PhotoWelcome to the TAEOS group pages. Our interests are in remote sensing of the terrestrial cryospheric processes for advancing our understanding of climate change. Seasonal snowmelt makes a significant contribution to the annual water budget in many places. Changing snow water storage will affect people in many parts of the world. Therefore, accurate spatial estimates (maps) of snow accumulation will help better understand changes to the cryosphere and more efficiently manage snow water resources. The overall aim of our research group is to develop and apply novel approaches to estimate and map terrestrial snow mass and water storage using satellite Earth observing systems. We conduct fieldwork and develop and apply physics-based forward models and retrieval schemes, along with empirical and geospatial models to advance our understanding of water storage on the Earth's surface. Our group members are strong in remote sensing, coding (R, Python, C), fieldwork experimentation, geographical information science and data science, math, and physics, but most of all possess a large amount of curiosity.
 

Previous group members have gone on to research or consultancy positions with Environment and Climate Change Canada, MDA, (Teledyne) Optech Inc., Canadian Ice Service, Weather Network, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, to name but a few. We are always interested in new group members who are curious in these areas and/or whose interests in remote sensing science or theory can contribute to our research.

Areas of research interest
  • Remote sensing of seasonal snow using
    • active microwave observations: airborne synthetic aperture radar (CryoSAR), ground-based scatterometry (UWScat);
    • passive microwave observations (AMSR-E, AMSR2, AMSR3).
  • Ground-based, airborne and satellite remote sensing systems;
  • Field experiment campaigns in support of remote sensing observations (mid to high latitudes);
  • Geospatial data science (physically-based modelling, machine learning, coding in R, Python, C);
  • Cryosphere & water resource applications (snow water storage climatology, liquid water storage in India).
Funded opportunities may be available for students who are Canadian citizens, Canadian Permanent Residents or International Students. Please contact Prof. Richard Kelly (richard.kelly@uwaterloo.ca) if you would like to find out more.