Recent Trends in Microwave Remote Sensing of Water Resources

The 2018 National Academies study “Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space” (more commonly known as the 2018 “Decadal Survey”) identifies several components of the Earth water cycle as “Primary Targeted Observables.” Assessing and managing water resources and understanding the dynamics of the water cycle require near-continuous monitoring of its principal components, such as surface-to-depth profiles of soil moisture, ground water, and snow. Microwave remote sensing has long been recognized as an effective means for quantifying Earth system variables, and in particular these water cycle components. I will summarize some of our group’s most recent work in new and exploratory microwave observational modalities for quantifying soil moisture (including within the arctic permafrost active layer), depth to water table, and snow water equivalent. These include observations using global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R), drone-based software-defined radar (SDRadar), and monostatic multi-frequency synthetic aperture radar. The talk will present a combination of the observational scenarios, physical principles of the electromagnetic scattering problems, examples of observed data, and retrieved geophysical products via inverse scattering techniques.

Mahta Moghaddam

University of Southern California on February 4, 2022 at 10:15 AM in Zoom Webinar
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Prof. Mahta Moghaddam is Distinguished Professor and the Ming Hsieh Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Co-Director of the Center for Sustainability Solutions, and Vice Dean for Research at the Viterbi School of Engineering, the University of Southern California. Prior to that she was at the University of Michigan (2003-2011) and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, 1991-2003). She received the B.S. degree in 1986 from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas with highest distinction, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1989 and 1991, respectively, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in Electrical and Computer Engineering. She has introduced new approaches for quantitative interpretation of multichannel radar imagery based on analytical inverse scattering techniques applied to complex and random media. She was a Systems Engineer for the Cassini Radar and served as Science Chair of the JPL Team X (Advanced Mission Studies Team). Her most recent research interests include the development of new radar instrument and measurement technologies for subsurface and subcanopy characterization, development of forward and inverse scattering techniques for layered random media especially for root-zone soil moisture, ground water, and permafrost applications, geophysical retrievals using signal-of-opportunity reflectometry, and transforming concepts of radar remote sensing to medical imaging and therapy systems. Dr. Moghaddam was the principal investigator of the AirMOSS NASA Earth Ventures 1 mission. She served as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine from 2015 to 2019 and as President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society in 2020. Dr. Moghaddam is a Fellow of IEEE and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

This lecture series features exciting and dynamic visiting and virtual speakers from across the range of ECE disciplines. Take some time every Friday morning to be inspired by these great scientists and engineers before heading into the weekend!