UW-Madison scientist receives space club award

Jun Li, a UW–Madison research scientist, has been awarded the David S. Johnson Award, given annually by the National Space Club “to young professionals who have developed an innovative use of Earth observation satellite data.”

Li, an assistant scientist in the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at UW–Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center, has helped guide projects that evaluate and enhance the U.S. remote sensing program, for polar and geostationary weather satellites (known as POES and GOES).

Born and raised in China, Li first visited CIMSS in 1993-95 to develop programs to retrieve useful information from satellite observations. He returned to Beijing’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics to complete his studies. After Li received his Ph.D. in 1997, William L. Smith, then CIMSS director, sought Li to develop his meteorological satellite products area.

Since then, Jun Li has become a leader in several key research areas: the development and implementation of several products from the current GOES sounder and future high-spectral resolution sounders, the development and evaluation of combined POES/GOES retrievals, algorithm development for the NASA MODIS research instrument, and cloud classification studies.

In his five years as CIMSS researcher, Li has demonstrated that the combination of infrared and microwave information is greater than either component alone by inferring soundings from hourly geostationary sounder radiances and combining them with polar-orbiting microwave radiances. His approach to classifying clouds has minimized the reliance on troublesome threshold techniques and is improving the capability for reliable global cloud detection with a single algorithm.

Of all his projects, Li says the most beneficial to scientists worldwide is his work with the International ATOVS Processing Package. He has been assisting in international utilization of the sounder data. In the spring, a working group will meet to analyze and discuss possible improvements to this popular software package for scientists.

Li says he looks forward to the “many discussions we will have about improving the package with techniques for making weather forecasts better. … I believe my work can also benefit China and other countries.”

The award will be presented in March at the 45th annual Goddard Memorial Dinner, held near Washington, D.C., and hosted by the National Space Club. The National Space Club is a nonprofit corporation whose membership includes representatives from industry, government, education and the general public.

Li’s vita, publications list and visual representations of his work are available upon request.