Astronomy Colloquium: Zac Berkowicz

Date: Thu. April 18th, 2019, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm
Location: Sears 552

Remote Sensing: from galaxies to deep ocean ridges

Zac Berkowitz (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute)

Often it is too costly, or physically impossible, to take measurements in-situ and one must instead rely on other means to gather the desired information remotely. Such remote sensing techniques are used broadly in Astronomy, after all the telescope is one of the most fundamental remote sensing instruments, but the problem is universal and a host of instruments and practices have been developed and applied to broad ranges of experimental observations. I will describe in some detail the unique challenges and similarities of three remote sensing programs I have participated in: Using FM radio as a radar to probe Ionospheric plasma irregularities (e.g. “Northern Lights”) at the University of Washington, automated acoustic biomass estimation of pollock fish stocks off Alaska for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and ocean sea-floor mapping using autonomous robots at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).