Space Missions Overview

The TanDEM‐X mission, led by his Institute, is the first bistatic spaceborne SAR system consisting of two satellites flying in close formation and has generated a global, high-resolution digital elevation model of the Earth with unprecedented accuracy. Prof. Moreira is the initiator and Principal Investigator (PI) of this mission. He has authored or co‐authored 500+ publications in international conferences and journals, 8 book chapters and holds 45+ patents. He is an IEEE Fellow and has served as President of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society in 2010. Prof. Moreira is the recipient of several international awards including the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Technical Field Award (2007), the IEEE W.R.G. Baker Award from the IEEE Board of Directors (2012), and the IEEE GRSS Distinguished Achievement Award (2014) and most recently the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications (2023). His professional interests and research areas encompass end‐to‐end spaceborne radar system design, microwave techniques and system concepts, signal processing, and remote sensing applications.

Dr. Chauhan also led a team of scientists for scientific analysis of data from Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) instruments. More recently, his work on Chandryaan-2 IIRS spectrometer data has resulted in the unambiguous detection of H2O and OH on the surface of the Moon. His findings have conclusively established the presence of water molecules at different locations on the Moon. As Director of the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun, Dr Chauhan spearheaded activities for research and capacity building in the field of applications of Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics technology for societal applications in India. He actively provides guidance and support for international organizations like CSSTEAP-UN in conducting space technology courses for Earth System Science. As project director of ISRO-DMS (Advance Techniques &Capacity Building) coordinated international charter activities to provide remote sensing inputs for disaster management. As Director of the UN-affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP), he has significantly contributed to capacity building for space applications in Asia and the Pacific region along with UNOOSA. New innovative digital learning platforms such as MOOCs and online courses have been introduced to continue CSSTEAP activities despite the COVID-19 pandemic. He is currently serving as Chair of the Working Group of Whole at STSC of UNCOPUS. He has also served as Chair for the CEOS working group on Capacity Building and Data Democracy (WGCapD) for the year 2018-19. He is an executive member of the International Ocean Colour Coordination Group (IOCCG) and represents ISRO. He has also represented ISRO at CEOS as Co-Chair for Ocean Colour Virtual Constellation (OCR-VC). He had also been a member of the prestigious NASA-ISRO Planetary Science working group. He was awarded the prestigious Prof. P.R. Pisharoty Memorial Award for 2004 by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr.Vikram Sarabhai Research Award by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad for 2009, ISRO merit award by Indian Space Research Organisation in 2010 and Satish Dhawan award by ISRS, Dehradun for 2016. He was conferred the “2023 Asia-Pacific Region Excellence in Space Award” on 22 September 2023 during the Awards Ceremony of the 29th Session of Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-29) organized in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers in national and international journals, and he is currently a fellow of the National Academy of Science (NASI), Allahabad, the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, and the Indian Social Science Academy.

Dr. Klaus has been a Scientist with the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vienna University of Technology, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in the fields of earth observation and data assimilation with a focus on land surface processes. In 2009, he joined the Mission Science Division of the European Space Agency, as a Mission Scientist working on the development of future SAR satellite systems. In 2020, he became the Mission Manager for the SMOS and BIOMASS satellite missions.