User:Climatereflex/Mark Drinkwater

Mark Drinkwater

Education
Mark Drinkwater had a university education in the United Kingdom, obtaining a Doctorate (Ph.D) at Emmanuel College and the Scott Polar Research Institute of the University of Cambridge. He obtained a doctorate in geophysics, with a Ph.D thesis entitled “Radar Altimetric Studies of Polar Ice.”

Professional
Mark Drinkwater was a senior scientist from 1987 – 2000 in the Earth and Space Science Division at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He pioneered new applications of microwave remote sensing for snow, sea ice and ice sheets using Altimeter, Synthetic Aperture Radar and Scatterometer data from aircraft and satellites, based on the experience from SeaSat, and helped in establish JPL at the forefront of polar sciences. During this period he ran a number of large international climate related scientific projects for NASA, ESA, CSA and JAXA and participating in a number of Arctic and Antarctic research expeditions.

Drinkwater is currently Head of the Mission Science Division at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC Facility in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. He joined ESA in 2000, and as Mission Scientist between 2000 and 2010 supported the successful scientific preparation and launch of the first three Earth Explorer missions CryoSat , GOCE and SMOS, along with Envisat, and MetOp with its ASCAT scatterometer.

Drinkwater coordinated Space Agency activities during the recent 4th International Polar Year (2007-2008) as Chair of the IPY Polar Space Task Group (IPY-STG) under the mandate of WMO/ICSU. The STG coordinated contributions from 13 Space Agencies together with a number of other organisations to secure a lasting IPY satellite data legacy. Collection of a broad multi-agency dataset was planned and successfully executed to address key scientific challenges in polar science and climate research. A successor group, the Polar Space Task Group (PSTG) has been established under the auspices of the WMO Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar Observations, Research and Services (EC-PORS). The group shall build on the legacy of the IPY to federate the space agencies in the study of the global cryosphere.

Drinkwater is presently a Senior Advisor on the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society’s Instrument and Future Technologies Technical Committee.

Drinkwater is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the IEEE and the International Glaciological Society.

Links
Nature News Blog: Hope for ESA’s Gravity Mission - August 23, 2010 http://blogs.nature.com/news/2010/08/hope_for_esas_groundbreaking_g.html

RedOrbit: CryoSat Mission Scientist: Interview With Mark Drinkwater http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1829162/cryosat_mission_scientist_interview_with_mark_drinkwater/index.html

ESA: GOCE Mission Scientist: Interview with Mark Drinkwater http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GOCE/SEMAXLKRQJF_0_iv.html

Astronomy Online; Interview: Dr Mark Drinkwater http://www.astronomynow.com/mag/1012/EarthObservation.html

EarthZine Coordinating Satellite Observations during the International Polar Year 2007-2008 http://www.earthzine.org/2008/03/09/coordinating-satellite-observations-during-the-international-polar-year-2007-2008/

Awards
ESA GOCE Team Award (2010); NASA/JPL Award for Excellence for Significant contributions in the field of polar research (1999); Prize Paper Award IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society ; NASA Group Award for JPL Ocean Sciences Group contribution for the Topex/Poseidon Mission (1990); Elected Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy (1989).