Researchers

The Research Team

The Remote Sensing team sits within the Coastal and Oceanic Systems (COS) program of the CSIRO Environment Research Unit.

Janet Anstee

Janet Anstee

Principal Experimental Scientist

  • Janet Anstee's current research is in the application of validated bio-optical models to enable improved discrimination of aquatic water quality and habitat (where optically shallow). Additionally, she works with CSIRO Environment with Remote sensing integration into Hydrodynamic models for forecasting in Australia but with global applicability.

Phillip Ford

Honorary Research Fellow

  • Philip Ford is an Honorary Research Fellow affiliated with the Aquatic Sensing team. Dr Ford has extensive research experience in the interplay between physical, chemical, and biological processes in rivers, lakes and weirs, reservoirs, estuaries and coastal seas. The underlying aim is to understand quantitatively phytoplankton abundance and the factors conducive to the dominance of potentially toxic cyanobacterial species. Phytoplankton carbon fixation is a key element in the carbon cycle in all aquatic systems. Thus, the operation of the carbon cycle involving inorganic and organic carbon species in particulate and dissolved forms, as well as the sources and cycling of essential nutrients is the second, major focus of his work. Practical outcomes of this work include the measurement of fluxes of the two most important “Greenhouse” gases (CO2 and CH4), and the application of optical techniques at a range of scales to understand the aquatic biogeochemistry of aquatic environments. The present focus of his work in the Aquatic Remote sensing team is generating data to underpin the calibration and validation of mathematical models predicting toxic algal abundance.

Yi Qin

Research Scientist

  • Yi Qin's current research focus is on the retrieval of atmosphere, ocean and land surface properties, including aerosols, clouds, surface reflectance, Bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), surface solar irradiance and coastal biomass, using a range of geostationary and low earth orbiting remote sensors, including multi/hyperspectral remote sensors and space-borne LiDAR systems. Dr Qin has strong expertise and interests in radiative transfer and its applications in remote sensing data analysing and remote sensor calibrations. Yi is leading the development of advanced multi-satellite and integrated retrieval methods and operational processing systems, to create a range of high-quality remote sensing products, exploiting advanced computing technologies. Yi’s other work includes developing an operational processing system for the analysing and visualization of long-term aquatic in-situ observations and applications of remote sensing products. For example, solar energy forecasting and the health impacts of airborne particulate matters. Yi is also interested in developing multi-GEO / multi-LEO inter-calibration leading to global radiometric consistency among the GEO/LEO remote sensors.

Thomas Schroeder

Senior Research Scientist

  • Dr Thomas Schroeder has 15+ years experience in the development of remote sensing applications for the retrieval of oceanic, terrestrial and atmospheric properties from air- and space-borne instruments. In his current research he focuses on the development, validation and implementation of dedicated ocean colour inversion algorithms for Australia's coastal and marine ecosystems using multi- and hyper-spectral satellite data to enable reliable mapping, detection and monitoring of aquatic resources. Further to this, he is progressing new strategic research directions in the area of geostationary and radar satellite applications for high-temporal coastal monitoring and the detection of hydro-carbon pollution. Dr Thomas Schroeder is also advancing in-situ bio-optical and radiometric observations for satellite validation under IMOS where he leads the IMOS Ocean Colour Sub-facility and manages the Lucinda Jetty Coastal Observatory. Measurements from this facility are used to inform international space agencies on the accuracy of marine satellite products.

David Blondeau-Patissier

Research Scientist

  • Prior to joining the CSIRO's Aquatic Remote Sensing team David has worked at Charles Darwin University (RIEL), CSIRO Canberra, in the UK (Plymouth Marine Laboratory) and in France (CNRS) where he contributed to a variety of projects on the water quality of Northern Australia tropical waters, the Great Barrier Reef, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. David's primary research focuses on marine bio-optics and the use of satellite datasets for marine water quality monitoring (e.g. algal blooms) and hydrocarbon oil pollution (oil spills) detection. A particular interest is the synergistic use of the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical, and thermal satellite datasets from the European Space Agency's Sentinel missions, to better understand the marine environment.

Hannelie Botha

Research Scientist

  • Hannelie is a remote sensing scientist with expertise in environmental remote sensing, hyperspectral radiative transfer modelling and the application of remote sensing solutions to environmental management problems. She has been involved in environmental remote sensing applications and settings ranging from coral reef, coastal and estuarine habitats to inland water bodies, rangelands and agricultural land. Hannelie’s current work focuses on the application of optical models to multispectral satellite data to discriminate marine habitat and benthic substratum type in optically shallow coral reef and coastal waters and the assessment of water quality in marine and fresh water environments.

Nagur Cherukuru

Research Scientist

  • Dr Nagur Cherukuru is a research scientist with the Coasts Program in CSIRO's Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship. His research focuses on bio-optical investigations of particulate and dissolved substances in aquatic media, underwater light climate modelling and remote sensing algorithm development for inland, coastal and oceanic environments.

Gemma Kerrisk

Research Projects Technical Officer

  • Gemma is a Research Projects Technical Officer specialising in bio-optical field measurements. She coordinates the development and maintenance of autonomous monitoring stations and provides research project support. She leads field crew's establishing nationally applicable databases of in situ bio-optical measurements in Australia which are used towards developing the relationships between water quality parameters and satellite imagery. Gemma has a passion for aquatic environments and has a keen interest in remote sensing for water quality monitoring applications.

Kesav Unnithan

CERC Postdoctoral Fellow

  • Kesav is a computer engineer by training with an interdisciplinary academic background in geoinformatics and water resources engineering. He focuses on the development of conceptual and EO-based data-driven modelling of water quality and the impact of floods, droughts and forest fires on the land to coastal outflows. For his PhD, Kesav developed a stand-alone flood inundation model that can be executed for in near real-time for large-scale data-scarce regions. While he is not in front of the computer, he keeps himself busy with autobiographies and trying out different homemade kitchen recipes.

Tim Malthus

Senior Principal Research Scientist

  • A senior scientist with over 30 years experience in optics, calibration and validation, field spectroscopy, sensor development and remote sensing of water quality. Tim’s most recent research has focussed on tools for the detection of harmful algal blooms in both inland and coastal waters. This has ranged from the development of low cost optical sensors, apps for use by citizen scientists and observations using satellites in space. Tim is a co-creator of CSIRO’s patented HydraSpectra near surface sensor for the measurement of water quality parameters. He also leads Workpackage 2 related to In Situ Sensor Networks of the joint CSIRO/SmartSAT CRC funded AquaWatch Australia Mission and leads a number of related AquaWatch pilot projects. Prior to joining CSIRO, Tim was Director of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, UK) Field Spectroscopy Facility based at the University of Edinburgh. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers, with an H-index of 35 and an i-10 index of 72.