Modern Radar Applications: Satellite 3-D Imaging of Cities, Measuring Forest Biomass, and Next-Generation Self-Driving Cars

Distinguished Professor Fawwaz T. Ulaby is the World Pioneer in Radar Remote Sensing and is the Founding Director of NASA Center for Space Terahertz Technology. He is the Emmett Leith Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he has been Vice President for Research from 1999 to 2005. Professor Ulaby is the Founding Provost and Executive Vice President of KASUT (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology). Beside academia, Professor Ulaby held several prestigious appointments, giving testimony to the House Science Committee of the US Congress.

Professor Ulaby received his BS degree in Physics from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1964 and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968. Since joining as a faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1984, Professor Ulaby has directed numerous interdisciplinary, NASA-funded projects aimed at the development of high-resolution satellite radar sensors for mapping Earth’s terrestrial environment. He also served as the founding Director of a NASA-funded Center for Space Terahertz Technology, whose research was aimed at the development of microelectronic devices and circuits that operate at wavelengths intermediate between the infrared and the microwave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Over his academic career, he has supervised 115 highly motivated and talented graduate students. His publication list includes 16 books and over 700 journal articles and book chapters. Several of his textbooks have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and other languages. He is author of the best-selling and world's most popular textbook for teaching Electromagnetics at the undergraduate level. His textbook has been reproduced into currently the 8th Edition.

Professor Ulaby is member of the National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of AAAS (American Association for Advancement of Science), and serves on several scientific boards and commissions. His numerous awards and distinctions also include IEEE GRSS Outstanding Service Award (1982), IEEE GRSS Distinguished Achievement Award (1983), IEEE Centennial Medal (1984), NASA Group Achievement Award for the Shuttle Imaging Radar Science Team (1990), IEEE Millennium Medal (2000), IEEE Electromagnetics Award (2001), William T. Pecora Award (2001), IEEE GRSS Education Award (2006), and IEEE James H. Mulligan Jr. Education Medal (2012). Professor Ulaby is recipient of the highly prestigious IEEE Thomas Edison Medal.

When operated in an interferometric mode, a satellite-borne radar can measure vertical deviations, as a function of time, with an accuracy of 1cm or better. This can include terrain movements due to earthquake activity, buildings and structures in cities that have sunk over time by very small vertical distances on the order of centimeters, or other surface features of interest. This seminar describes the underlying technology of such a radar system and its practical applications. Another interesting modern radar application pertains to how radar can monitor forest biomass on a global scale as a critical input into climate-change models. The biomass data is directly proportional to the amount of carbon extracted by trees from the atmosphere. Our third application relates to self-driving cars. We will examine current research and development projects whose goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing an “intelligent” radar that can improve the safety of driverless cars and trucks as society moves forward in that direction.