Nathaniel Chaney
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Prior to arriving at Duke, I was a postdoctoral research associate in the program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton University and had a dual appointment as a visiting research scientist at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. I obtained my undergraduate degree at U.C. Berkeley where I received a Bachelor of Arts in Atmospheric Sciences and Applied Mathematics. For my graduate studies, I attended Princeton University where I completed a Ph.D. in Hydrology in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
My research harnesses the existing petabytes of global environmental data to improve understanding of the terrestrial water cycle. More specifically, I focus on quantifying and uncovering the role of multi-scale spatial organization over land (i.e., heterogeneity) in the Earth system. To this end, my group's research has three overarching themes: 1) improve the representation of land heterogeneity in Earth system models, 2) harness environmental data to characterize the observed spatial patterns and features over land, and 3) quantify the sensitivity of the hydrologic cycle to spatial heterogeneity. The tools that my group uses include numerical modeling, satellite remote sensing, machine learning, and high performance computing.
I am currently looking for highly motivated Ph.D. and postdocs. If the research themes of my group are of interest to you, please don't hesitate to email me.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering 2018
Contact Information
- CIEMAS 2463, Durham, NC 27708
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nathaniel.chaney@duke.edu
(919) 660-5195
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www.chaneylab.earth
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Princeton University 2015
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Assistant Professor, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2019 - 2022
- Recognition
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In the News
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JAN 10, 2023 Duke Magazine -
SEP 30, 2022 Duke News -
NOV 2, 2021 Pratt School of Engineering -
SEP 4, 2019 -
MAY 28, 2019 Pratt School of Engineering -
AUG 27, 2018 Pratt School of Engineering
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- Research
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Selected Grants
- Implications of heterogeneity-aware land-atmosphere coupling in the predictability of precipitation extremes awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2022 - 2023
- The role of dust in the life cycle of snow: Coupling remote sensing with models to link land-use, climate, and water resources awarded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration 2020 - 2023
- 3D-Land Energy and Moisture Exchanges: Harnessing High Resolution Terrestrial Information to Refine Atmosphere-to-Land interactions in Climate Models awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2019 - 2022
- Modernizing Observation Operator and Error Assessment for Assimilating In-situ and Remotely Sensed Snow/Soil Moisture Measurements into NWM awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2019 - 2022
- Parameterizing the effects of sub-grid land heterogeneity on the atmospheric boundary layer and convection: Implications for surface climate, variability and extremes awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2019 - 2022
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Academic Articles
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Torres-Rojas, L., Vergopolan, N., Herman, J. D., & Chaney, N. W. (2022). Towards an Optimal Representation of Sub-Grid Heterogeneity in Land Surface Models. Water Resources Research, 58(12). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR032233Full Text
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Huang, M., Ma, P. L., Chaney, N. W., Hao, D., Bisht, G., Fowler, M. D., … Leung, L. R. (2022). Representing surface heterogeneity in land–atmosphere coupling in E3SMv1 single-column model over ARM SGP during summertime. Geoscientific Model Development, 15(16), 6371–6384. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6371-2022Full Text
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Vergopolan, N., Sheffield, J., Chaney, N. W., Pan, M., Beck, H. E., Ferguson, C. R., … Wood, E. F. (2022). High-Resolution Soil Moisture Data Reveal Complex Multi-Scale Spatial Variability Across the United States. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(15). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098586Full Text
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Waterman, T., Bragg, A. D., Katul, G., & Chaney, N. (2022). Examining Parameterizations of Potential Temperature Variance Across Varied Landscapes for Use in Earth System Models. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127(8). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036236Full Text
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Rudiyanto, ., Minasny, B., Chaney, N. W., Maggi, F., Goh Eng Giap, S., Shah, R. M., … Setiawan, B. I. (2021). Pedotransfer functions for estimating soil hydraulic properties from saturation to dryness. Geoderma, 403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115194Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Torres-Rojas, L., Vergopolan, N., & Fisher, C. K. (2021). HydroBlocks v0.2: Enabling a field-scale two-way coupling between the land surface and river networks in Earth system models. Geoscientific Model Development, 14(11), 6813–6832. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-6813-2021Full Text
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Simon, J. S., Bragg, A. D., Dirmeyer, P. A., & Chaney, N. W. (2021). Semi-Coupling of a Field-Scale Resolving Land-Surface Model and WRF-LES to Investigate the Influence of Land-Surface Heterogeneity on Cloud Development. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 13(10). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002602Full Text
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Vergopolan, N., Chaney, N. W., Pan, M., Sheffield, J., Beck, H. E., Ferguson, C. R., … Wood, E. F. (2021). SMAP-HydroBlocks, a 30-m satellite-based soil moisture dataset for the conterminous US. Scientific Data, 8(1), 264. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01050-2Full Text
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Vergopolan, N., Xiong, S., Estes, L., Wanders, N., Chaney, N. W., Wood, E. F., … Sheffield, J. (2021). Field-scale soil moisture bridges the spatial-scale gap between drought monitoring and agricultural yields. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25(4), 1827–1847. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1827-2021Full Text
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Dhib, S., Chaney, N., Mannaerts, C. M., & Bargaoui, Z. (2021). Comparison of two bias correction methods for TRMM 3B42 satellite daily rainfall estimates over Northern Tunisia. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 14(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-06916-8Full Text
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Vergopolan, N., Chaney, N. W., Beck, H. E., Pan, M., Sheffield, J., Chan, S., & Wood, E. F. (2020). Combining hyper-resolution land surface modeling with SMAP brightness temperatures to obtain 30-m soil moisture estimates. Remote Sensing of Environment, 242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111740Full Text
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Huang, J., Hartemink, A. E., Arriaga, F., & Chaney, N. W. (2019). Unraveling location-specific and time-dependent interactions between soil water content and environmental factors in cropped sandy soils using Sentinel-1 and moisture probes. Journal of Hydrology, 575, 780–793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.05.075Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Minasny, B., Herman, J. D., Nauman, T. W., Brungard, C. W., Morgan, C. L. S., … Yimam, Y. (2019). POLARIS Soil Properties: 30-m Probabilistic Maps of Soil Properties Over the Contiguous United States. Water Resources Research, 55(4), 2916–2938. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022797Full Text
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Fan, Y., Clark, M., Lawrence, D. M., Swenson, S., Band, L. E., Brantley, S. L., … Yamazaki, D. (2019). Hillslope Hydrology in Global Change Research and Earth System Modeling. Water Resources Research. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023903Full Text
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Siemann, A. L., Chaney, N., & Wood, E. F. (2018). Development and validation of a long-term, global, terrestrial sensible heat flux dataset. Journal of Climate, 31(15), 6073–6095. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0732.1Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Van Huijgevoort, M. H. J., Shevliakova, E., Malyshev, S., Milly, P. C. D., Gauthier, P. P. G., & Sulman, B. N. (2018). Harnessing big data to rethink land heterogeneity in Earth system models. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22(6), 3311–3330. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3311-2018Full Text
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Siemann, A. L., Chaney, N., & Wood, E. F. (2018). Sensitivity and Uncertainty of a Long-Term, High-Resolution, Global, Terrestrial Sensible Heat Flux Data Set. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123(10), 4988–5000. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JD027785Full Text
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Cai, X., Pan, M., Chaney, N. W., Colliander, A., Misra, S., Cosh, M. H., … Wood, E. F. (2017). Validation of SMAP soil moisture for the SMAPVEX15 field campaign using a hyper-resolution model. Water Resources Research, 53(4), 3013–3028. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019967Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Herman, J. D., Ek, M. B., & Wood, E. F. (2016). Deriving global parameter estimates for the Noah land surface model using FLUXNET and machine learning. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121(22), 218–235. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD024821Full Text
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He, X., Chaney, N. W., Schleiss, M., & Sheffield, J. (2016). Spatial downscaling of precipitation using adaptable random forests. Water Resources Research, 52(10), 8217–8237. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019034Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Metcalfe, P., & Wood, E. F. (2016). HydroBlocks: a field-scale resolving land surface model for application over continental extents. Hydrological Processes, 30(20), 3543–3559. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10891Full Text
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Pan, M., Cai, X., Chaney, N. W., Entekhabi, D., & Wood, E. F. (2016). An initial assessment of SMAP soil moisture retrievals using high-resolution model simulations and in situ observations. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(18), 9662–9668. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069964Full Text
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Estes, L. D., Searchinger, T., Spiegel, M., Tian, D., Sichinga, S., Mwale, M., … Caylor, K. K. (2016). Reconciling agriculture, carbon and biodiversity in a savannah transformation frontier. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 371(1703), 20150316. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0316Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Wood, E. F., McBratney, A. B., Hempel, J. W., Nauman, T. W., Brungard, C. W., & Odgers, N. P. (2016). POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States. Geoderma, 274, 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.03.025Full Text
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Pan, M., Fisher, C. K., Chaney, N. W., Zhan, W., Crow, W. T., Aires, F., … Wood, E. F. (2015). Triple collocation: Beyond three estimates and separation of structural/non-structural errors. Remote Sensing of Environment, 171, 299–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.10.028Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Herman, J. D., Reed, P. M., & Wood, E. F. (2015). Flood and drought hydrologic monitoring: The role of model parameter uncertainty. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 19(7), 3239–3251. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3239-2015Full Text
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Enenkel, M., See, L., Bonifacio, R., Boken, V., Chaney, N., Vinck, P., … Anderson, M. (2015). Drought and food security - Improving decision-support via new technologies and innovative collaboration. Global Food Security, 4, 51–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2014.08.005Full Text
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Chaney, N. W., Roundy, J. K., Herrera-Estrada, J. E., & Wood, E. F. (2015). High-resolution modeling of the spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture: Applications in network design. Water Resources Research, 51(1), 619–638. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014964Full Text
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Other Articles
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Torres-Rojas, L., Waterman, T., Cai, J., & Chaney, N. (2022). Analysis of hydrological spatial and temporal characteristic scales over the Contiguous United States using GOES-16 Land Surface Temperature retrievals. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10511740.1Full Text
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Waterman, T., Bragg, A., Simon, J., & Chaney, N. (2021). Capturing the Effects of Surface Flux Heterogeneity on the Lower Sub-grid Atmosphere in Earth System Models with a Multi-Column Approach. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10509146.1Full Text
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Preprints
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Waterman, T., Bragg, A. D., Katul, G. G., & Chaney, N. W. (2022). Examining Parameterizations of Potential Temperature Variance Across Varied Landscapes for use in Earth System Models. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10509144.2Full Text
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Waterman, T., Bragg, A. D., Katul, G. G., & Chaney, N. W. (2021). Examining Parameterizations of Potential Temperature Variance Across Varied Landscapes for use in Earth System Models. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10509144.1Full Text
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Simon, J. S., Bragg, A. D., Dirmeyer, P. A., & Chaney, N. W. (2021). Semi-coupling of a Field-scale Resolving Land-surface Model and WRF-LES to Investigate the Influence of Land-surface Heterogeneity on Cloud Development. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10507168.2Full Text
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Simon, J. S., Bragg, A. D., Dirmeyer, P. A., & Chaney, N. W. (2021). Semi-coupling of a Field-scale Resolving Land-surface Model and WRF-LES to Investigate the Influence of Land-surface Heterogeneity on Cloud Development. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10507168.1Full Text
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- CEE 690: Advanced Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering 2023
- CEE 690: Advanced Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering 2022
- CEE 691: Independent Study: Advanced Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering 2022
- CEE 701: Graduate Colloquium 2022
- CEE 690: Advanced Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering 2021
- CEE 692: Independent Study: Advanced Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering 2021
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