Validation for the water vapor retrieved from MODIS onboard Terra and Aqua against ground-based GPS PWV data during 2003 ~ 2017 (He and Liu, 2020)
We are pleased to share that LSGI PhD graduate Dr. Jia He, Gail received the “Faculty Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis” by Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) in 2022. Under the supervision of Prof. George Liu, Dr. He completed her PhD with thesis “Enhancing the accuracy of water vapour retrieval from remote sensing observations using ground-based GNSS data” in 2021 at the Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE), the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI).
Dr. He focuses on developing cutting-edge techniques to calibrate the atmospheric water vapor products from various remote sensing satellites. Her novel algorithms are arguably the first of its kind to beautifully link ground-based GPS/GNSS water vapor data with satellite-based remote sensing ones. The accuracy of remote sensing satellites’ water vapor products is remarkably improved, after being calibrated by using the non-physical model developed. For instance, her verification in North America (a large geographical area) shows that the root-mean-squares error (RMSE) of water vapor products calculated from MODIS/Terra satellite has reduced by 48.12% to 2.362 mm when using two-channel ratio transmittance and has reduced by 50.74% to 2.243 mm when using three-channel ratio transmittance. The algorithm and model Dr. He developed is accurate, reliable, and robust. It has been extensively validated with multi-year water vapor data collected from China, Australia, and North America from different satellites, covering both North and South Hemispheres.
The scientific impact and practical value of Dr. He’s work is significant. The atmospheric water vapor is the largest and the most important greenhouse gas (GHG) source in the atmosphere, accounting for about two-thirds of the GHG effects (much larger than the well known CO2). The water vapor is critically important in meteorology and many other areas. Water vapor arguably lies at the heart of all key terrestrial atmospheric processes. It plays a significant role in studies such as weather forecasting, hydrology, climate change, atmosphere science, GPS/GNSS/Beidou satellite positioning and navigation, InSAR satellite remote sensing, and many satellite-based Earth Observation Systems (EOS), to name a few. Without the correction of water vapor effect, all the satellite-based systems such as GPS/GNSS/Beidou, InSAR, and others EOS would suffer a large error in their results, e.g. an error up to a few meters in the GPS/GNSS/Beidou positioning and navigation.
FCE annually awards the outstanding thesis according to the research impact. Dr. He published five journal papers in peer-reviewed top international journals with an average impact factor of 9.27 (as of September 2022). Dr. He is the 6th recipient from LSGI since this award was established in 2011. She is also the 3rd recipient from the Micro-LARGE Lab supervised by Prof. Liu.
Congratulations Dr. He!
