BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:IEEE vTools.Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20241103T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20241204T210534Z UID:70746CBF-E207-42B3-894F-C14B6F34B7D7 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241204T113000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241204T130000 DESCRIPTION:The Atlanta chapters of AES/GRS\, IM/EMC\, and AP/MTT are pleas ed to host Dr. Mehmet Kurum on Wednesday\, December 4. The talk will be he ld in Midtown Atlanta\, streamed to Cobb County\, and available virtually via Webex.\n\nSpeaker: Dr. Mehmet Kurum\, Associate Professor at the Unive rsity of Georgia\n\nTitle: Unlocking Forest Vital Signs: Harnessing Microw ave Remote Sensing with a Unified BERT Radiative Transfer Theory\n\nAbstra ct: Variations in forest vegetation water content (VWC) indicate forest he alth and resilience to stresses like temperature changes\, water availabil ity\, and disturbances. Vegetation optical depth (VOD)\, derived from micr owave retrievals\, is proportional to forest VWC\, and can act as a health monitor for ecosystems. Improved temporal and spatial quantification of V WC variations is expected to aid in the improved evaluation of how forests respond to drought\, including tree mortality and wildfire risk. However\ , current spaceborne VOD products struggle with the lack of physical relat ionships between geophysical properties and radiative transfer characteris tics\, especially given the temporal variability and spatial heterogeneity . VOD estimates are influenced by various factors that need to be correcte d and taken into account\, including structure information\, vegetation sa p\, and water film layers in addition to microwave parameters like polariz ation and frequency.\n\nIn this talk\, I provide insights into the paramet erization of retrieval algorithms and deepen the understanding of VOD acro ss a broad spectrum of microwave measurements\, such as Backscatter\, Emis sivity\, Reflectivity\, and Transmissivity (collectively referred to as BE RT). We demonstrate integrating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measur ements within a novel unified radiative transfer (RT) framework to simulat e forest BERT (ForBERT) observations. Such a unified model will aid in ana lyzing and interpreting VOD data from various NASA missions like SMAP\, CY GNSS\, AMSR-2\, and future NISAR\, as well as ESA missions such as SMOS\, Sentinel-1\, and ASCAT.\n\nWe will explore needs in scattering models with varying degrees of assumption on the statistical homogeneity\, the shape of scatterers\, wave illumination\, and complex heterogeneous realistic ve getated terrains. In other words\, we seek “radio realistic” scene gen eration by exercising the trade-off between “photo” (architecture) rea lism and accuracy needs. Without a clear understanding of the impact of th e complex features of a “radio realistic” canopy on the scattered sign als\, retrieval algorithms cannot make the best use of retrieved VOD measu rements or can even cause misinterpretation of the results.\n\nSpeaker(s): Dr. Mehmet Kurum\n\nAgenda: \n11:30 - noon : Lunch\n\nNoon - 1:00 : Techn ical Talk\n\nTwo physical locations will offer lunch at 11:30 AM. Please i ndicate in the RSVP menu options which site you will attend\, or if you wi ll attend virtually.\n\nMidtown Atlanta (In-Person):\nGeorgia Tech EBB Kro ne Building\, Room 4029\n950 Atlantic Dr NW Suite 1\nAtlanta\, GA 30332\n\ nCobb County (Virtual):\nGTRI Building 11\, Rm 1226\n2001 Dixie Avenue SE\ nSmyrna\, Georgia 30080\n\nRoom: 4029\, Bldg: EBB Krone\, 950 Atlantic Dr NW\, Atlanta\, Georgia\, United States\, 30332\, Virtual: https://events.v tools.ieee.org/m/446663 LOCATION:Room: 4029\, Bldg: EBB Krone\, 950 Atlantic Dr NW\, Atlanta\, Geor gia\, United States\, 30332\, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/44 6663 ORGANIZER:leda.sox@gtri.gatech.edu SEQUENCE:76 SUMMARY:Unlocking Forest Vital Signs: Harnessing Microwave Remote Sensing w ith a Unified BERT Radiative Transfer Theory URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/446663 X-ALT-DESC:Description: <br /><p class="MsoNormal">The Atlanta chapters of AES/GRS\, IM/EMC\, and AP/MTT are pleased to host Dr. Mehmet Kurum on Wedn esday\, December 4.&nbsp\; The talk will be held in Midtown Atlanta\, stre amed to Cobb County\, and available virtually via Webex.</p>\n<p class="Ms oNormal">&nbsp\;</p>\n<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Speaker:</strong> Dr. M ehmet Kurum\, Associate Professor at the University of Georgia</p>\n<p cla ss="MsoNormal"><strong>Title:</strong> Unlocking Forest Vital Signs: Harne ssing Microwave Remote Sensing with a Unified BERT Radiative Transfer Theo ry</p>\n<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify\;"><strong>Abstrac t:&nbsp\;</strong>Variations in forest vegetation water content (VWC) indi cate forest health and resilience to stresses like temperature changes\, w ater availability\, and disturbances. Vegetation optical depth (VOD)\, der ived from microwave retrievals\, is proportional to forest VWC\, and can a ct as a health monitor for ecosystems. Improved temporal and spatial quant ification of VWC variations is expected to aid in the improved evaluation of how forests respond to drought\, including tree mortality and wildfire risk.&nbsp\; However\, current spaceborne VOD products struggle with the l ack of physical relationships between geophysical properties and radiative transfer characteristics\, especially given the temporal variability and spatial heterogeneity. VOD estimates are influenced by various factors tha t need to be corrected and taken into account\, including structure inform ation\, vegetation sap\, and water film layers in addition to microwave pa rameters like polarization and frequency.</p>\n<p class="MsoNormal" style= "text-align: justify\;">In this talk\, I provide insights into the paramet erization of retrieval algorithms and deepen the understanding of VOD acro ss a broad spectrum of microwave measurements\, such as Backscatter\, Emis sivity\, Reflectivity\, and Transmissivity (collectively referred to as BE RT). We demonstrate integrating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measur ements within a novel unified radiative transfer (RT) framework to simulat e forest BERT (ForBERT) observations. Such a unified model will aid in ana lyzing and interpreting VOD data from various NASA missions like SMAP\, CY GNSS\, AMSR-2\, and future NISAR\, as well as ESA missions such as SMOS\, Sentinel-1\, and ASCAT.</p>\n<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justi fy\;">We will explore needs in scattering models with varying degrees of a ssumption on the statistical homogeneity\, the shape of scatterers\, wave illumination\, and complex heterogeneous realistic vegetated terrains. In other words\, we seek &ldquo\;radio realistic&rdquo\; scene generation by exercising the trade-off between &ldquo\;photo&rdquo\; (architecture) real ism and accuracy needs. Without a clear understanding of the impact of the complex features of a &ldquo\;radio realistic&rdquo\; canopy on the scatt ered signals\, retrieval algorithms cannot make the best use of retrieved VOD measurements or can even cause misinterpretation of the results.</p><b r /><br />Agenda: <br /><p>11:30 - noon : Lunch</p>\n<p>Noon - 1:00 : Tech nical Talk</p>\n<p>Two physical locations will offer lunch at 11:30 AM. &n bsp\;Please indicate in the RSVP menu options which site you will attend\, or if you will attend virtually.</p>\n<p>Midtown Atlanta (In-Person):<br> Georgia Tech EBB Krone Building\, Room 4029<br>950 Atlantic Dr NW Suite 1< br>Atlanta\, GA 30332</p>\n<p>Cobb County (Virtual):<br>GTRI Building 11\, Rm 1226<br>2001 Dixie Avenue SE<br>Smyrna\, Georgia 30080</p> END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR