Albert Wu is a technical manager in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Earth Sciences Division (ESD). He currently serves as the ESD Airborne Sciences Support Lead and is the project manager for NASA’s High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT) as well as the technical manager for the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) airborne laser altimeter. He has over a decade of experience developing and operating airborne remote sensing instruments including hundreds of flight hours on field campaigns investigating soil moisture, snow, ice, and vegetation. His research background includes astrodynamics, satellite navigation, software-defined radio, and microwave and laser remote sensing.
Remote Sensing
Active/passive microwave remote sensing instrument development, including bistatic radar receivers and signals of opportunity.
Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation
Precision orbit and position determination, spread-spectrum signal processing, software-defined radio, and GNSS bistatic radar implementation.
Robotics/Mechatronics
Sensors, feedback control, and data systems.
High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT)
High Mountain Asia (HMA) is the world’s largest reservoir of perennial glaciers and snow outside of the Earth’s polar ice sheets. The region is home to a range of unique landforms, ecosystems, hazards, and cultures, and supplies water to more than a billion people. The goal of the HiMAT project is to gain insight into the Earth system processes that drive the HMA water supply to inform decisions, management actions, and policy development.
Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS)
NASA's Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) is an airborne, wide-swath imaging laser altimeter system that is flown over target areas to collect data on surface topography and 3D structure. Since 2017, the sensor has been operating as a NASA Facility, providing low cost data to NASA investigators and science missions.
Scanning L-band Active/Passive (SLAP)
The Scanning L-band Active/Passive (SLAP) instrument is an airborne imaging radiometer and scatterometer developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for remote sensing of soil moisture, ocean salinity, freeze-thaw state, and other physical phenomena that display characteristics at microwave L-band.
Developed in the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory with contractor support, its purpose is to provide airborne science as well as validation for the SMAP mission as well as other L-band active/passive missions (Aquarius, SMOS).
University of Colorado at Boulder, Teaching Assistant for Aerospace Senior Projects, 2009-2010
University of Colorado at Boulder, Teaching Assistant for Aerospace Electronics and Communications, 2009
Graduate Certificate in International Science and Technology Policy – George Washington University, 2018
M.Eng. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences – University of Colorado at Boulder, 2010
B.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences – University of Colorado at Boulder, 2008
Albert Wu is a technical manager in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Earth Sciences Division (ESD). He currently serves as the ESD Airborne Sciences Support Lead and is the project manager for NASA’s High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT) as well as the technical manager for the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) airborne laser altimeter. He has over a decade of experience developing and operating airborne remote sensing instruments including hundreds of flight hours on field campaigns investigating soil moisture, snow, ice, and vegetation. His research background includes astrodynamics, satellite navigation, software-defined radio, and microwave and laser remote sensing.
