RSL History

RSL was founded as the Remote Sensing Laboratory in 1964, with Prof. R. K. Moore as Director (Electrical Engineering) and Profs. D. S. Simonett (Geography), L. F. Dellwig (Geology), and R. D. Ellermeier (Electrical Engineering) as associates. At that time, Prof. Moore led the NASA Radar Team. In 1965 this team put together a proposal for a radar in space very similar to the radar flown as SIR-C (Shuttle-Imaging Radar-C).

RSL has been involved with nearly every radar system flown in space, and studies future spaceborne radar systems. Involvement with spaceborne radiometers has been less intense, but considerable.

Some firsts attributed to RSL include:

• 1965-72 One of First Interactive Image-Processing Systems (IDECS)
• 1967 Conceived Wind-Speed Scatterometer
• 1967 First Sea-Ice Scatterometer Measurements
• 1969 Invented Radar-Radiometer (RADSCAT)
• 1970-74 Principal Architects of Skylab S-193 RADSCAT
• 1971 First Wide-Band FM Radar Scatterometer/Spectrometer
• 1973 First Comprehensive Theory for Radar Scatter from Sea Ice
• 1973 First Ground Measurement of Space-Borne Radar Antenna Pattern (Skylab S-193)
• 1974 First to Propose Radar for Soil-moisture Measurement
• 1978 First Helicopter-Borne Radar Scatterometer/ Spectrometer
• 1979 First Radar Scatterometer Measurements from Sea with Wave Height Measured in Radar Beam
• 1981 Developed Concept of Scanning SAR for Wide-Swath Coverage (SCANSAR)
• 1987 First Modern-Technology Radar for Ice-Sheet Probing
• 1988 Concept for Radar Measurement of Winds Aloft from Satellite (RAWS)
• 1989 First Scattering Measurements for Antarctic Sea Ice
• 1993 First use of plane waves to improve near-vertical scattering measurements

RSL has been involved with the following spaceborne radar programs: Skylab, Seasat, SIR-A, SIR-B, SIR-C, ERS-1, JERS-1, TRMM, SeaWinds. It has participated in many large national and international programs for study of vegetation, oceans, sea ice, and glacial ice.

RSL conducts research with professor graduate student teams, aided by undergraduates working as technicians and programmers. Frequently one or more visiting scientists also participate in the research.

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