Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, December 5, 2005 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Carl Leuschen

"CryoSat"

ABSTRACT -- CryoSat was the first Earth Explorer Mission sponsored by the European Space Agency. Unfortunately on October 8, 2005, it experience a catastrophic launch failure causing loss of the entire spacecraft. Its only sensing instrument was SIRAL (implemented by Alcatel of France). CryoSat's mission was to measure height changes in continental ice sheets, and to estimate the coverage and thickness of sea ice. SIRAL's three operating modes have been designed to meet these measurement requirements. The design was based on concepts originally developed at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and demonstrated by the JHU/APL D2P airborne radar altimeter. This seminar will describe the instrument modes, and their application to the cryosphere. Results of airborne prototype campaigns will also be reviewed.

SPEAKER -- Dr. Carl Leuschen is a senior professional staff member of the Space Department, Ocean Remote Sensing Group of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. His interests include radar altimetry, radar sounding, and ground-penetrating radar. He is currently serving as a participating scientist for the MARSIS radar sounder aboard the European Space Agency MARS EXPRESS Satellite and is also contributing to the SHARAD sounder aboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In 2002, he received a NASA New Investigator Award to investigate signal processing algorithms for ice sounding radars. He has the primary role for the deployment of the APL delay-Doppler phase-monopulse (D2P) airborne radar altimeter and has participated in numerous field experiments to polar regions.

Prior to joining APL, he was a graduate student at the University of Kansas Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Laboratory. In 1997, he received a NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowship to develop a ground-penetrating radar for Mars. He graduated with highest distinction for his B.S. in 1995 and with honors for his Ph.D. in 2001 for which he received the Richard and Wilma Moore Thesis Award. Carl is a member of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers and the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.