Yasser Maghsoudi

The University of Exeter is offering a fully funded PhD project exploring a different dimension of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR): the use of InSAR loop closure to understand and monitor soil moisture and vegetation dynamics. The research will combine Sentinel-1 C-band and NISAR L-band satellite observations with physical, statistical and data-driven modelling. The PhD researcher will investigate how changes in soil moisture and vegetation affect InSAR loop-closure signals, and whether these environmental properties can ultimately be retrieved from satellite radar observations. The project will be co-supervised by Senior Lecturer Yasser Maghsoudi and Professor Andy Hooper. It is connected with the Environment and Sustainability Institute and the UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics at the University of Exeter, and includes an industrial partnership with SatSense. The student will undertake a three-month placement with SatSense, gaining experience in applying Earth observation and InSAR methods in an industrial research environment.