Events Calendar

EE-EP Seminar

Speaker: Prasad Gogineni, University of Kansas

Talk Title: Ultrawideband (UWB) Radars for Remote Sensing of Snow, Soil Moisture and Ice

Abstract: Ultra-wideband (UWB) radars operating over the frequency range from about 100 MHz to 94 GHz and integrated into small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can support scientific and operational research on snow, soil moisture, and ice. Two major impacts of climate change are related to fresh water resources and sea level rise. We need more information on snow water equivalent (SWE) and soil moisture to manage water resources in the future. Soil moisture is a key variable in scientific research and operational applications, including the forecasting of floods and agriculture. Also, soil moisture controls evaporation of land surfaces and is an input variable in predictions of summer rainfall over the continents. UWB radars operating over the frequency range of 150-600 MHz and UWB microwave radars operating over the frequency range of 2-18 GHz integrated into small and medium-scale UASs can provide valuable information on soil moisture and SWE. Also, we need accurate information on the bed topography, basal conditions, and snow accumulation of large ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to generate accurate estimates of sea level increase over the century. UWB radars can also provide much-needed data for improving ice sheet models used to generate sea level rise projections.
In this talk, I will discuss the need for remote sensing of snow, soil moisture, and ice, as well as present preliminary results from UWB measurements on these targets. I will also discuss advances required to develop medium and small UAS integrated with UWB radars to support scientific and operational applications.


Biography: Dr. Gogineni is the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Kansas with more than two decades of research and teaching experience in radar remote sensing of the Earth, including polar ice sheets. He has successfully led several multi-disciplinary research projects funded by NASA and NSF. Dr. Gogineni served as the Director of the Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Laboratory at the University of Kansas before serving as Manager of NASA's Polar Research Programs during 1997-1999. He is currently the Director of the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, where he continues to manage a center that connects science and engineering in polar research. Dr. Gogineni and his colleagues at CReSIS have successfully demonstrated SAR imaging of the ice-bed interface and generated fine-resolution 3-D topography of an ice-bed covered in over 3 km of ice. The Center has also succeeded in sounding and imaging the ice bed of three important glaciers in Greenland.
He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, in 1984. He has authored or co-authored over 125 archival journal publications and more than 240 technical reports and conference presentations. His research interests include the application of radars to the remote sensing of the polar ice sheets, sea ice, ocean, atmosphere, and land. He developed several radar systems currently being used at the University of Kansas for sounding and imaging of polar ice sheets, and has also participated in field experiments in the Arctic and Antarctica.


Host: Mahta Moghaddam - AWARE

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Marilyn Poplawski