Michael Turmon

Biographical Sketch

Michael's research interests include pattern recognition, clustering, object tracking, and maximum-likelihood estimation, with applications to object time series, solar image analysis, and robotic navigation. His method and software for identifying and tracking solar active regions is part for several space weather data products for Solar Dynamics Observatory, and methods he developed for terrain classification were used in field tests during DARPA Learning Applied to Ground Robotics program.

Michael graduated in 1987 from Washington University in St. Louis, receiving bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and in Electrical Engineering. He went on to get a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1995, with an emphasis on probabilistic theories of learning in neural networks. He came to JPL thereafter, joining the Machine Learning group and later the Science Data Understanding group. He received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2000.

Projects

• Solar feature identification
• Learning for robotic navigation

Selected Publications

Morgan, Rhonda, Savransky, Dmitry, Damiano, Mario, Hu, Renyu, Mennesson, Bertrand and others including Turmon, Michael (2024). “Exo-Earth yield for Habitable Worlds Observatory in the near-ultraviolet,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts, vol. 56, pp. 249–06. Document.

Durand, Michael, Gleason, Colin J, Pavelsky, Tamlin M, Prata de Moraes Frasson, Renato, Turmon, Michael and others (2023). “A framework for estimating global river discharge from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite mission,” Water Resources Research, 59(4), pp. e2021WR031614, Wiley Online Library. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Damiano, Mario, Hu, Renyu, Mennesson, Bertrand, Mamajek, Eric and others including Turmon, Michael (2023). “A sensitivity study in two yield metrics over an option space local to a 6m HWO telescope,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts, vol. 55, pp. 327–08. Document.

Susiluoto, Jouni, Bohn, Urs, Braverman, Amy J, Brodrick, Philip G, Carmon, Nimrod and others including Turmon, Michael (2023). “Accelerated Optimal Estimation with probabilistic radiative transfer emulation for flexible, accurate and fast imaging spectroscopy retrievals,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. GC51G-0680. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Damiano, Mario, Hu, Renyu, Mennesson, Bertrand, Mamajek, Eric and others including Turmon, Michael (2023). “An approach for calculating exo-Earth yield of a 6m IR/O/UV telescope for various broad bandwidth metrics,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts, vol. 55, pp. 146–01. Document.

Frasson, Renato Prata de Moraes, Turmon, Michael J, Durand, Michael T, and David, Cédric H (2023). “Estimating the relative impact of measurement, parameter, and flow law errors on discharge from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission,” Journal of Hydrometeorology, 24(3), pp. 425–443. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Savransky, Dmitry, Damiano, Mario, Lisman, Doug, Mennesson, Bertrand and others including Turmon, Michael (2023). “Exo-Earth yield of a 6m space telescope in the near-infrared,” Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets XI, vol. 12680, pp. 518–533. Document.

Pradhan, Anshuman, Adams, Kyra H, Chandrasekaran, Venkat, Liu, Zhen, Reager, John T and others including Turmon, Michael J (2023). “Modeling groundwater levels in California's Central Valley by hierarchical Gaussian process and neural network regression,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.14555. Document.

Savransky, Dmitry, Knight, Russell, Turmon, Michael, Spohn, Corey, Morgan, Rhonda and others (2023). “Quantifying the impacts of schedulability on science yield of exoplanet imaging missions,” Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets XI, vol. 12680, pp. 504–517. Document.

Carmon, Nimrod, Berk, Alexander, Bohn, Niklas, Brodrick, Phillip G, Dozier, Jeff and others including Turmon, Michael (2023). “Shape from spectra,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 288, p. 113497, Elsevier. Document.

Durand, Michael T, Gleason, Colin J, Pavelsky, Tamlin, Frasson, Renato PM, Turmon, Michael and others (2022). “A global framework for SWOT discharge with examples from the Ohio River,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. OS25C–02. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Savransky, Dmitry, Turmon, Michael, Genszler, Grace, Mamajek, Eric E and others (2022). “An exploration of expected number of exoplanets for a 6m class direct imaging observatory,” Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, vol. 12180, pp. 761–775. Document.

Yun, Kyongsik, Kim, Kyra H, Pradhan, Anshuman, Reager, John, Liu, Zhen and others including Turmon, Michael (2022). “Filling the gap: Estimation of soil composition using InSAR, groundwater depth, and precipitation data in California's Central Valley,” Authorea Preprints, Authorea. Document.

Bohn, Niklas, Di Mauro, Biagio, Colombo, Roberto, Thompson, David R, Susiluoto, Jouni and others including Turmon, Michael J (2022). “Glacier ice surface properties in South-West Greenland Ice Sheet: first estimates from PRISMA imaging spectroscopy data,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127(3), pp. e2021JG006718, Wiley Online Library. Document.

Yun, Kyongsik, Adams, Kyra, Reager, John, Liu, Zhen, Chavez, Caitlyn and others including Turmon, Michael (2022). “Remote estimation of geologic composition using interferometric synthetic-aperture radar in California's Central Valley,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.04813. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Mennesson, Bertrand, Savransky, Dmitry, Turmon, Michael, Mamajek, Eric and others (2022). “Sensitivity of exo-Earth yield of a 6 m IR/O/UV telescope to bandwidth, SNR, and spectral resolution,” American Astronomical Society Meeting# 240, vol. 54, pp. 430–06. Document.

Carmon, Nimrod, Berk, Alexander, Bohn, Niklas, Brodrick, Philip Gregory, Kalashnikova, Olga and others including Turmon, Michael (2022). “Unified topographic and atmospheric correction for remote imaging spectroscopy,” Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 3, p. 916155, Frontiers Media SA. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Mennesson, Bertrand, Mamajek, Eric, Savransky, Dmitry, Stapelfeldt, Karl and others including Turmon, Michael (2022). “What does the Decadal recommended 25 HZ exoplanet spectra mean?,” Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 54(5), pp. 102–144. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Savransky, Dmitry, Turmon, Michael, Mennesson, Bertrand, Dula, Walker and others (2021). “Faster Exo-Earth yield for HabEx and LUVOIR via extreme precision radial velocity prior knowledge,” Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 7(2), pp. 021220–021220, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Savransky, Dmitry, Turmon, Michael, Mennesson, Bertrand, Dula, Walker and others (2021). “Impact of prior knowledge on direct imaging mission yield,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts, vol. 53, pp. 416–04. Document.

Bohn, Niklas, Painter, Thomas H, Thompson, David R, Carmon, Nimrod, Susiluoto, Jouni and others including Turmon, Michael J (2021). “Optimal estimation of snow and ice surface parameters from imaging spectroscopy measurements,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 264, p. 112613, Elsevier. Document.

Susiluoto, Jouni, Braverman, Amy, Brodrick, Philip, Hamzi, Boumediene, Johnson, Maggie and others including Turmon, Michael (2021). “Radiative transfer emulation for hyperspectral imaging retrievals with advanced kernel flows-based Gaussian process emulation,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, vol. 2021, pp. NG25A–0506. Document.

Bobra, Monica G, Wright, Paul J, Sun, Xudong, and Turmon, Michael J (2021). “SMARPs and SHARPs: Two solar cycles of active region data,” The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 256(2), p. 26, IOP Publishing. Document.

Susiluoto, Jouni, Bohn, Urs Niklas, Braverman, Amy, Brodrick, Philip, Carmon, Nimrod and others including Turmon, Michael (2021). “Speeding up probabilistic imaging spectroscopy retrievals with Accelerated Optimal Estimation,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. GC15B–0680. Document.

Thompson, David R, Brodrick, Philip G, Bohn, Niklas, Braverman, Amy, Carmon, Nimrod and others including Turmon, Michael (2021). “Toward comprehensive uncertainty predictions for remote imaging spectroscopy,” Imaging Spectrometry XXIV: Applications, Sensors, and Processing, vol. 11504, pp. 56–62. Document.

Morgan, R, Savransky, D, Stark, C, Nielsen, E, Mennesson, B and others including Turmon, M (2020). “A common comparison of exoplanet yield for the LUVOIR and HabEx Concept Studies,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts# 235, vol. 235, pp. 130–05. Document.

Massoud, Elias, Turmon, Michael, Reager, John, Hobbs, Jonathan, Liu, Zhen, and David, Cédric H (2020). “Cascading dynamics of the hydrologic cycle in California explored through observations and model simulations,” Geosciences, 10(2), p. 71, MDPI. Document.

Susiluoto, Jouni, Turmon, Michael, Carmon, Nimrod, and Thompson, David (2020). “Does optimal estimation perform adequately for hyperspectral surface reflectance retrieval?,” EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, p. 11922. Document.

Susiluoto, Jouni, Bohn, Urs Niklas, Braverman, Amy J, Carmon, Nimrod, Thompson, David R, and Turmon, Michael (2020). “Improving the Uncertainty Estimation Performance of Retrieving Surface Reflectances from Remote Sensing Imaging Spectroscopy Data,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. GC022–0003. Document.

Thompson, David R, Braverman, Amy, Brodrick, Philip G, Candela, Alberto, Carmon, Nimrod and others including Turmon, Michael (2020). “Quantifying uncertainty for remote spectroscopy of surface composition,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 247, p. 111898, Elsevier. Document.

Thompson, David R, Bohn, Urs Niklas, Braverman, Amy J, Brodrick, Philip G, Carmon, Nimrod and others including Turmon, Michael (2020). “Scene Invariants for Imaging Spectrometer Uncertainty Quantification,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. GC022–0015. Document.

Carmon, Nimrod, Thompson, David R, Bohn, Niklas, Susiluoto, Jouni, Turmon, Michael and others (2020). “Uncertainty quantification for a global imaging spectroscopy surface composition investigation,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 251, p. 112038, Elsevier. Document.

Emery, Charlotte M, David, Cédric H, Andreadis, Konstantinos M, Turmon, Michael J, Reager, John T and others (2020). “Underlying fundamentals of Kalman filtering for river network modeling,” Journal of Hydrometeorology, 21(3), pp. 453–474, American Meteorological Society. Document.

David, Cédric H, Hobbs, Jonathan M, Turmon, Michael J, Emery, Charlotte M, Reager, John T, and Famiglietti, James S (2019). “Analytical propagation of runoff uncertainty into discharge uncertainty through a large river network,” Geophysical Research Letters, 46(14), pp. 8102–8113, Wiley Online Library. Document.

Yang, Yuan, Lin, Peirong, Fisher, Colby K, Turmon, Michael, Hobbs, Jonathan and others (2019). “Enhancing SWOT discharge assimilation through spatiotemporal correlations,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 234, p. 111450, Elsevier. Document.

Thompson, David R, Babu, KN, Braverman, Amy J, Eastwood, Michael L, Green, Robert O and others including Turmon, Michael (2019). “Optimal estimation of spectral surface reflectance in challenging atmospheres,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 232, p. 111258, Elsevier. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Mennesson, Bertrand, Savransky, Dmitry, Mamajek, Eric E, Stapelfeldt, Karl and others including Turmon, Michael (2019). “Standard Evaluation of exoplanet Yield for the LUVOIR and HabEx Concept Studies,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts# 233, vol. 233, pp. 237–06. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Savransky, Dmitry, Turmon, Michael, Mennesson, Bertrand, Mamajek, Eric and others (2019). “Standard exoplanet yield evaluation for the LUVOIR and HabEx concept studies,” Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets IX, vol. 11117, p. 1111701. Document.

Turmon, Michael and Braverman, Amy (2019). “Uncertainty quantification for JPL retrievals,” JPL Publication 19-2. Document.

Franklin, Meredith, Ghahari, Azar, Turmon, Michael, Garay, Michael J, Braverman, Amy J, and Lee, Hugo (2019). “Uncertainty quantification in aerosol properties retrieved by optimal estimation: a testbed using General Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties (GRASP),” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, vol. 2019, pp. NG21B–0946. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Mennesson, Bertrand, Savransky, Dmitry, Mamajek, Eric E, Shaklan, Stuart and others including Turmon, Michael (2019). “Updated standard evaluation of exoplanet yield for the LUVOIR and HabEx Concept Studies,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts# 234, vol. 234, pp. 403–06. Document.

Taeb, Armeen, Turmon, Michael, and Chandrasekaran, Venkat (2018). “Detection and Instrument Characterization Using Spatial Statistical Models,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. GC13F–1075. Document.

Pan, Ming, Yang, Yuan, Fisher, Colby K, Lin, Peirong, Turmon, Michael and others (2018). “Enhancing discharge interpolation for SWOT,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. OS53C–1342. Document.

Taeb, Armeen, Reager, JT, Turmon, M, and Chandrasekaran, V (2017). “A statistical graphical model of the California reservoir system,” Water Resources Research, 53(11), pp. 9721–9739, Wiley Online Library. Document.

Emery, Charlotte Marie, David, Cedric H, Turmon, Michael, Hobbs, Jonathan, Allen, George H, and Famiglietti, James S (2017). “Development of a data assimilation capability for RAPID,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, vol. 2017, pp. H51E–1324. Document.

Hobbs, Jonathan, Turmon, Michael, David, Cedric H, Reager, John T, and Famiglietti, James S (2017). “Efficient Approaches for Propagating Hydrologic Forcing Uncertainty: High-Resolution Applications Over the Western United States,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. NG31A–0162. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda, Turmon, Michael, Delacroix, Christian, Savransky, Dmitry, Garrett, Daniel and others (2017). “ExEP yield modeling tool and validation test results,” Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets VIII, vol. 10400, pp. 440–453. Document.

Morgan, Rhonda M, Bottom, Michael, Turmon, Michael, Mennesson, Bertrand P, Warfield, Keith and others (2017). “HabEx yield modeling with for systems engineering,” UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts VIII, vol. 10398, p. 1039804. Document.

Famiglietti, James S, David, Cedric H, Reager, John T, Oaida, Catalina, Stampoulis, Dimitrios and others including Turmon, Michael (2017). “The Western States Water Mission: A hyper-resolution hydrological model and data integration platform for the Western United States,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. H53F–1527. Document.

Reager, John T, Castle, Stephanie, Turmon, Michael, Famiglietti, James S, and Fournier, Severine (2017). “Using NASA's GRACE and SMAP satellites to measure human impacts on the water cycle,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. H52F–04. Document.

Taeb, Armeen, Reager, John T, Turmon, Michael, and Chandrasekaran, Venkat (2016). “California reservoir drought sensitivity and exhaustion risk using statistical graphical models,” arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.08098. Document.

Djorgovski, S George, Graham, Matthew J, Donalek, Ciro, Mahabal, AA, Drake, Andrew J and others including Turmon, M (2016). “Real-time data mining of massive data streams from synoptic sky surveys,” Future Generation Computer Systems, 59, pp. 95–104, Elsevier. Document.

Reager, John T, Rao, Preeti, Famiglietti, James S, and Turmon, Michael (2015). “Improved uncertainty quantification in groundwater flux estimation using GRACE,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. H44F–05. Document.

Crichton, Daniel J, Braverman, Amy J, Cinquini, Luca, Turmon, Michael, Lee, Hugo, and Law, Emily (2014). “A disciplined architectural approach to scaling data analysis for massive, scientific data,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. IN24A–01. Document.

Djorgovski, S George, Mahabal, Ashish, Donalek, Ciro, Graham, Matthew, Drake, Andrew and others including Turmon, Michael (2014). “Automated real-time classification and decision making in massive data streams from synoptic sky surveys,” 2014 IEEE 10th International Conference on e-Science, vol. 1, pp. 204–211. Document.

Cinquini, Luca, Crichton, Daniel J, Braverman, Amy J, Kyo, L, Fuchs, Thomas, and Turmon, Michael (2014). “DAWN: A simulation model for evaluating costs and tradeoffs of big data science architectures,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, vol. 2014, pp. IN23E–03. Document.

Fuchs, Thomas J, Turmon, Michael, Graham, Matthew J, Donalek, Ciro, Mahabal, Ashish and others (2014). “R in the midst of exploding stars: Distributed, time-domain transient classification,” UseR Conference.

Hoeksema, J. T., Liu, Y., Hayashi, K., Sun, X., Schou, J. and others including Turmon, M. (2014). “The HMI vector magnetic field pipeline: Overview and performance,” Solar Physics, 289, pp. 3483-3530, Springer. Document (link to DOI).

Turmon, M., Hoeksema, J. T., and Bobra, M. (2014). “Tracked Active Region Patches for MDI and HMI,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #224, vol. 224, pp. #123.52. Document.

Bobra, M. G., Sun, X., Hoeksema, J. T., Turmon, M., Liu, Y. and others (2014). “The HMI vector magnetic field pipeline: SHARPs – Space-Weather HMI Active Region Patches,” Solar Physics, 289, pp. 3549–3578, Springer. Document (link to DOI).

Donalek, Ciro, Djorgovski, S George, Mahabal, Ashish, Graham, Matthew, Drake, Andrew and others including Turmon, Michael (2013). “Feature selection strategies for classifying high dimensional astronomical data sets,” 2013 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, pp. 35–41. Document.

Turmon, Michael, Hoeksema, J Todd, and Bobra, Monica (2013). “TARPs: Tracked Active Region Patches from SOHO/MDI,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. SH23A-2087. Document.

Liu, Y, Scherrer, PH, Hoeksema, JT, Schou, J, Bai, T and others including Turmon, M (2012). “A first look at magnetic field data products from SDO/HMI,” 4th Hinode Science Meeting: Unsolved Problems and Recent Insights, vol. 455, p. 337. Document.

Donalek, Ciro, Graham, MJ, Mahabal, A, Djorgovski, SG, Drake, AJ and others including Turmon, M (2012). “Lightcurve based classification of transient events,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts# 219, vol. 219, pp. 446–16. Document.

Hayashi, Keiji, Liu, Y, Sun, X, Turmon, MJ, HMI Team, and others (2012). “Making the daily-updated synoptic map of HMI line-of-sight magnetogram cooperating with the HARP module,” American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts# 220, vol. 220, pp. 207–16. Document.

Bobra, M, Turmon, M, Baldner, C, Sun, X, and Hoeksema, JT (2012). “SHARPs – A Near-Real-Time Space Weather Data Product from HMI,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. SH43B–2171. Document.

Turmon, Michael, Hoeksema, Todd, Sun, Xudong, and Bobra, Monica (2012). “HARPs: Tracked Active Region Patch Data Product from SDO/HMI,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. SH13A-2246. Document.

Mahabal, A., Donalek, C., Djorgovski, S. G., Drake, A. J., Graham, M. J. and others including Turmon, M. (2012). “Real-time classification of transient events in synoptic sky surveys,” New Horizons in Time-Domain Astronomy (IAU Symposium), vol. 285, pp. 355-357.

Mahabal, Ashish A, Donalek, C, Djorgovski, SG, Drake, AJ, Graham, MJ and others including Turmon, M (2011). “Real-time classification of transient events in synoptic sky surveys,” Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 7(S285), pp. 355–357, Cambridge University Press. Document.

Mahabal, Ashish, Djorgovski, SG, Moghaddam, B, Donalek, C, Chen, Y and others including Turmon, M (2011). “Classification with sparse timeseries,” AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division# 12, 12, pp. 6–03. Document.

Mahabal, AA, Djorgovski, SG, Drake, AJ, Donalek, C, Graham, MJ and others including Turmon, M (2011). “Discovery, classification, and scientific exploration of transient events from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey,” arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.0313. Document.

D. A. Dumond, L. Ray, M. Bajracharya, and M. Turmon (2011). “Terrain classification using machine learning and proprioceptive sensors,” Workshop of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems (ISTVS).

Mahabal, A. A., Djorgovski, S. G., Drake, A. J., Donalek, C., Graham, M. J. and others including Turmon, M. (2011). “Discovery, classification, and scientific exploration of transient events from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey,” Bull. Astronomical Society of India, 39(3), pp. 387-408.

Bobra, M, Hoeksema, JT, Sun, X, and Turmon, M (2011). “SHARPs – A new space weather data product from SDO/HMI,” AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, pp. SH51B–2006. Document.

M. Turmon, H. P. Jones, O. Malanushenko, and J. Pap (2010). “Statistical feature recognition for multidimensional solar imagery,” Solar Physics, 262(2), pp. 277–298. Document (CL 10-0771).

Rankin, A., Bajracharya, M., Huertas, A., Howard, A., Moghaddam, B. and others including Turmon, M. (2010). “Stereo-vision-based perception capabilities developed during the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliances program,” SPIE Conference Series, vol. 7692, pp. 76920C-76920C-15. Document.

Malanushenko, O, Jones, H, Turmon, M, and Pap, J (2010). “Analysis of Ca II 8542 Å scanning spectroscopy for statistical feature recognition,” Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, v. 81, p. 801 (2010), 81, p. 801.

Turon, C, Meynadier, F, Arenou, F, Mahabal, AA, Djorgovski, SG and others including Turmon, M (2010). “Classification of Optical Transients: Experiences from PQ and CRTS Surveys,” European Astronomical Society Publications Series, 45, pp. 173–178, EDP Sciences. Document.

Mahabal, Ashish, Djorgovski, SG, Donalek, Ciro, Drake, Andrew, Graham, Matthew and others including Turmon, Michael (2010). “Mixing Bayesian techniques for effective real-time classification of astronomical transients,” Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XIX, vol. 434, p. 115. Document.

Turmon, Michael J, Block, Gary L, Green, Robert O, Hua, Hook, Jacob, Joseph C and others (2010). “Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the HyspIRI spectrometer mission,” NTR. Document.

Turmon, Michael, Tang, Benyang, Howard, Andrew, and Brjaracharya, Max (2010). “Predicting Long-Range Traversability from Short-Range Stereo-Derived Geometry,” NTR. Document.

Earlier publications