Plenary Lecture

Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Particles using LIDAR, Calipso Satellite & AERONET

Professor Hamed Parsiani

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer
University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (UPRM) Campus
PO Box 9000, Mayagüez , P.R. 00681-9000
PUERTO RICO

Email: parsiani@ece.uprm.edu
Website: http://ece.uprm.edu/noaa-crest/

Abstract: Improvement of regional climatological model and weather prediction capabilities depend heavily on the atmospheric particles (or aerosols) which are distributed in the column of the atmosphere, and ranging in size from 1 to 10 microns. Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) system can depict the profile of aerosols distribution in the atmosphere on a regular basis, the system can be located on the land (UPRM Lidar) or on a satellite (Calipso ), observing the aerosol column from both vertical directions as satellite passes over the Lidar location. The Calipso Lidar satellite transmits laser and collects backscattered light at two standard wavelengths (one wavelength at two polarizations). The AERONET network is a complementary method of determining the Optical Depth of the aerosol. These three systems operate based on multiple wavelength laser light transmission and reception. Each system is explored in this paper, and full emphasis is given to the Lidar system which presently is near operation at the UPRM, explaining the functionality of the Laser, optical telescope, optics, sensors, signal processing systems, and the algorithm responsible for providing the power profile reflected from the aerosols at standard wavelengths of 355, 532, and 1064nms. The results of the remotely sensed atmospheric particles are obtained in terms of Aerosol Size Distribution, Angstrom coefficient, and Single Scattering Albedo. The latter two parameters enhance understanding of the effects of aerosols on the climate. The plots of aerosol distribution in the column of atmosphere in terms of these important aerosol parameters have been produced using the Lidar data over New York urban area.
 

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Hamed Parsiani is a full professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM). He is currently directing the development of the first three wavelengths Lidar System laboratory for the advanced atmospheric research in Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean region. He is the research director of the UPRM NOAA-CREST grant which is now in its seventh year, covering research in Tropospheric, Hydroclimate, and Coastal Remote Sensing areas. He is presently a UPRM-PI of grant sponsored by NSF-3DGeo company in the area of Aquifer Delineation using Ground Penetrating Radar. His interests are in remote sensing using radar and lidar, image processing, image compression, soil type, soil moisture, and aquifer detection using ground penetrating radar.
His earlier research grants were sponsored by GSSI Inc. (PI), NASA-Tropical Research Center (Co-PI), NSF-PRECISE, NASA-PaSCOR as research collaborator. He contributed in the development of JPEG compression algorithm during his research work with Bell Communications Research (BELCOR), and Global Positioning System (GPS), a NASA grant. He was the co-organizer and co-chair of two NOAA-CREST Technical Symposiums (2006 & 2008), the chair of the International Symposium on Intelligent Systems in Communications (SISCAP-94) held at UPRM. He has served on several conferences paper review boards, and has over 50 publications in journals and proceedings.
He is an alumnus of the Oregon State University (BS EE & Math), and Texas A&M University (MEE, PhD in ECE), and a member of Eta Kappa Nu honor society, and IEEE.