MODIS 4 µm radiance: Effects of time of year, latitude, land cover, and view zenith angle
Tomaszewska M., Kovalskyy V., Small C., Henebry G. M. DOI →
Remote Sensing · 2016
Assessment of Carbon Flux and Soil Moisture in Wetlands Applying Sentinel-1 Data
Dabrowska-Zielinska K., Budzynska M., Tomaszewska M., Malinska A., Gatkowska M., Bartold M., Malek I. DOI →
Geoinformation Issues · 2016
Importance of grassland monitoring in European perspective of climate change – FINEGRASS project
Jollmann J., Taff G., Twardy S., Budzynska M., Czerwinski M., Kopacz M., Kurnicki R., Kowalik W., Tomaszewska M., et al. DOI →
Geoinformation Issues · 2014
CORINE Land Cover 2012 – 4th CLC inventory completed in Poland
Hoscilo A., Tomaszewska M. DOI →
Remote Sensing · 2014
Monitoring Wetlands Ecosystems Using ALOS PALSAR (L-Band, HV) Supplemented by Optical Data: A Case Study of Biebrza Wetlands in Northeast Poland
Dabrowska-Zielinska K., Budzynska M., Tomaszewska M., Bartold M., Gatkowska M., Malek I., Turlej K., Napiorkowska M. DOI →
Community

Professional Service & Honors

Memberships & Roles

Member – NASA LP DAAC User Working Group (UWG)
Member – NASA Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Algorithms & Applications Working Group
Member – MSU Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research (ICER) User Advisory Board
Member – American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Member – Global Land Programme
Trainer – CARIN & SCERIN international capacity-building workshops on EO data processing and analytics

Awards & Honors

SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship (2015)
Signal

Contact

Open to collaborations, research partnerships, and scientific discussions in Earth observation, remote sensing, and geospatial science.

Email
monika.anna.tomaszewska@gmail.com
mt.matsat@gmail.com
Phone
+48-606-996-992
Location
Warsaw, Poland
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Curriculum Vitae

Full academic CV including complete publication list, projects, and professional experience.

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