Agricultural Research Service
50th Anniversary

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Dr. Susan Moran is a Hydrologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona Dept. of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, Tucson, Arizona.  Dr. Moran began her ARS career at the USDA-ARS U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1984.  In 1999, she was selected as Research Leader for the USDA ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.  Dr. Moran has also served on the NASA Landsat Science Team and EO-1 Validation Team to evaluate selected technologies for meeting science needs in the 21st Century. 

Her research addresses the development of theory, principles, and methods for estimation of soil moisture and evapotranspiration, detection of physical and biological stress in plants, and evaluation of energy balance and water balance at local and regional scales utilizing a combination of models and remote sensing techniques.  

Satellite-based tools derived from Dr. Moran's research are now being used to monitor forest fire risk assessment in France, drought in Africa, and grassland degradation in the U.S. and China.  She has a keen interest in practical research that will put high technology, particularly remote sensing, into the hands of resource managers.