Chris of University of Michigan

Abstract: Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) is a relatively new bistatic radar remote sensing technique which uses GNSS navigation satellites like GPS and Galileo as its transmitter and provides its own receiver to measure the navigation signal after it is scattered from the Earth surface back into space. Modifications to the signal caused by the scattering process contain information about the surface properties that can be estimated by analysis of the receiver’s measurements. The detectable properties include surface roughness, near-surface wind speed over water, soil moisture, inland water boundaries, and surface height. A GNSS-R type of radar is particularly attractive because a radar receiver alone is generally much smaller, lighter, lower power and cheaper than a conventional radar that also includes a transmitter. As a result, GNSS-R systems can fly on smaller satellites and constellations of them can be flown to provide more frequent global coverage. This seminar will provide an overview of the science and applications possible with a spaceborne GNSS-R system, using the NASA CYGNSS constellation of eight small satellites as an example. Numerous follow-on GNSS-R missions have either been launched or are currently in development, and these will also be discussed.

Bio: Chris Ruf is the Fredrick Bartman Collegiate Professor of Climate and Space Science at the University of Michigan. He received the B.A. degree in Physics from Reed College and the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and has previously worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Penn State University. Prof. Ruf’s research interests involve microwave remote sensing of the Earth environment, with a focus on ocean and atmosphere applications and sensor technology development. He is Principal Investigator of the NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission. Prof. Ruf has served on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space and on their 2006 and 2016 Earth Science Decadal Survey Panels. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the American Meteorological Society and a former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Biography:

Chris Ruf is the Fredrick Bartman Collegiate Professor of Climate and Space Science at the University of Michigan. He received the B.A. degree in Physics from Reed College and the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and has previously worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Penn State University. Prof. Ruf’s research interests involve microwave remote sensing of the Earth environment, with a focus on ocean and atmosphere applications and sensor technology development. He is Principal Investigator of the NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission. Prof. Ruf has served on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space and on their 2006 and 2016 Earth Science Decadal Survey Panels. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the American Meteorological Society and a former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Email:

Address:2527A Climate & Space Research Building, 2455 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109-2143