About terraPulse

What We Do

TerraPulse maps and monitors the status, history, and potential of large landscapes through satellite-based measurements of forest-, crop-, range-, and wildland productivity; and we provide the resulting information through simple, efficient interfaces tailored to specific market and industry applications. Our algorithms apply decades of expertise in geospatial intelligence, machine learning, and satellite image analysis to streamline the provision of actionable, real-time data to clients in the public and private sector.

In a changing global landscape, our suite of products improves the efficiency and adaptability with which individuals, businesses, and governments respond to economic and environmental change. As a result, our customers are able to build natural capital, sustain the health and productivity of ecosystems, and take strategic action with the confidence and reliability of global data.

The terraPulse Advantage

team

Who We Are

Our Values

We value the productivity and diversity of natural ecosystems, as well as the prosperity and freedom of human economies.
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In a world of over 8 billion people consuming an increasing portion of Earth’s natural resources, sustainability of the human enterprise will necessitate a tighter coupling of information and action. This will require efficient flow of information between the biosphere and human economies. We are enabling a world where data drives decisions—one where every piece of land is put to its best use, where science empowers people and institutions to avoid risks and realize opportunities, and where the needs of today are met in balance with our responsibilities to the planet and future generations.

Our Roots

In 2014, at the University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility, our team created the world’s first high- resolution global maps of tree and water cover, as well as the world’s first annual, 30-m resolution time-serial maps of impervious surface cover. Recognizing the equal responsibility of science, governance, and industry for sustaining our planet, terraPulse was founded later that year to provide custom geospatial data products and solutions to government, academic, and nonprofit researchers, as well as private land investors, owners, and managers.

Our clientele now spans the breadth of forest, agricultural, range-, and wild-land uses; and our data serve analysts and managers in government, scientific, and commercial sectors.

Our Science

2023

Montesano Montesano, P.M., Neigh, C.S., Macander, M.J., Wagner, W., Duncanson, L.I., Wang, P., Sexton, J.O., Miller, C.E. and Armstrong, A.H., 2023. Patterns of regional site index across a North American boreal forest gradient. Environmental Research Letters.
Kelsey, K.C., Højlund Pedersen, S., Leffler, A.J., Sexton, J.O. and Welker, J.M., 2023. Snow and vegetation seasonality influence seasonal trends of leaf nitrogen and biomass in Arctic tundra. Ecosphere, 14(5), p.e4515.

2022

Shuman, J.K., Balch, J.K., Barnes, R.T., Higuera, P.E., Roos, C.I., Schwilk, D.W., Stavros, E.N., Banerjee, T., Bela, M.M., Bendix, J. and Bertolino, S., 2022. Reimagine fire science for the anthropocene. PNAS nexus, 1(3), p.pgac115.

2021

Woods, K.M., Wang, P., Sexton, J.O., Leimgruber, P., Wong, J. and Huang, Q., 2021. Integrating pixels, people, and political economy to understand the role of armed conflict and geopolitics in driving deforestation: The case of Myanmar. Remote Sensing, 13(22), p.4589.
Che, X., Feng, M., Sun, Q., Sexton, J.O., Channan, S. and Liu, J., 2021. The decrease in lake numbers and areas in Central Asia investigated using a landsat-derived water dataset. Remote Sensing, 13(5), p.1032.
Requena Suarez, D., Rozendaal, D.M., De Sy, V., Gibbs, D.A., Harris, N.L., Sexton, J.O., Feng, M., Channan, S., Zahabu, E., Silayo, D.S. and Pekkarinen, A., 2021. Variation in aboveground biomass in forests and woodlands in Tanzania along gradients in environmental conditions and human use. Environmental Research Letters, 16(4), p.044014.
Kelsey, K.C., Pedersen, S.H., Leffler, A.J., Sexton, J.O., Feng, M. and Welker, J.M., 2021. Winter snow and spring temperature have differential effects on vegetation phenology and productivity across Arctic plant communities. Global Change Biology, 27(8), pp.1572-1586.
Song, D.X., Huang, C., He, T., Sexton, J.O., Li, A., Li, S., Wu, H. and Townshend, J.R., 2021. Improved modeling and analysis of the patch size–frequency distribution of forest disturbances in China based on a Landsat forest cover change product. International Journal of Digital Earth, 14(2), pp.181-201.

2020

Gagné, T.O., Reygondeau, G., Jenkins, C.N., Sexton, J.O., Bograd, S.J., Hazen, E.L. and Van Houtan, K.S., 2020. Towards a global understanding of the drivers of marine and terrestrial biodiversity. PLoS One, 15(2), p.e0228065.

2019

Robb, B., Huang, Q., Sexton, J.O., Stoner, D. and Leimgruber, P., 2019. Environmental Differences between Migratory and Resident Ungulates—Predicting Movement Strategies in Rocky Mountain Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) with Remotely Sensed Plant Phenology, Snow, and Land Cover. Remote Sensing, 11(17), p.1980
Baker, M.E., Schley, M.L. and Sexton, J.O., 2019. Impacts of expanding impervious surface on specific conductance in urbanizing streams. Water Resources Research, 55(8), pp.6482-6498.

2018

Che, X., Feng, M., Sexton, J., Channan, S., Sun, Q., Ying, Q., Liu, J. and Wang, Y., 2019. Landsat-based estimation of seasonal water cover and change in arid and semi-arid Central Asia (2000–2015). Remote Sensing, 11(11), p.1323.
Lowrey, C., Longshore, K.M., Choate, D.M., Nagol, J.R., Sexton, J. and Thompson, D., 2019. Ecological effects of fear: How spatiotemporal heterogeneity in predation risk influences mule deer access to forage in a sky‐island system. Ecology and Evolution, 9(12), pp.7213-7226.
Stoner, D.C., Sexton, J.O., Choate, D.M., Nagol, J., Bernales, H.H., Sims, S.A., Ironside, K.E., Longshore, K.M. and Edwards Jr, T.C., 2018. Climatically driven changes in primary production propagate through trophic levels. Global Change Biology, 24(10), pp.4453-4463.

2017

Nagol, J.R., Sexton, J.O., Anand, A., Sahajpal, R. and Edwards, T.C., 2017. Isolating type-specific phenologies through spectral unmixing of satellite time series. International Journal of Digital Earth, pp.1-13.
Ironside, K.E., Mattson, D.J., Choate, D., Stoner, D., Arundel, T., Hansen, J., Theimer, T., Holton, B., Jansen, B., Sexton, J.O. and Longshore, K., 2017. Variable terrestrial GPS telemetry detection rates: Addressing the probability of successful acquisitions. Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Brinck, K., Fischer, R., Groeneveld, J., Lehmann, S., De Paula, M.D., Pütz, S., Sexton, J.O., Song, D. and Huth, A., 2017. High resolution analysis of tropical forest fragmentation and its impact on the global carbon cycle. Nature Communications, 8, p.14855.

2016

Montesano, P. M., Neigh, C. S., Sexton, J., Feng, M., Channan, S., Ranson, K. J., & Townshend, J. R. (2016). Calibration and Validation of Landsat Tree Cover in the Taiga Tundra Ecotone. Remote Sensing, 8(7), 551.
Feng, M., Sexton, J.O., Huang, C., Anand, A., Channan, S., Song, X.P., Song, D.X., Kim, D.H., Noojipady, P. and Townshend, J.R., 2016. Earth science data records of global forest cover and change: Assessment of accuracy in 1990, 2000, and 2005 epochs. Remote Sensing of Environment, 184, pp.73-85.
Stoner, D.C., Sexton, J.O., Nagol, J., Bernales, H.H. and Edwards Jr, T.C., 2016. Ungulate Reproductive Parameters Track Satellite Observations of Plant Phenology across Latitude and Climatological Regimes. PloS one, 11(2), p.e0148780.
Song X-P., Sexton J. O., Huang C., Channan S., Townshend J. R. Characterizing the magnitude, timing and duration of urban growth from time series of Landsat-based estimates of impervious cover.Remote Sensing of Environment. 2016;175:1-13. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2015.12.027.

2015

Liu, F.J., Huang, C., Pang, Y., Li, M., Song, D.X., Song, X.P., Channan, S., Sexton, J.O., Jiang, D., Zhang, P. and Guo, Y., 2015. Assessment of the three factors affecting Myanmar’s forest cover change using Landsat and MODIS vegetation continuous fields data. International Journal of Digital Earth, pp.1-24.
Sexton, J.O., Noojipady, P., Song, X.P., Feng, M., Song, D.X., Kim, D.H., Anand, A., Huang, C., Channan, S., Pimm, S.L. and Townshend, J.R., 2015. Conservation policy and the measurement of forests. Nature Climate Change.
Rastogi, A., Hickey, G. M., Anand, A., Badola, R., & Hussain, S. A. (2015). Wildlife-tourism, local communities and tiger conservation: A village-level study in Corbett Tiger Reserve, India. Forest Policy and Economics.
Channan, S., Feng, M., Kim, D. H., Sexton, J. O., Song, X. P., Song, D. X., Noojipady, P, Collins. K., Anand, A., Townshend, J. R. (2015). The GLS+: An Enhancement of the Global Land Survey Datasets. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 81(7), 521-525.
Jenkins, C. N., Van Houtan, K. S., Pimm, S. L., & Sexton, J. O. (2015). US protected lands mismatch biodiversity priorities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(16), 5081-5086.
Haddad, N.M., L.A. Brudvig, J. Clobert, K.F. Davies, A. Gonzalez, R.D. Holt, T.E. Lovejoy, J.O. Sexton, M.P. Austin, C.D. Collins, W.M. Cook, E.I. Damschen, R.M. Ewers, B.L. Foster, C. Jenkins, A. King, W.F. Laurance, D.J. Levey, C.R. Margules, B.A. Melbourne, A.O. Nicholls, J.L. Orrock, D.-X. Song, J.R. Townshend. (2015). Habitat fragmentation and its lasting impact on Earth’s ecosystems. Science Advances
Song, X. P., Huang, C., Saatchi, S. S., Hansen, M. C., & Townshend, J. R. (2015). Annual Carbon Emissions from Deforestation in the Amazon Basin between 2000 and 2010.PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126754
Feng, M., Sexton, J. O., Channan, S., & Townshend, J. R. (2015). A global, high-resolution (30-m) inland water body dataset for 2000: first results of a topographicspectral classification algorithm. International Journal of Digital Earth, (ahead-of-print), 1-21.
Kim, D. H., Sexton, J. O., & Townshend, J. R. (2015). Accelerated deforestation in the humid tropics from the 1990s to the 2000s. Geophysical Research Letters.
Zhu, Y., Pan, P., Fang, S., Da Xu, L., Song, J., Zhang, J., & Feng, M. (2015). The development and application of e-Geoscience in China. Information Systems Frontiers, 1-15.
Che, X., Feng, M., Jiang, H., Song, J., & Jia, B. (2015). Downscaling MODIS Surface Reflectance to Improve Water Body Extraction. Advances in Meteorology.
Sexton, J. O., Noojipady, P., Anand, A., Song, X. P., McMahon, S., Huang, C., Feng, M., Channan, S., & Townshend, J. R. (2015). A model for the propagation of uncertainty from continuous estimates of tree cover to categorical forest cover and change. Remote Sensing of Environment, 156, 418-425.

2014

Nagol, J. R., Sexton, J. O., Kim, D. H., Anand, A., Morton, D., Vermote, E., & Townshend, J. R. (2014). Bidirectional effects in Landsat reflectance estimates: Is there a problem to solve? ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Song, D., C. Huang, J.O. Sexton, S. Channan, M. Feng, and J.R. Townshend. 2014. Use of Landsat and Corona data for mapping forest cover change from the mid-1960s to 2000s: Case studies from the Eastern United States and Central Brazil. ISPRS J. of Photogrammetry and Remote Sens. DOI: 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2014.09.005
Kim, D.-H., J.O. Sexton, P. Noojipady, C. Huang, A. Anand, S. Channan, M. Feng, and J.R. Townshend. 2014. Global, Landsat-based forest-cover change from 1990 to 2000. Remote Sens. DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2014.08.017
Song, X.-P., C. Huang, J.O. Sexton, S. Channan, and J.R. Townshend. 2014. Annual Detection of Forest Cover Loss Using Time Series Satellite Measurements of Percent Tree Cover. Remote Sens. DOI: 10.3390/rs6098878
Song, D.-X., C., Huang, P., Noojipady, S., Channan, J.R., Townshend, 2014. Comparison of remote sensing based forest area and change estimation with national forestry inventory between 2000 and 2005 in China. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2014 IEEE International , 4268-4271, DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2014.6947432
Bai, Y., M. Feng, H. Jiang, J. Wang, Y. Zhu, and Y. Liu. 2014. Assessing Consistency of Five Global Land Cover Data Sets in China. Remote Sens. DOI: 10.3390/rs6098739
Nagol, J., E.F. Vermote, S.D. Prince. 2014. Impact of Satellite Orbital Drift on Longterm AVHRR NDVI Time Series. Remote Sens.
Chen, D., T. Loboda, S. Channan, A. Hoffman-Hall. 2014. Long-Term Record of Sampled Disturbances in Northern Eurasian Boreal Forest from Pre-2000 Landsat Data. Remote Sens 6(7), 6020-6038; doi:10.3390/rs6076020
Jiang, H., M. Feng, Y. Zhu, N. Lu, J. Huang, T. Xiao. 2014. An Automated Method for Extracting Rivers and Lakes from Landsat Imagery. Remote Sens. 6(6), 5067-5089; doi:10.3390/rs6065067
Pimm, S. L., C.N. Jenkins, R. Abell, T.M. Brooks, J.L. Gittleman, L.N. Joppa, J.O. Sexton. 2014. The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection. Science, 344(6187), 1246752.
Morton, D.C., J. Nagol, C.C. Carabajal, J. Rosette, M. Palace, B.D. Cook, E.F. Vermote, D.J. Harding, P.R.J. North. 2014. Amazon forests maintain consistent canopy structure and greeness during the dry season. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature13006
Song, X.-P., C. Huang, M. Feng, J.O. Sexton, S. Channan, J.R. Townshend. 2014. Integrating global land cover products for improved forest cover characterization: an application in North America. International Journal of Digital Earth. DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2013.856959

2013

Tan, B., J. Masek, R. Wolfe, F. Gao, C. Huang, E. Vermote, J.O. Sexton, G. Ederer. 2013. Improved forest change detection with terrain illumination-corrected images. Remote Sensing of Environment
Sexton, J.O., X.-P. Song, M. Feng, P. Noojipady, A. Anand, C. Huang, D.-H. Kim, K.M. Collins, S. Channan, C. DiMiceli, J.R. Townshend. 2013. Global, 30-m resolution continuous fields of tree cover: Landsat-based rescaling of MODIS continuous fields and lidar-based estimates of error. International Journal of Digital Earth. DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2013.786146
Feng, M., J.O. Sexton, C. Huang, J.G. Masek, E.F. Vermote, F. Gao, R. Narasimhan, S. Channan, R.E. Wolfe, J.R. Townshend. 2013. Global surface reflectance products from Landsat: Assessment using coincident MODIS observations. Remote Sensing of Environment 134:276-293
Meineke, E., R.R. Dunn, J.O. Sexton, S. D. Frank. 2013. Urban warming drives insect pest abundance on street trees. PLoS One 8(3): e59687
Trainor, A.M., J.R. Walters, W.F. Morris, J. Weiss, J.O. Sexton, A. Moody. 2013. Empirical estimation of dispersal resistance surfaces: a case study with red-cockaded woodpeckers. Landscape Ecology 28: 755-767.
Sexton, J.O., X.-P. Song, C. Huang, S. Channan, M.E. Baker, J.R. Townshend. 2013. Urban growth of the Washington, D.C. – Baltimore, MD metropolitan region from 1984 to 2010 by annual estimates of impervious cover. Remote Sensing of Environment 129:42-53.
Sexton, J.O., D.L. Urban, M.J. Donohue, C. Song. 2013. Long-term landcover dynamics by multi-temporal classification across the Landsat-5 record. Remote Sensing of Environment 128: 246-258

2012

Feng, M., C. Huang, J.O. Sexton, S. Channan, R. Narasimhan, J.R. Townshend, 2012. An approach for quickly labeling land cover types for multiple epochs at globally selected locations. IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 2012, 6203-6206. doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6352674
Townshend, J.R., J.G. Masek, C. Huang, E.F. Vermote, F. Gao, S. Channan, J.O. Sexton, M. Feng., R. Narasimhan, D.-H. Kim, K. Song, D. Song, X. Song, P. Noojipady, B. Tan, M.C. Hansen, M. Li, R. Wolfe. 2012. Global characterization and monitoring of forest cover using Landsat data: opportunities and challenges. International Journal of Digital Earth 5:373-397.
Channan, S., Townshend, J., Sexton, J., Huang, C., Feng, M., Masek, J., Vermote, E., Collins, K., Song, X-P., Noojipadi P., Kim, D., Song, D., 2012. Global forest cover change mapping at Landsat Resolution. Global Land Project Newsletter Issue Number 9, ISSN 2316-3747.
Feng, M., Huang, C., Channan, S., Vermote, E.F., Masek, J.G. & Townshend, J.R. 2012. Quality assessment of Landsat surface reflectance products using MODIS data. Computers & Geosciences, 38, 9-22.
Song, XP., Huang, C., Sexton, J.O., Feng, M., Narasimhan, R., Channan, S. ; Townshend, J.R. 2011. An Assessment of global forest cover maps using regional higher-resolution reference datasets. Geosciences and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARRS 2011), 752 – 855

2011

Song, X.P., Huang, C., Sexton, J.O. Feng, M., Narasimhan, R., Channan, S., and Townshend, J.R., 2011. An assessment of global forest cover maps using regional higher-resolution reference data sets. Proceedings Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, (IGARSS) Symposium, 2011 IEEE International, Vancouver, Canada, 24-29 July 2011 pp.752-755. doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2011.6049239
Kim, D.H., Narashiman, R., Sexton, J.O., Huang, C. and Townshend, J.R., 2011. Methodology to select phenologically suitable Landsat scenes for forest change detection. Proceedings Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) Symposium, 2011 IEEE International, Vancouver, Canada, 24-29 July 2011 pp.2613-2616, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2011.6049738.

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About terraPulse

What We Do

The terraPulse Advantage

Who We Are

Saurabh Channan

Joseph Sexton, Ph.D.

Min Feng, Ph.D.

Panshi Wang, Ph.D.

Giuseppe Berlanda, Ph.D.

Miroslav Honzak, Ph.D.

Our Values

Our Roots

Our Science

2023

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Click here to call us

Saurabh Channan

Chief Scientist and Co-Founder

Joseph Sexton, Ph.D.

chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Min Feng, Ph.D.

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER

Panshi Wang, Ph.D.

Data Scientist

Guiseppe Berlanda, Ph.D.

Solutions Engineer

Miroslav Honzak, Ph.D.

Solutions Engineer