Victoria Walker, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory Bldg. 007, Rm. 104, BARC-West Beltsville, MD 20705-2350 USA Voice: (301) 504-7490 Fax: (301) 504-8931 Victoria.Walker@usda.gov

Research Interests:

• Synthesis of soil moisture and vegetation monitoring data in support of remote sensing calibration and validation activities.

Education:

• 2014 B.S. (Applied Meteorology) Department of Applied Aviation Sciences, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ.
• 2016 M.S. (Agricultural Meteorology) Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• 2019 Ph.D. (Agricultural Meteorology) Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Professional Experience:

• 2014 - 2016: Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• 2016 - 2019: NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow, Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
• 2019 - 2021: Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana, Missoula, MT.
• 2021 - present: ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow, USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Beltsville, MD.

Publication Databases: 

​ORCID

Selected Publications:

Walker, V. A., Wallace, V., Yildirim, E., Eichinger, W. E., Cosh, M. H., & Hornbuckle, B. K. (2023). From Field Observations to Temporally Dynamic Soil Surface Roughness Retrievals in the U.S. Corn Belt. Remote Sensing of Environment, 287, 113458, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2023.113458

Walker, V. A., Colliander, A. & Kimball, J. S. (2022). Satellite Retrievals of Probabilistic Freeze-Thaw Conditions from SMAP and AMSR Brightness Temperatures. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 60, 1-11, doi:10.1109/TGRS.2022.3174807

Togliatti, K., Lewis-Beck, C., Walker, V. A., Hartman, T., VanLoocke, A., Cosh, M. H., & Hornbuckle B. K. (2020). Quantitative Assessment of Satellite L-band Vegetation Optical Depth in the U.S. Corn Belt. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 19, 1-5, doi:10.1109/LGRS.2020.3034174

Lewis-Beck, C., Zhu, Z., Walker, V. A., & Hornbuckle B. K. (2020). Modeling Crop Phenology in the US Corn Belt Using Spatially Referenced SMOS Satellite Data. Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, 25, 657-675, doi:10.1007/s13253-020-00419-x

Lewis-Beck, C., Walker, V. A., Niemi, J., Caragea, P., & Hornbuckle B. K. (2020). Extracting Agronomic Information from SMOS Vegetation Optical Depth in the US Corn Belt Using a Nonlinear Hierarchical Model. Remote Sensing, 12(5), 827, doi:10.3390/rs12050827

Walker, V. A., Hornbuckle B. K., Cosh, M. H., & Prueger, J. H. (2019). Seasonal Evaluation of SMAP Soil Moisture in the U.S. Corn Belt. Remote Sensing, 11(21), 2488, doi:10.3390/rs11212488

Togliatti, K., Hartman, T., Walker, V. A., Arkebauer, T. J., Suyker, A. E., VanLoocke, A., & Hornbuckle B. K. (2019). Satellite L-band Vegetation Optical Depth is Directly Proportional to Crop Water in the US Corn Belt. Remote Sensing of Environment, 233, 111378, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2019.111378

Cosh, M. H., White, W. A., Colliander, A., Jackson, T. J., Prueger, J. H., Hornbuckle B. K., Hunt, E. R., McNairn, H., Powers, J., Walker, V. A., & Bollock, P. (2019). Estimating Vegetation Water Content during the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2016. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 13(1), 014516, doi:10.1117/1.JRS.13.014516

Walker, V. A., Hornbuckle B. K., & Cosh, M. H. (2018). A Five-Year Evaluation of SMOS Level 2 Soil Moisture in the Corn Belt of the United States. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 11(12), 889-903, doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2864897

Hornbuckle, B. K., Patton, J. C., VanLoocke, A., Suyker, A. E., Roby, M. C., Walker, V. A., Iyer, E. R., Herzmann, D. E., & Endacott, E. A. (2016). SMOS Optical Thickness Changes in Response to the Growth and Development of Crops, Crop Management, and Weather. Remote Sensing of Environment, 180, 320-333, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2016.02.043

Rondinelli, W. J., Hornbuckle B. K., Patton, J. C., Cosh, M. H., Walker, V. A., Carr, B. D. & Logsdon, S. D (2015). Different Rates of Soil Drying after Rainfall are Observed by the SMOS Satellite and the South Fork in situ Soil Moisture Network. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16, 889-903, doi:10.1175/JHM-D-14-0137.1