Dr. Amy McNally is a research scientist who studies remote sensing, and hydrological modeling for water resources and agriculture applications. Amy specializes in research-to-operations, to keep user communities up-to-date with the latest science and technology to generate the best estimates of when, where, and how many people require humanitarian interventions to alleviate food and water insecurity.
Amy L. McNally
(RSCH AST, EARTH SCIENCES REMOTE SENS)
| Email: | amy.l.mcnally@nasa.gov |
| Org Code: | 619 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 619 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Brief Bio
Current Projects
Land surface modeling for monitoring and seasonal forecasting of agricultural water availability
Hydrology / Water Cycle
Extended outlooks for crop condition classifications and early warning
Hydrology / Water Cycle
Changes in planted area estimated from high resolution imagery
Remote Sensing
Positions/Employment
Research AST Earth Sciences Remote Sensing
NASA GSFC - Greenbelt, MD
April 2023 - Present
Specializing in the use of satellite remote sensing for informing decisions around food security and leading projects, activities, and partnerships related to environmental and agricultural monitoring and prediction.
Sr. Research Scientist
SAIC - Washington, DC
April 2019 - March 2023
Agroclimatology advisor for USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, Famine Early Warning Systems Network
Assistant Researcher
UMD ESSIC - NASA GSFC HSL
February 2014 - March 2019
Characterizing, monitoring and projecting water Availability for acute food insecurity decision support
Post-doc
University of California - Santa Barbara, CA
October 2013 - February 2014
A Land Data Assimilation System for Famine Early Warning, UCSB Dept of Geography Climate Hazards Group
Selected Publications
Refereed
2025. "In situ, modeled, and earth observation monitoring of surface water availability in West African rangelands.", Frontiers in Water, 7 1320010 [10.3389/frwa.2025.1320010] [Journal Article/Letter]
2025. "An Unexpected Outcome Followed an Apparent Seasonal Forecast of Opportunity and Prolonged Drought in Southwest Asia.", International Journal of Climatology, 45 (8): [10.1002/joc.8851] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Satellite data shows resilience of Tigrayan farmers in crop cultivation during civil war.", Science of Remote Sensing, 10 100140 [10.1016/j.srs.2024.100140] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "ENSO-based outlook of droughts and agricultural outcomes in Afghanistan.", Weather and Climate Extremes, 45 100697 [10.1016/j.wace.2024.100697] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Preseason maize and wheat yield forecasts for early warning of crop failure.", Nature Communications, 15 (1): 7262 [10.1038/s41467-024-51555-8] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Crop area change in the context of civil war in Tigray, Ethiopia.", Environmental Research: Food Systems, 1 (1): 015003 [10.1088/2976-601x/ad3559] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Investigating the Strength and Variability of El Niño–Southern Oscillation Teleconnections to Hydroclimate and Maize Yields in Southern and East Africa.", Journal of Hydrometeorology, 25 (1): 257-275 [10.1175/jhm-d-23-0098.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "A global long-term daily reanalysis of reference evapotranspiration for drought and food-security monitoring.", Scientific Data, 10 (1): 746 [10.1038/s41597-023-02648-4] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Changes to Middle East and Southwest Asia Compound Drought and Heat Since 1999.", Journal of Climate, [10.1175/jcli-d-23-0194.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Considering soil moisture in models of climate impacts on child health in farming-centric countries.", Population and Environment, 45 (3): 15 [10.1007/s11111-023-00426-3] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Multiyear dry periods in Southern Africa.", International Journal of Climatology, 43 (7): 3225-3246 [10.1002/joc.8026] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "NASA’s NMME-based S2S Hydrologic Forecast System for Food Insecurity Early Warning in Southern Africa.", Journal of Hydrology, 617 (B): 129005 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.129005] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Multi-year La Niña events and multi-season drought in the Horn of Africa.", Journal of Hydrometeorology, 119=131 [10.1175/jhm-d-22-0043.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "A Central Asia hydrologic monitoring dataset for food and water security applications in Afghanistan.", Earth System Science Data, 14 (7): 3115-3135 [10.5194/essd-14-3115-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "The efficacy of seasonal terrestrial water storage forecasts for predicting vegetation activity over Africa.", Journal of Hydrometeorology, 22 (11): 3121–3137 [10.1175/jhm-d-21-0046.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Daily Precipitation Frequency Distributions Impacts on Land-Surface Simulations of CONUS.", Frontiers in Water, 3 [10.3389/frwa.2021.640736] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Vegetation Monitoring Optimization With Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Evapotranspiration Using Remote Sensing Measurements and Land Surface Models Over East Africa.", Frontiers in Climate, 3 [10.3389/fclim.2021.589981] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Improving early warning of drought-driven food insecurity in Southern Africa using operational hydrological monitoring and forecasting products.", Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, [10.5194/nhess-20-1187-2020] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "The NASA hydrological forecast system for food and water security applications.", Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 101 (7): E1007-E1025 [10.1175/bams-d-18-0264.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Acute Water-Scarcity Monitoring for Africa.", Water, 11 (10): 1968 [10.3390/w11101968] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Uncertainties in Evapotranspiration Estimates over West Africa.", Remote Sensing, 11 (8): 892 [10.3390/rs11080892] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Hydrologic and Agricultural Earth Observations and Modeling for the Water-Food Nexus.", Frontiers in Environmental Science, 7 pp. 23 [10.3389/fenvs.2019.00023] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Earth Observations and Integrative Models in Support of Food and Water Security.", Remote Sensing in Earth Systems Sciences, [10.1007/s41976-019-0008-6] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Upper Blue Nile Basin Water Budget from a Multi-Model Perspective.", Journal of Hydrology, [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.10.040] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "NASA’s Remotely-sensed Precipitation: A Reservoir for Applications Users.", Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98 (6): 1169-1184 [10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00296.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "A land data assimilation system for sub-Saharan Africa food and water security applications.", Scientific Data, 4 170012 [10.1038/sdata.2017.12] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Forecasting Water Availability in Data Sparse and Heavily Managed Catchments in Africa and the Middle East.", GEWEX News, 27 (4): 8-11 [Newsletter]
2015. "Calculating Crop Water Requirement Satisfaction in the West Africa Sahel with Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture.", Journal of Hydrometerology, 16 295-305 [10.1175/JHM-D-14-0049.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Examining the link between food prices and food insecurity: A multi-level analysis of maize price and birthweight in Kenya.", Food Policy, 46 56–65 [10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.01.010] [Journal Article/Letter]