Bio
About Me
I'm an ecologist and geospatial professional currently working at the 91做厙 Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC); part of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System and the ORNL Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate. I've been the Project Lead for the production and tool development and distribution of the Daymet dataset since 2009, having lead the workflow development and production of Daymet Versions 2 through the current V4 R1 distribution. That has included having conceived of and developed the methodology for the popular . I'm the for Daymet. Daymet is in the top 10 of downloaded datasets in NASA's Earthdata collections and ranks as one of the most highly cited datasets in the ORNL DAAC. Currently, I also serve as the DAAC's Airborne Data Lead and the Learning Resources Lead. I also provide geospatial technical and scientific support for datasets curated and distributed within the ORNL DAAC.
I really enjoy working with the NASA and ORNL Science Community to both provide data that are useful in their applications and to help with the long term curation of terrestrial ecology datasets. Developing data science tutorials and conducting webinars and workshops also provides me with a way to be instructive to our user community. I'm further developing those skills as an mentor. Got a question about NASA Earthdata? I lead and monitor the for the ORNL DAAC and can put you in touch with one of our subject matter experts.
Projects and Affiliations
- 2020 2024: North American Carbon Program: (DOE, NASA)
- 2022 present: ORNL DAAC mentor
- 2021 present: ESDIS Standards Coordination Office () Staff Member
- 2021 present: , ORNL DAAC Lead
- 2020 present: ORNL DAAC Airborne Data Lead
- 2018 present: ORNL DAAC Lead
- 2017 present: ORNL DAAC User Needs Point of Contact (POC)
- 2008 present: Workflow and Production Lead
- 1998 2001: NTSG ,
Daymet Production History and Support
2006 2014: Daymet V2
- Products: Standardized inputs, ancillary files, algorithm software workflow and scripting, raw output file standardization and distribution, tool specified file format optimization, NACP supported Daymet web site design and creation, web site public launch, , Tile Selection Tool, V2 release
- Funding: NACP Project: A Modeling and Synthesis Thematic Data Center for the North American Carbon Program (). Co-leads: Robert Cook & Peter Thornton.
2013 2015: Daymet V3
- Products: Algorithm update to allow low station density estimates, standardized inputs and re-run of entire temporal period, full North American spatial extent, V3 release
- Funding: NASA Terrestrial Ecology Co-leads: Peter Thornton & Russel Vose.
2018: Daymet V4
- Products: Puerto Rico temporal extent extended to 1950 1979. Version 4
- Funding: : U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Lead: Anthony Walker.
2018 - 2019: Daymet V4
- Products: to reductions in the timing bias of input reporting weather station measurements; improvement to the three-dimensional regression model techniques in the core algorithm; and a novel approach to handling high elevation temperature measurement biases. Standardized inputs for entire temporal period. Version 4. V4 Dataset release.
- Funding: : Office of Biological and Environmental Research within the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Lead: Peter Thornton
Published Datasets ()
Daymet Daily Data
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Kao, S-C., P.E. Thornton, M.M. Thornton, R. Shrestha, and A.P. Walker. 2022. Sub-daily Climate Forcings for Puerto Rico. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, P.E. Thornton, S. Kao, Y. Wei, and B.E. Wilson. 2021. Daymet Version 4 Monthly Latency: Daily Surface Weather Data. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2020. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, P.E., M.M. Thornton, B.W. Mayer, Y. Wei, R. Devarakonda, R.S. Vose, and R.B. Cook. 2016. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 3. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, P.E., M.M. Thornton, B.W. Mayer, N. Wilhelmi, Y. Wei, R. Devarakonda, and R.B. Cook. 2014. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 2. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. Date accessed: YYYY/MM/DD. Temporal range: YYYY/MM/DD-YYYY/MM/DD. Spatial range: N=DD.DD, S=DD.DD, E=DDD.DD, W=DDD.DD.
- Thornton, Peter E, Thornton, Michele M, Mayer, Benjamin W, Wilhelmi, Nate, Wei, Yaxing, Devarakonda, Ranjeet, and Cook, Robert B. 2014. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 2. United States.
- Thornton, Peter E, Thornton, Michele M, Mayer, Benjamin W, Wilhelmi, Nate, Wei, Yaxing, Devarakonda, Ranjeet, and Cook, Robert B. 2012. Daymet: Daily surface weather on a 1 km grid for North America, 1980-2008. United States.
Daymet Uncertainty and Inputs
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Station-Level Inputs and Cross-Validation for North America, Version 4 R1. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, R. Shrestha, S. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2020. Daymet: Station-Level Inputs and Cross-Validation Result for North America, Version 4. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., P.E. Thornton, Y. Wei, R.S. Vose, and A.G. Boyer. 2017. Daymet: Station-Level Inputs and Model Predicted Values for North America, Version 3. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, P.E., M.M. Thornton, and R.S. Vose. 2017. Daymet: Annual Tile Summary Cross-Validation Statistics for North America, Version 3. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, P.E., and M.M. Thornton. 2016. Daymet: Annual 2-degree Tile Summary Cross-Validation Statistics for North America. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
Daymet Climatologies
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Annual Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Annual Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., P.E. Thornton, Y. Wei, B.W. Mayer, R.B. Cook, and R.S. Vose. 2016. Daymet: Annual Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 3. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Monthly Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Monthly Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, M.M., P.E. Thornton, Y. Wei, B.W. Mayer, R.B. Cook, and R.S. Vose. 2016. Daymet: Monthly Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 3. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Thornton, P.E., M.M. Thornton, B.W. Mayer, N. Wilhelmi, Y. Wei, R. Devarakonda, and R.B. Cook. 2015. Daymet: Monthly Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 2. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. Date accessed: YYYY/MM/DD. Temporal range: YYYY/MM/DD-YYYY/MM/DD. Spatial range: N=DD.DD, S=DD.DD, E=DDD.DD, W=DDD.DD.
- Thornton, P.E., M.M. Thornton, B.W. Mayer, N. Wilhelmi, Y. Wei, R. Devarakonda, and R.B. Cook. 2015. Daymet: Annual Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 2. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. Date accessed: YYYY/MM/DD. Temporal range: YYYY/MM/DD-YYYY/MM/DD. Spatial range: N=DD.DD, S=DD.DD, E=DDD.DD, W=DDD.DD.
Other Published Datasets
- Liu, Shishi, Y. Wei, W.M. Post, R.B. Cook, K. Schaefer, and M.M. Thornton. 2014. NACP MsTMIP: Unified North American Soil Map. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Wei, Y., D.J. Hayes, M.M. Thornton, W.M. Post, R.B. Cook, P.E. Thornton, A.R. Jacobson, D.N. Huntzinger, T.O. West, L.S. Heath, K. McKain, G. Stinson, W. Kurz, B. de Jong, I.T. Baker, J.M. Chen, F. Chevallier, F.M. Hoffman, A.K. Jain, R. Lokupitiya, D.A. McGuire, A.M. Michalak, G.G. Moisen, R.P. Neilson, P. Peylin, C.S. Potter, B. Poulter, D. Price, J.T. Randerson, C. Rodenbeck, H. Tian, E. Tomelleri, G.R. van der Werf, N. Viovy, J. Xiao, N. Zeng, and M. Zhao. 2013. NACP Regional: National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and Aggregated Gridded Model Data. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
- Fisher, F.B., J.C. Winne, M.M. Thornton, T.P. Tady, Z. Ma, M.M. Hart, and R.L. Redmond. 1998. Montana land cover atlas. Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, The University of Montana, Missoula. viii + 50 pp. On-line at
Select Publications
- Ranjeet Devarakonda, Kavya Guntupally, Michele Thornton, Yaxing Wei, Debjani Singh, and Dalton Lunga. 2021. . In Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Searching and Mining Large Collections of Geospatial Data (GeoSearch'21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 14.
- Thornton, P.E., Shrestha, R., Thornton, M. et al. . Sci Data 8, 190 (2021).
- Wei, Y., Shrestha, R., Pal, S., Gerken, T., Feng, S., McNelis, J., Singh, D., Thornton, M.M., et al. (2021). . Earth and Space Science, 8, e2020EA001634.
- ESRI Book Chapter Contribution NASA Earth Science Division et al., 2021, GIS for Science, Vol 3: Maps for Saving the Planet, ISBN: 9781589486713 .
- R. Devarakonda, Y. Wei, M. Thornton, B. Mayer, P. Thornton and B. Cook, Preparing, Storing, and Distributing Multi-dimensional Scientific Data. Proceedings of the 91做厙 International Conference on Big Data, DOI: 10.1109/BigData.2015.7364085, pgs. 2811 - 2813 (2015).
- Liu, S., Wei, Y., Post, W. M., Cook, R. B., Schaefer, K., and Thornton, M. M.: The Unified North American Soil Map and its implication on the soil organic carbon stock in North America, Biogeosciences, 10, 2915-2930, doi:10.5194/bg-10-2915-2013, 2013.
- Steven W. Running, Lloyd Queen, Michele Thornton, , Journal of Forestry, Volume 98, Issue 6, June 2000, Pages 2931.
- Fisher, F.B., J.C. Winne, M.M. Thornton, T.P. Tady, Z. Ma, M.M. Hart, and R.L. Redmond. 1998. Montana land cover atlas. Unpublished report. Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.
- Redmond, R.L., M.M. Hart, J.C. Winne, W.A. Williams, P.C. Thornton, Z. Ma, C.M. Tobalske, M.M. Thornton, K.P. McLaughlin, T.P. Tady, F.B. Fisher, S.W. Running. 1998. . Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, The University of Montana, Missoula. xiii + 136 pp. + appendices.
- Redmond, R.L.; Tady, T.P.; Fisher, F.B.; Thornton, M.; and Winne, J.C. 1997. LANDSAT vegetation mapping of the southwest and central Idaho ecogroups. Final Report: Contract # 53-0261-6-25. Wildlife Spatial Analysis Lab, Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. 139p.
- Redmond, RL.; Winne, J.C.; Tady, T.P.; Thornton, M.; Troutwine, J.; Ma, Z. 1997. Existing vegetation and land cover of the Little Missouri, Grand River, and Sheyenne National Grasslands. Final Report, Contract #53-034304-000012, submitted to US. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Regional Office. Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, The University of Montana, Missoula. 174 p.
- Thornton, Michele M. "Use of Geomorphic Variables to Predict Riparian Vegetation Patterns: A Comparison of Field and GIS Techniques." Thesis, Idaho State University, 1996.
Webinars
Toward Analysis Ready Data - Programmatically Discover, Access, and Subset Daymet V4 Data with Python and ArcGIS - NASA Earthdata Webinar: (900 views)
- Earthdata YouTube Recording:
- Notebook Tutorial:
NetCDF Why and How: Creating Publication Quality NetCDF Datasets - NASA Earthdata Webinar: (8K views)
- Earthdata YouTube Recording:
- Notebook Tutorial:
NetCD-what? An Ecologists Guide to Working with Daymet and other NetCDF-formatted Data - NASA Earthdata Webinar: (17K views)
- Earthdata YouTube Recording:
- Notebook Tutorial:
Accessing Daymet Data Through Web-Based Tools and Services - NASA Earthdata Webinar: (9K views)
- Earthdata YouTube Recording:
Workshops
Ecological Society of America: 2022 Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada Exploring Changes in Vulnerable Ecosystems with NASA Airborne Data
ESIP Meeting, July 19-22, 2022, Pittsburg, PA Airborne for All - Engaging the ESIP community to explore findings from a recent Airborne and Field data workshop and identify synergies across organizations
Improving NASA Airborne and Field Data Workshop. March 29-30, 2022. Virtual. Sara Lubkin, Deborah Smith, Bruce Wilson, Michele Thornton.
NASA Terrestrial Ecology Scientist Meeting, 2019, College Park, MD Data Management and Publishing for NASA Terrestrial Ecology Projects Workshop Developer and presenter:
Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY 2019. Extracting and Exploring NASA Earthdata for Your Study Site or Region
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, 2000, Birmensdorf, Switzerland New approaches to RS-based ecosystem modelling and monitoring: Transformation, Integration and Application of MODIS sensor data
Selected Science Presentations
Michele Thornton, Scott Pearson, Rupesh Shrestha, Yaxing Wei, Chris Lindsley, Bruce E. Wilson. 2022. Analysis Ready and Cloud-optimized Data Formats for NASA Airborne Facility Instruments. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2022, #IN35A-03. Chicago, IL.
starting from: 19:39
Moderator: Leo Thomas; Speakers: Michele Thornton, Monica Youngman, Tom Augspurger, Vincent Sarago. Invited Panel Speaker: Managing Planetary Scale Archive in the Cloud: SatSummit, 2022.
Michele M. Thornton, Yaxing Wei, Rupesh Shrestha, Jerrold Williams, Daine Wright, and Peter E. Thornton. 2022. Daymet: Open-Source Science Leverages Standardized Interoperable Data. ESIP, July 19-22, 2022. Pittsburgh, PA
Yuan, Fengming, Kao, S.C., Tesfa T., Wang, D., Schwartz, P., Thornton, M., Thornton, P.E., and S. Wullschleger. High-resolution Forcing Driven Offline ELM Snow Processing and Comparing to Observations in Two Alaska Tundra Regions. 2021. AGU Fall Meeting
Shi, Mingjie, Keller, M., Koven, C., Kueppers, L., Needham, J., Knox, R., Kao, S.C., Thornton, P., Thornton, M., Ruby, L. 2021. Studies of hurricane disturbance and recovery in Puerto Rico using ELM-FATES. AGU Fall Meeting
Thornton, M., Shrestha, R., Thornton, P. E., Kao, S. C., Wei, Y., Wilson, B. E. 2020. Improvements in Daymet Continental-Scale Gridded Daily Precipitation and Temperature Estimates. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2020, #H141-0014 Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting. Virtual. 2020
Michele M. Thornton, Hong Xu, Yaxing Wei, Bruce E. Wilson, Rupesh Shresha and Peter E. Thornton. Daymet: Continental-Scale Daily Weather Parameters and ESRI Multidimensional Functionality ESRI User Conference. Virtual. 2020
Thornton, M., Wilson, B.E., Shrestha, R., Wei, Y., Blanco, H. Open data and accessible services and tools foster science and software collaboration Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY 2019.
M Thornton, Y Wei, A Boyer, P Thornton, S Vannan. 2018. Customized web-based services to access the the Daymet product: Analysis of user-based downloads provide insights into how scientists access large, complex data for their research needs. ForestSAT 2018, College Park, Maryland
Thornton, M., Wei, Y., Devarakonda, R., Boyer, A., Vannan, K.S., Thornton, P.E. Customized web-based services to access the Daymet product: Analysis of user-based downloads provide insights into how scientists access large, complex data for their research needs Author Session Talk. Presented at Ecological Society of America Annual Conference. Portland, OR. 2017.
Devarakonda, R.; Thornton, M.; Wei, Y.; Krishna, B.; Frame, M. T.; Zolly, L., Records, R.; Palanisamy, G. New approaches in cataloging and distributing multi-dimensional scientific data: Federal Data Repositories example American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2016, #IN23B-1771.
Peter E. Thornton, Michele M. Thornton, Benjamin W. Mayer, Robert B. Cook, Ranjeet Devarakonda, Yaxing Wei, Suresh Kumar Santhana Vannan. 2015. Gridded daily surface weather for North America: development and uncertainty analysis of the Daymet dataset. 2015 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster
Michele M Thornton, Peter E. Thornton, Benjamin W Mayer, Ranjeet Devarakonda, Robert B Cook. 2015. 5th NACP All-Investigators Meeting Posters. January 26-29, 2015. Washington, DC.
Yaxing Wei, Robert B. Cook, Wilfred M. Post, Peter E. Thornton, Deborah Nicole Huntzinger, Daniel Ricciuto, Daniel Hayes, Michele M. Thornton, Shishi Liu, Andy Jacobson, Kevin M Schaefer, Kenneth James Davis. 2013. A Modeling and Synthesis Thematic Data Center for the North American Carbon Program. 4th NACP All-Investigators Meeting Posters.
Michele M Thornton, Peter E Thornton, Robert B. Cook, Yaxing Wei, Suresh Kumar Santhana Vannan, Peter I. Eby, Ranjeet Devarakonda. 2011. . NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Joint Workshop, October 3-7, 2011, Alexandria, VA
Hayes, D. J.; McGuire, D.; Post, W. M.; Heath, L. S.; Kurz, W.; Stinson, G.; Thornton, M.; Wei, Y.; West, T. O. Towards better-constrained assessments of the carbon balance of North America in the 21st Century: a comparison of recent model and inventory-based estimates American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract id. B51D-0333
Robert B. Cook, Wilfred M. Post, Peter E. Thornton, Latha M. Baskaran, Lisa M. Olsen, Michele M. Thornton, Carroll N. Curtis, Jerry Y. Pan, Yaxing Wei, Steve L. Campbell, 2009. Modeling and Synthesis Support for the North American Carbon Program NACP All-Investigators Meeting, San Diego, CA
Awards and Recognition
- Dec 13, 2022.
- Dec 8, 2021. Melissa Allen-Dumas, Ian Goethert, Michele M. Thornton and Peter Thornton; Biological & Environment Systems Science, Business Services and Computing & Computational Sciences directorates. For leading the proposal preparation and execution of development tasks pertaining to the technical components of the RamSat small satellite mission at Robertsville Middle School and also serving as mentors to the students preparing the cubesat and seeing it to launch.
- January 25, 2021.
- June 15, 2018. Taking the planets pulse: ORNL, NASA share latest data
- April 29, 2020.
- March 25, 2018.
- April 12, 2017.