Kirk D. Knobelspiesse

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD, USA)

Dr. Kirk Knobelspiesse is a remote sensing specialist working to improve our ability to monitor the Earth. He has expertise in radiative transfer calculations, information content assessment, algorithm development, and validation with ground and airborne observations. Specific interests include polarimetric remote sensing of aerosols and clouds, atmospheric correction required for ocean color observations, and the statistical and AI tools useful for both.

Dr. Knobelspiesse received an undergraduate degree in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1998, then a Master’s degree in Imaging Science from the same university in 2000. For the next four years, he worked as a contractor at NASA GSFC on the SeaWiFS and SIMBIOS projects, then returned to graduate school at Columbia University in 2004. His PhD, in Applied Mathematics, dealt with remote sensing retrievals of atmospheric aerosols from multi-angle polarimeters. During his studies, he spent his time at NASA GISS, and remained at that institution for a postdoctoral fellowship following graduation. He took a position at NASA Ames Research Center in 2012, and returned to NASA GSFC in 2016.