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

1. 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.
2. 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

1. 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]
2. 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]
3. 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]
4. 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]
5. 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]
6. 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]
7. 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]
8. 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]
9. 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]
10. 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]
11. 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]
12. 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]
13. 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]
14. 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]
15. 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]
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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

1. 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