Research interests - Remote sensing, optical instrumentation, low Earth orbit constellation astrodynamics, image processing.
For a complete list of my academic publications, please visit my Google Scholar profile.
PhD research - Space Systems Laboratory, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fall 2022 - present.
My PhD research is oriented around improving the way constellations of Earth orbiting satellites acquire imagery for the purposes of natural disaster response and Earth science.
My work specifically considers scheduling observations of constellations of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. Distortions, such as shadow and layover, are present in SAR imagery due to the instrument's inherent operating principles and constitute a loss of information in the image.
The unique contribution of this work is the use of prior knowledge of a region of interest to optimize the information present in SAR imagery. Information-optimized observation scheduling improves the accuracy of derived data products by acquiring the most valuable raw data for any given end user need.
The image to the left is an example of the dependency of SAR imagery-derived data product accuracy on observation acquisition scheduling. Mapping of water extent of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in California is an important capability in the event in-situ reservoir tracking measurements are unavailable.
Each row corresponds to a SAR image acquired from a different observation geometry. The right column of each row shows a coarse water extent map using a global threshold. Clearly, the blue area of the water extent maps differ significantly in size leading to conflicting estimates of reservoir volume. Using prior knowledge of historical reservoir extent maps and the surrounding topography, information-optimal imagery can be acquired to obtain the most accurate water extent maps possible.
Master's research - Space Systems Laboratory, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fall 2020 - Spring 2022.
My master's research focused on demonstrating accurate pointing of a unique optical space telescope design using a hardware testbed. The telescope, called a rotating synthetic aperture (RSA), spins a rectangular primary mirror that is much longer than it is wide at a precisely controlled rate. A sequence of images are captured until a 180° rotation is completed. Image processing algorithms are then used to construct an image with the same resolution as one captured by a traditional, circular mirror. This concept has the potential to unlock the design space of low cost, high resolution telescopes.
My research contributed to the development of a dynamics and control hardware testbed (DCT) to demonstrate accurate control of a simultaneously spinning and slewing imaging maneuver for an RSA in low Earth orbit. To inform test cases conducted on the DCT, I performed astrodynamics simulations in various low and medium Earth orbit regimes. Additionally, I performed design optimization studies to determine optimal primary aperture diameters for a possible future demonstration mission.
