Mustafa Chahine

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Moustafa Chahine
AIRS/AMSU/HSB Science Team Leader
Moustafa.T.Chahine@jpl.nasa.gov
(818) 354-6057

Moustafa Chahine was awarded a Ph.D. in Fluid Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1960. He is Chief Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he has been affiliated for 30 years. From 1978 to 1984, he was Manager of the Division of Earth and Space Sciences at JPL; as such, he was responsible for establishing the Division and managing the diverse activities of its 400 researchers.

For 20 years, Dr. Chahine has been directly involved in remote sensing theory and experiments. His resume reflects roles as Principal Investigator, designer and developer, and analyst in remote-sensing experiments. He developed the Physical Relaxation Method for retrieving atmospheric profiles from radiance observations. Subsequently, he formulated a multispectral approach using infrared and microwave data for remote sensing in the presence of clouds. These data analysis techniques were successfully applied in 1980 to produce the first global distribution of the Earth surface temperature using data from the HIRS/MSU sounders.

Dr. Chahine was integrally involved in the AMTS study, which laid the basis for the current AIRS spectrometer. Dr. Chahine served as a member of the NASA Earth System Sciences Committee (ESSC), which developed the program leading to EOS, and currently is Chairman of the Science Steering Group of a closely related effort, the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX). Dr. Chahine is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the British Meteorological Society. In 1969, he was awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and, in 1984, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.

Source: http://aqua.nasa.gov/about/team_chahine.php

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Dr. Moustafa Chahine is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Science Team Leader for NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, which was launched aboard the Aqua spacecraft on May 4, 2002. Aqua is part of NASA's Earth Observing System, and is designed to study Earth's water cycle. JPL is a Division of the California Institute of Technology and the NASA lead center for the Exploration of the Solar System.

Dr. Chahine received his B.S. in 1956 from the University of Washington, and his Ph.D. in Fluid Physics in 1960 from the University of California at Berkeley, after which he came to JPL, where he has served as founding head of the Earth and Space Sciences Division until 1984 and as JPL Chief Scientist until 2001.

His primary interests are in remote sensing of planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and in global change monitoring and prediction. He developed the physical relaxation method for obtaining atmospheric profiles from satellite radiance measurements, and a multi-spectral approach for infrared remote sensing in clouds using infrared and microwave data.

Dr. Chahine served as a member of NASA's Earth System Sciences Committee (ESSC), and as chair of the World Meteorological Organization's Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX).

Dr. Chahine is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the British Meteorological Society, and is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

He was awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievements in 1969, and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1984. In 1989, he received the William T. Pecora Award from NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior, in 1991 he received the Jule G. Charney Award of the American Meteorological Society. In 1993 he received the Losey Atmospheric Sciences Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and in 2000 he received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. In 2002 he will be receiving the William Nordberg Medal in space science from the international Committee on Space Research (COSPAR).

His current research activities are in the study of the Earth's water and energy cycle and in the comparative climates of Mars, Earth and Venus.

Source: http://www-airs.jpl.nasa.gov/Team/ChahineBio/