Christian Frankenberg

Christian Frankenberg is Chandler Family Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Caltech and Research Scientist at JPL. His research focuses on global carbon cycle dynamics using remote sensing, particularly solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) for monitoring photosynthesis and atmospheric methane detection.

Recent projects integrate satellite observations from OCO-2, TROPOMI, EMIT, and SMAP to study carbon-water interactions, ecosystem productivity, and methane emissions. Frankenberg develops novel retrieval algorithms and land surface models to improve climate predictions, with applications spanning Arctic-boreal regions, tropical forests, and agricultural systems.

He teaches courses on Earth's biogeochemical cycles and remote sensing techniques, while leading NASA-funded research on methane source attribution and carbon cycle feedbacks. Frankenberg maintains collaborations with the CliMA initiative for next-generation climate modeling.