Manabendra Saharia
Postdoctoral Research Associate Hydrological Sciences Lab NASA Goddard Space Flight Center B22, 190B, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771 Email: manabendra.saharia@nasa.gov Group: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/earth/hydrology/ Web: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/manabendra.saharia Office: (+1) 303-497-2873
Research
My research is focused on disentangling the complex relationships between geomorphology, climate, precipitation, physical processes, and runoff generation using hydrological and statistical models.
Research Interests
- Large-sample hydrology
- Land surface modeling and uncertainty analysis
- Radar and satellite precipitation
- Statistics and machine learning applications
Education
- Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering, University of Oklahoma , 2017
- Dissertation: Characterization and Prediction of Flash Flood Severity
- Advisors : Prof. Yang Hong and Dr. Jonathan J. Gourley, HyDROS Research Group
- M.S. in Water Resources Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, 2013
- Thesis : Ensemble Streamflow Forecasting For The Upper Trinity River Basin In Texas
- Advisor : Prof. Dong-Jun Seo, Hydrology and Water Resources Laboratory (HWRL)
- B.Tech. in Civil Engineering , National Institute of Technology, Silchar , India, 2011
- Project : Flood Forecasting in Multiple River Sections using Artificial Neural Networks
- Advisors : Prof. Parthasarathi Choudhury and Dr. Parthajit Roy
Experience
- Postdoctoral Fellow, 2017-present, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO
- Project 1: Developing a real-time and distributed HUC-based modeling system for ensemble streamflow forecasting over large domains.
- Project 2: Developing a multi-model ensemble framework to quantify and partition uncertainty in flood frequency estimates.
- Graduate Research Assistant, 2013-2017, Advanced Radar Research Center, University of Oklahoma.
- Project: The Flooded Locations And Simulated Hydrographs (FLASH), NOAA
- Graduate Research Assistant, 2011-2013, HWRL, University of Texas at Arlington.
- End-to-end ensemble hindcasting setup for the West Gulf River Forecast Center.
- Summer Research Intern, Prof. Sharad K. Jain, NIH Roorkee and IIT Roorkee.
- Winter Trainee, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
- Summer Trainee, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
Journal Publications
Book Chapters
- Saharia, M. , Li, L., Hong, Y., Wang, J., Adler, R. F., Policelli, F. S., Shahid, H., Irwn, D., Korme, T., and Okello, L. (2016). “Real-time hydrologic prediction system in East Africa through SERVIR”, Hydrologic Remote Sensing - Capacity Building for Sustainability and Resilience, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
- Shen, Y., Anyuan, X., Hong, Y., Jingjing, Y., Yang, P., Zhuoqi, C., and Saharia, M. (2016). “Uncertainty Analysis of Five Satellite-Based Precipitation Products and Evaluation of Three Optimally Merged Multi-algorithm Products over the Tibetan Plateau”, Hydrologic Remote Sensing - Capacity Building for Sustainability and Resilience, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
Funding
- Mar 2018 Early Career Scientist Assembly (ECSA) fund for hosting an external research collaborator
Conference Presentations
- Wood, A.W., Saharia, M. , Clark, M., Bennett, A., Nijssen, B., Clark, E., Newman, A. (2018) “Development and Demonstration of Ensemble Hydrologic Data Assimilation Strategies for a Real-Time Distributed Regional Hydrologic Forecast System”, AMS Annual Meeting 2018, Austin, Texas. [Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y (2018) “Accounting for rainfall spatial variability in the prediction of flash floods”, AMS Annual Meeting 2018, Austin, Texas. [Poster]
- Saharia, M. , Wood, A.W., Clark, M., Bennett, A., Nijssen, B., Clark, E., Newman, A. (2017) “Distributed HUC-based modeling with SUMMA for ensemble streamflow forecasting over large regional domains”, AGU Annual Meeting 2017 [Poster]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2017) “Impact of Rainfall Spatial Variability on Flash Flood Severity”, Student Water Conference, Oklahoma Water Resources Center, Mar 23-24, Oklahoma. [Oral presentation award]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2017) “Impact of Rainfall Spatial Variability on Flash Flood Severity”, EGU General Assembly, Apr 23-28, Austria. [Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2017) “How can we measure the severity of flash floods?“, Research and Creativity Day, Feb 24, University of Oklahoma. [Best Oral Presentation award]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2016) “Accounting for Rainfall Spatial Variability in Prediction of Flash Floods”, AGU Fall Meeting, Dec 12-16, San Francisco. [Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2016) “Accounting for Rainfall Spatial Variability in Prediction of Flash Floods”, 9th European Conference on Radar in Meteorology, Oct 10, Turkey. [Oral]
- Hong,Y., Gourley, JJ., Saharia, M. , Flamig, Z., Clark, R., Zhang, K., Muthike, Denus., Hasan, Emad., Cappelaere, P., Frye, S., Handy, M., Nyaga, J. (2016) “Forecasting and Communicating Water-Related Disasters in Africa”, SAGE, Nepal. [Poster]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2016) “Mapping the flashiest regions of the United States”, Research and Creativity Day, Mar 4 University of Oklahoma. [Best Oral Presentation award] 11.Kirstetter, PE., Saharia, M. , Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2016) “Toward estimating the probability of flood severity over the United States”, AMS Annual Meeting, 2016, New Orleans.[Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2015) “Mapping Flash Flood Severity in the United States”, AGU Fall Meeting, Dec 14-18, San Francisco, California. [Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2015) “Where are the flashiest basins of the United States?“, Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), Oct 7-11, Norman, Oklahoma. [Poster] [Best Poster Award]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2015) “Characterization and Prediction of Flash Flood Severity in the United States”, 2015 International Symposium on Earth-Science Challenges, Sep 20-23, Norman, Oklahoma. [Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Kirstetter, PE, Gourley, JJ., Vergara, H. and Hong, Y. (2014) “Characterization of Floods in the United States”, AGU Fall Meeting, Dec 15-19, San Francisco, California. [Poster]
- Saharia, M. , Seo., Dong-Jun, Corby, R. and He, K. (2013) “Short-range ensemble streamflow forecasting of the Upper Trinity River – Evaluation via hindcasting experiments”, AGU Meeting of the Americas, May 14-17, Cancun, Mexico. [Oral]
- Saharia, M. , Seo., Dong-Jun, Corby, R. and Bell,F. (2013) “Increasing lead time in short-range streamflow forecasting via the Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service (HEFS)“, NWS/OHD Seminar, Silver Spring, MD.
- Saharia, M. , Bhattacharjya, R. K. and Satish, M. (2011) “Catchment Runoff Forecasting using Time- Lagged Recurrent Neural Networks”.4th ASCE-EWRI International Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment (IPWE 2011), January 4-6, National University of Singapore, Singapore. 19.Roy, P., Choudhury, P. and Saharia, M. (2011). “River Reaches Flood Flow Prediction using TLRN models”. 4th ASCE-EWRI International Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment (IPWE 2011), January 4-6, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
- Saharia, M. and Bhattacharjya. R. K. (2011). “Comparison of ANN-based Runoff-prediction Models Trained by Eight Different Learning Algorithms”.4th ASCE-EWRI International Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment (IPWE 2011), January 4-6, National University of Singapore, Singapore. 21.Roy, P., Choudhury, P. and Saharia, M. (2010). “Dynamic ANN Modeling for Flood Forecasting in a River Network”. International Conference on Modeling, Optimization and Computing (ICMOC 2010), American Institute of Physics Conf. Proc., NIT Durgapur, India.
Teaching Experience
- Spring 2017 Teaching Assistant for CEES-5843 (Hydrology) - Co-taught and organized lecture series
- Spring 2016 Teaching Assistant for CEES-5903 (Remote Sensing Hydrology)
Awards and Mentions
- Mar 2017 Citation and cash award in the oral presentation category of the Student Water Conference, Oklahoma Water Resources Center, Mar 23, 2017.
- Mar 2017 Advanced Radar Research Center Student Paper Cash Award in recognition of research accomplishments and scholarly publication
- Feb 2017 First prize and cash award in the oral presentation category of the Student Research and Creativity Day, University of Oklahoma, Feb 24, 2017.
- Jan 2017 Advanced Radar Research Center Student Paper Cash Award in recognition of research accomplishments and scholarly publication
- Mar 2016 First prize and cash award in the oral presentation category of the Student Research and Creativity Day, University of Oklahoma, March 4, 2016.
- Oct 2015 Student Recognition, President’s Monthly Research and Development Highlights, Volume 10, Issue 7, University of Oklahoma
- Oct 2015 Best Poster Award in the Graduate Student Poster Contest, Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ),Norman, October 7-11, 2015.
- May-July 2015 Fellowship for attending the National Flood Interoperability Experiment (NFIE) Summer Institute, National Water Center, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Workshops
- Sep 2017 The 2016 Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor (MRMS) HMT-Hydro Testbed Experiment (Served as Coordinator)
- May-Jul 2015 National Flood Interoperability Experiment, Summer Institute, National Water Center, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (8 Weeks)
- Jan 2011 HEPEX Workshop, National Weather Center, Silver Spring, Maryland (3 days)
Professional Memberships
- American Geophysical Union
- American Meteorological Society
- American Society of Civil Engineers
Science Communication
- Saharia, Manabendra “Can a Sanctuary in Brahmaputra Save River Dolphins?“, Nov 29, 2016. The Assam Tribune (Lead editorial)
Interests
EdTech, Mentoring, Volunteering, Writing columns, Fitness