Hi and welcome!
David Bekaert is a Radar Scientist at the Radar Science and Engineering Section of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he utilizes Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) processing techniques with Earth Science and Geoscience applications including natural hazards, subsidence, and critical infrastructure monitoring. His current research interests include time-series InSAR development, noise corrections for InSAR, subduction zone slow slip events, levee monitoring, and subsidence along Sacramento Delta, New Orleans, and Chesapeake Bay regions. In his work, he uses a variety of geodetic data including GNSS, as well as, satellite and airborne SAR data, including JPL’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) platform.
David was a Caltech Postdoctoral researcher at JPL, where he developed a high-spatial resolution subsidence map of the Sacramento Delta integrating various UAVSAR swaths, highlighting the impact of subsidence, and anthropogenic processes on critical infrastructure such as levees. Prior to his Postdoc, David completed his PhD at the University of Leeds in December 2015, with a thesis entitled “Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar for slow slip applications”. During his PhD, David participated at the Space Studies Program of the International Space University and was a visiting research student at Stanford University. One of the accomplishments of his PhD thesis is the development of the open-source Toolbox for Reducing Atmospheric InSAR Noise (TRAIN), available for download under the software page. Prior to his PhD, David was a Young Graduate Trainee at the Microwave Instruments section of the Earth Observation division of the European Space Agency in the Netherlands (ESTEC), where he worked on ice penetrating radar. His work included the development and implementation of an across track surface clutter suppression technique for ESA’s airborne P-band SAR, called POLARIS, together with the processing of the Antarctica and Greenland campaign data.
David started his studies in Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology, graduating from his BSc. and MSc Cum Laude respectively in 2008 and 2011. He completed the Honors Track program at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering focused towards Remote Sensing techniques. During his studies he was a JPL Visiting Student Researcher working on time-series InSAR, and a trainee at the Wave Interaction and Propagation section of the European Space Agency (ESTEC) working on snow wave interaction models.