Biography
Yang Chen is an Associate Researcher in the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. He earned his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Michigan in 2006, his Master of Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2000, and his Bachelor of Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1997. Chen joined UCI in 2008 as an Assistant Project Scientist after completing postdoctoral fellowships at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Michigan.
Chen's research focuses on global and regional fire patterns, climate influences on wildfires, and the impacts of fires on ecosystems and climate. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Nature Climate Change, Science, and Earth System Science Data. His work has been funded by NASA, NSF, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, with current projects totaling over $2.5 million. Chen has contributed to major scientific databases including the Global Fire Emissions Database and the Global Fire Atlas, and his research has been featured in major media outlets including The Guardian, CNN, and National Geographic.
Chen serves the scientific community as a reviewer for over 15 professional journals and has reviewed more than 50 manuscripts. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union and served on the executive committee of the Chinese-American Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Southern California Chapter from 2012 to 2016. Chen has developed several community resources including fire season severity forecasts for the Amazon region, contributions to the SERVIR Amazonia fire outlook service, and visualization tools for California fire events data.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science, University of Michigan, 2006
- Master in Environmental Engineering, Tsinghua University, 2000
- Bachelor in Environmental Engineering, Tsinghua University, 1997
Distinctions
- University of Michigan travel grant for American Geophysical Union 2005 Fall Meeting, 2005
- Excellent Student Scholarship for 5 consecutive years, Tsinghua University, 1992-1997
Areas of Expertise
- Wildfire Climate Science
- Global Fire Emissions Database
- Biomass Burning Aerosol Effects
- Remote Sensing Fire Detection
- Seasonal Fire Forecasting Models
- Arctic Lightning Climate Change
- Machine Learning Fire Prediction
- Real-time Fire Tracking Systems
- Satellite Fire Observation Analysis
- Photochemical Air Pollution Characteristics
Recent Publications
- Burton, C., Lampe, S., Kelley, D. I., Chen, Y., “Global burned area increasingly explained by climate change” (opens in new tab), Nature Climate Change, vol. 14, pp. 1186–1192, 2024.
- Scholten, R. C., Veraverbeke, S., Chen, Y., “Spatial variability in Arctic–boreal fire regimes influenced by environmental and human factors” (opens in new tab), Nature Geoscience, vol. 17, pp. 866–873, 2024.
- Chen, Y., Morton, D. C., Randerson, J. T., “Remote sensing for wildfire monitoring: Insights into burned area, emissions, and fire dynamics” (opens in new tab), One Earth, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 1022-1028, 2024.
- Chen, Y., Hall, J., van Wees, D., Andela, N., Hantson, S., Giglio, L., van der Werf, G. R., Morton, D. C., Randerson, J. T., “Multi-decadal trends and variability in burned area from the fifth version of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED5)” (opens in new tab), Earth System Science Data, vol. 15, pp. 5227–5259, 2023.
- Chen, Y., Hantson, S., Andela, N., Coffield, S. R., Graff, C. A., Morton, D. C., Ott, L. E., Foufoula-Georgiou, E., Smyth, P., Goulden, M. L., Randerson, J. T., “California wildfire spread derived using VIIRS satellite observations and an object-based tracking system” (opens in new tab), Scientific data, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-15, 2022.
- Chen, Y., Romps, D. M., Seeley, J. T., Veraverbeke, S., Riley, W. J., Mekonnen, Z. A., Randerson, J. T., “Future increases in Arctic lightning and fire risk for permafrost carbon” (opens in new tab), Nature Climate Change, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 404-410, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Randerson, J. T., Chen, Y., Van Der Werf, G. R., Rogers, B. M., Morton, D. C., “Global burned area and biomass burning emissions from small fires” (opens in new tab), Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, vol. 117, no. G4, 2012.
- Chen, Y., Morton, D. C., Andela, N., Van Der Werf, G. R., Giglio, L., Randerson, J. T., “A pan-tropical cascade of fire driven by El Niño/Southern Oscillation” (opens in new tab), Nature Climate Change, vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 906-911, 2017.
- Chen, Y., Morton, D. C., Jin, Y., Collatz, G. J., Kasibhatla, P. S., van der Werf, G. R., Randerson, J. T., “Long-term trends and interannual variability of forest, savanna and agricultural fires in South America” (opens in new tab), Carbon Management, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 617-638, 2013.
- Kooperman, G. J., Chen, Y., Hoffman, F. M., Koven, C. D., Lindsay, K., Pritchard, M. S., Randerson, J. T., “Forest response to rising CO2 drives zonally asymmetric rainfall change over tropical land” (opens in new tab), Nature Climate Change, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 434-440, 2018.
- Chen, Y., Morton, D. C., Andela, N., Giglio, L., Randerson, J. T., “How much global burned area can be forecast on seasonal time scales using sea surface temperatures?” (opens in new tab), Environmental Research Letters, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 045001, 2016.
- Chen, Y., Velicogna, I., Famiglietti, J. S., Randerson, J. T., “Satellite observations of terrestrial water storage provide early warning information about drought and fire season severity in the Amazon” (opens in new tab), Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, vol. 118, no. 2, pp. 495-504, 2013.
- Morton, D. C., Collatz, G. J., Wang, D., Randerson, J. T., Giglio, L., Chen, Y., “Satellite-based assessment of climate controls on US burned area” (opens in new tab), Biogeosciences, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 247-260, 2013.
- Chen, Y., Randerson, J. T., Coffield, S. R., Foufoula‐Georgiou, E., Smyth, P., Graff, C. A., Ott, L. E., “Forecasting global fire emissions on subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) time scales” (opens in new tab), Journal of advances in modeling earth systems, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. e2019MS001955, 2020.
- Chen, Y., Randerson, J. T., Morton, D. C., “Tropical North Atlantic ocean‐atmosphere interactions synchronize forest carbon losses from hurricanes and Amazon fires” (opens in new tab), Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 42, no. 15, pp. 6462-6470, 2015.
- Chen, Y., Langenbrunner, B., Randerson, J. T., “Future drying in Central America and northern South America linked with Atlantic meridional overturning circulation” (opens in new tab), Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 45, no. 17, pp. 9226-9235, 2018.
Contact Information
Website: https://www.ess.uci.edu/~ychen17/
Email: yang.chen@uci.edu
Address: 3052 ISEB, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697
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Last updated on 7/24/2025.