Dr. Caiti Steele is a College Assistant Professor at the Jornada Experimental Range at New Mexico State University. She is a graduate of Kings College, University of London where she was awarded her PhD in Geography in 2000. She is expert in environmental remote sensing and GIS applications. As a member of the EPSCoR team, she is currently working with Al Rango. They are testing different remote sensing and GIS approaches for estimating snow cover for input to the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM). She is also investigating object-based image analysis for estimation of forest canopy cover from low-cost, fine spatial resolution imagery. Caiti’s research interests are driven primarily by practical application. Once calibrated, the output from SRM will provide operational forecasts for all snowmelt dominated sub-basins in the Rio Grande headwaters. Her other research activities include (i) the development of a spatial database for management of public rangelands and (ii) a comparison of the physiology and spectral reflectance characteristics of native and exotic invasive dryland grass species.