Mr. Frank Wentz

Mr. Wentz has a B.S. (1969) and M.S. (1971) in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1974, he established Remote Sensing Systems, a research company specializing in satellite microwave remote sensing of the Earth. His research focuses on radiative transfer models that relate satellite observations to geophysical parameters, with the objective of providing reliable geophysical data sets to the Earth science community. As a member of NASA's SeaSat Experiment Team (1978-1982), he pioneered the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers. Starting in 1987, he took the lead on providing the world research community with high-quality ocean products derived from satellite microwave imagers (SSM/I). He is currently a member of NASA Earth Observation System (EOS) Investigators Working Group, NASA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) Team, NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) Team, NASA Tropical Rainfall Mission (TRMM) Team, and NASA Pathfinder Activity. He has served on many NASA review panels and is member of the American Geophysical Union. He is currently working on satellite-derived decadal time series of atmospheric moisture and temperature, the measurement of sea-surface temperature through clouds, and advanced microwave sensor designs for climatological studies. He is now serving a 2-year term on the National Research Council's Earth Studies Board and is a member of the NRC Committee for Reconciling Temperature Observations.