South Africa 2006

Lecturers

• Paolo Antonelli has been a researcher at the Space Science Engineering Center (SSEC) - UW-Madison since 1997. He received a PhD from the Unversity of Wisconsin Madison working on infrared remote sensing of the atmosphere at high spectral resolution. Most of his work is related to information content, retrievals of atmospheric temperature, water vapor profile and cloud properties. Antonelli, after coordinating the remote sensing activities at the Mediterranean Agency for Remote Sensing in Benevento, Italy, for over one year, recently returned to the SSEC. Outreach plays a major role in Dr. Antonelli's activities and interest through teaching Remote Sensing Observing Systems courses at the University and participating to different international remote sensing summer schools, directed by Prof. P. Menzel, with responsibilities for the overall organization and for the Labs.
• Liam E. Gumley holds a Bachelors degree in Applied Physics from Curtin University and a Masters degree in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been a researcher at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1994. He is the manager of the EOS Direct Broadcast (DB) facility at SSEC, and architect of the real-time automated processing system for MODIS and AIRS direct broadcast data. He has been associated with the NASA MODIS program since 1991, when he developed the first Level 1 processing package for the MODIS Airborne Simulator while at NASA GSFC. Mr. Gumley continues to play a lead role in MODIS operational data processing, algorithm maintenance and enhancement efforts at SSEC. He has been involved with the EOS DB program since 1998, and has played a leading role in distributing software for EOS DB processing to the global community via the International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package (IMAPP). He is a member of the NASA MODIS Science Team.
• Hung-Lung Allen Huang, Ph. D. has been a research scientist in remote sensing data processing, algorithm development and data/product applications for more than 25 years. Dr Huang is currently directing both research and operational teams of information technology engineers, researchers, scientists, and professors responsible for operational algorithm development/implementation and innovative approaches to process hyperspectral infrared data. Dr. Huang has the overall responsibility for supervising projects that involve data compression, hyperspectral data sounding retrieval, cloud property derivation, instrument simulation and trade performance analysis, and NWP model assimilation of remote sensing data. Dr Huang is the principal investigator of International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package (IMAPP) and International Polar Orbiter Processing Package (IPOPP). Both projects provide the critical software system to enable international polar orbiting satellite direct broadcast users to process data and produce environmental products in real time. Dr Huang also supervises graduate students and with his colleagues have organized and taught DB MODIS/AIRS workshops in China, Australia, and Taiwan. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers in remote sensing and co-author a book chapter in remote sensing data compression.
• Thomas Rink has been a software developer at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) and SSEC for the past 10 years.  He has a Master of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from Iowa State University (1994). His most notable efforts have been in the early development of IMAPP, and recently in VisAD system and application development an example of which is Hydra.
• Kathleen Strabala has been a Researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies for over 10 years. She received a masters degree in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA in 1991. She worked as a Senior Forecaster at Kavouras, Inc., in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA for 3 years prior to receiving her degree. She has worked primarily on cloud detection and cloud composition as determined from MODIS, and has been co-author on several publications, including Ackerman, Strabala, Menzel, Frey , Moeller and Gumley, 1998: "Discriminating Clear Sky From Clouds with MODIS", Journal of Geophysical Research, 103, No.D24, 32141-32157. Kathy currently works on converting official NASA Aqua and Terra production software into direct broadcast compatible IMAPP software.