Temuulen Sankey

About

Dr. Temuulen (Teki) Sankey is a Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability, where she has been a faculty member since 2014. Her research applies remote sensing, from satellite time series to drone-mounted lidar, thermal, and hyperspectral sensors, to understand how arid and semi-arid ecosystems are changing.

Research

Dryland landscapes change in ways that are easy to miss from the ground and easy to mismeasure from space; Dr. Sankey’s work closes that gap by pairing high-resolution UAV observations with satellite records and field instrumentation. Her group’s recent projects include quantifying how forest thinning changes snowpack, soil moisture, and water use in southwestern ponderosa pine forests; estimating evapotranspiration in arid Arizona with ECOSTRESS thermal data; monitoring springs, streams, and native fish habitat; and characterizing caves and karst within the Grand Canyon’s deep aquifer. Machine-learning methods run through much of this work, from mapping base-flow across arid landscapes to detecting ephemeral snow with PlanetScope imagery.

Her research is highly collaborative, spanning hydrology, ecology, and land management, and connects directly to the school’s Ecology & Conservation and Water Management themes.

Education

• Ph.D. Geography, Arizona State University
• M.S. Environmental Remote Sensing, University of Arizona
• B.S. Geography, National University of Mongolia