Dr. Josef Kellndorfer of Earth Big Data LLC

Synthetic Aperture Radar remote sensing has become a game changer in monitoring our planet at high spatial and temporal resolution. Because of cloud penetration of microwaves, ground observations at every SAR satellite overpass are nearly always available. This provides new insights into planetary change from novel temporal and spatial SAR signatures of natural and man-made targets. Mature SAR processing pipelines lead to Analysis Read Data (ARD) that can be coupled with modern tools to visualize and analyze these high-dimensional remote sensing data sets. Examples from a Global Coherence and Backscatter Data set and SAR Time Series Backscatter visualization are provided.

Biography:

Dr. Kelldorfer is Founder and President of Earth Big Data LLC, a company focusing on tackling the Big Data challenge of novel data pipelines combining SAR and traditional remote sensing data. Dr. Kellndorfer studied Geography, Remote Sensing, and Computer Science at the University of Munich and worked on his Ph.D. with the University of Michigan Radiation Laboratory group during the era of SIR-C, ERS-1 and JERS-1. He was a Senior Scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center tackling big data projects like production of the first Aboveground Biomass and Forest height Data set of the Conterminous United States fusing forest inventory with Landsat and SRTM data sets, or Pan-tropical forest height mapping with ALOS-PALSAR and IceSat lidar data. Dr. Kellndorfer has advised the UNFCCC on the use of SAR Data as early as the 2017 COP summit in Bali introducing SAR capabilities to support the policy mechanism of REDD+. Since more than 10 years Dr Kellndorfer has been on NASA’s science team to formulate and prepare for the NASA/ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission NISAR, the first multi-frequency SAR at L- and S-band to fly in space. Dr. Kellndorfer also served as Chair of the User Working group of the Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC.