Forrest Melton is a Senior Research Scientist with NASA Ames Research Center and currently serves as as an Associate Program Manager for Water Resources and Agriculture with the NASA Earth Applied Sciences Program, and as the NASA Project Scientist for OpenET.

 

Since 2003, Forrest has worked in the Biospheric and Atmospheric Science Branches at NASA Ames Research Center on the development of modeling and data assimilation frameworks including the Satellite Irrigation Management Support (SIMS) system, the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS), the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), and OpenET. His research interests include applications of satellite data to improve management of natural resources, remote sensing of evapotranspiration and agricultural water requirements, and ecosystem and carbon cycle modeling.

 

Forrest holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Earth Systems Science from Stanford University and has authored over fifty papers and book chapters on applications of remote sensing. He is the recipient of honor awards from NASA for his contributions to TOPS and NEX, and has also been recognized for his work on applications of satellite data for water management with awards from the California Department of Water Resources and the Federal Labs Consortium. In 2022, Forrest was awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal for his efforts to advance the use of remotely sensed ET data in water resources management.