Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Remote Sensing

Dr. Shashi Kumar received the M.Sc. degree in Physics from Patna University, Patna, India, in 2002, the M.Sc. degree in Geoinformatics under the joint education program of Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun, India, and International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands, in 2009, and the Ph.D. degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India, in 2019. Since 2009, he has been working as Scientist with the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Dehradun, India. Dr. Shashi Kumar is a dedicated researcher contributing to capacity building through education and research in the field of advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) remote sensing that includes Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR), Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR), and Polarimetric Tomographic SAR (PolTomSAR), its data processing techniques, and applications. Over the past 12 years, Dr. Shashi Kumar has shown intellectual prowess in cutting-edge research works on Polarimetric SAR Remote Sensing (PolSAR), and he has published 50 journal articles, 108 conference papers, 5 newsletters, 12 Book Chapters & Lecture Notes, and 13 project reports. He has shown excellent collaborative skills by doing collaborative research work with scientists and professors from various universities and institutions. He has edited two journal issues on special topics on 'Advances in Spaceborne SAR Remote Sensing for Characterization of Natural and Manmade Features-1, &II' for the COSPAR Journal, Advances in Space Research (ASR).

Currently, Dr. Kumar is a guest editor for the 1 issue of the Advances in Space Research (ASR) for a topic on 'Synergistic Use of Remote Sensing Data and In-Situ Investigations to Reveal the Hidden Secrets of the Moon', and 1 issue of the AGU Wiley Earth and Space Science for a special topic on 'Synthetic Aperture Radar Remote Sensing for Characterization of Land Use and Land Cover'. Dr. Shashi Kumar has worked as a member of the SAR Task Group to develop SAR protocols under the partnership of the Government of India (GoI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Forest-PLUS program. He has also performed his duties as a committee member for Commonwealth Scholarship 2016 at the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Research Development. He is a science team member for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission for the Science Products, Calibration, and Tools Development team and a science team member of Chandrayaan-2 mission's Working Group 3 for Lunar Poles and Microwave Remote Sensing. One of his significant contributions is the development of a methodological framework for Polarimetric Calibration (PolCal) of Airborne and Spaceborne fully polarimetric and hybrid/compact-pol SAR data to minimize distortions for scattering-based characterization of manmade and natural objects. In recognition of outstanding contributions toward "Polarimetric Calibration of SAR data and development of PolSAR" and "PolInSAR modelling approaches for scattering-based characterization of manmade and natural objects", the Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS) conferred the Indian National Geospatial Award 2021 to Dr Shashi Kumar.

Dr. Paul Siqueira was a Senior Engineer with the Radar Science and Engineering Section, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA. He was a Visiting Scientist with the Joint Research Center, European Commission, Ispra, Italy. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA. He is also the Co-Director of the university's Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (MIRSL), where he is involved in the design, development, and the use of microwave remote sensing instruments for earth science applications, such as the deployable three-frequency weather radar (Ku-, Ka-, and W-band) and the two-frequency polarimetric radiometers (KPR and KaPR) for characterizing rain and snowfall. He has also developed a two-frequency (S- and Ka-band) airborne Interferometric SAR that can measure the surface topography and the volume scattering characteristics of natural targets (e.g. vegetation and snow). He teaches courses in microwave engineering, microwave metrology, and microwave systems engineering.

Dr. Siqueira is a Principal Investigator for NASA's Terrestrial Ecology and Earth Science Technology programs, the Science Definition Team Ecosystems Lead for NASA's next-generation SAR (NISAR) that will launch in 2022, and a Science Advisor for JAXA's ALOS-2 instrument. He was a recipient of the Harvard Forest Bullard Fellowship. He was the Chairman of the Alaska Satellite Facilities' User Working Group. He also participates in the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF).

Dr. Himanshu Govil received the M.Sc. degree in Geology from Aligarh Muslim University, India, in 2006, and completed P. G. Diploma in Geoinformatics under the joint education program of Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun, India, and International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands, in 2008, and the Ph.D. degree from Aligarh Mulsim University (AMU), Aligarh, India, in 2015. Since 2015, he has been working as an Assistant Professor in Department Applied Geology, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Raipur, Chhatisgarh, India. Dr. Himanshu Govil is handling Research Announcement (RA) projects related to the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) and NASA-ISRO Hyperspectral mission (AVIRIS-NG) missions. His research interests include Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, Thermal Remote Sensing and SAR remote sensing with special emphasis on Mineral mapping, subsidence and subsurface monitoring.

Shefali Agrawal is a physicist at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing with academic qualifications obtained both in India and in abroad (ITC, Netherlands). She pursues her academic interest in addressing both fundamental and applied aspects of remote sensing, GIS, and allied spatial technology with emphasis on satellite photogrammetry, Lidar remote sensing, Hyperspectral Remote sensing, UAV remote sensing, Underwater Image processing, and advanced image processing related to land use /land cover characterization and vegetation physics dynamics. She has many accomplishments in her professional career and has contributed to various National and International projects, such as mapping and monitoring of land use land cover/ Vegetation type across south-central Asia for the first time from SPOT Vegetation satellite data using spectral modeling under the European Commission program. She is currently, Group Head, Geospatial Technology and Outreach Programme Group which consists of all there technology departments at IIRS; and is engaged in 3-D surface characterization and simulation through the integration of Satellite stereo imageries, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), and UAV based data at IIRS for natural resources and archaeological applications. She has over 25 years of experience and produced around 100 papers in national and international journals.