Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of

Remote Sensing Systems Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) is a private research company founded in 1974 by Frank Wentz. It processes microwave data from a variety of NASA satellites. Most of their research is supported by the Earth Science Enterprise program. The company is b ...

, a company he founded in 1974, which specializes in

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Earth ...

research. Together with Carl Mears, he is best known for developing a

satellite temperature record Satellite temperature measurements are inferences of the temperature of the atmosphere at various altitudes as well as sea and land surface temperatures obtained from radiometric measurements by satellites. These measurements can be used to loc ...

from MSU and AMSU. Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record, developed by

John Christy John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change. He is best known, jointly with Roy Spencer, for the firs ...

and Roy Spencer, revealed deficiencies in the earlier work; specifically, the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the

University of Alabama in Huntsville The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is a public research university in Huntsville, Alabama. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and comprises nine colleges: arts, humanities & social science ...

(UAH) one. From 1978 to 1982, Wentz was a member of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

SeaSat Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and had on board one of the first spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). The mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global satelli ...

Experiment Team involved in the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers. He has also investigated the effect of climate change on satellite-derived evaporation, precipitation and surface wind values. His findings are different from most climate change model predictions.

Education

* B.S. (1969) and M.S. (1971) in physics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Service

* Member of various NASA Science Teams * National Research Council's Earth Studies Board * National Research Council's Panel on Reconciling Temperature Observations * A lead author for CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product on Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere

Awards

* 2011: American Geophysical Union Fellow * 2013: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Transactions Prize Paper for the paper "The emissivity of the ocean surface between 6 - 90 GHz over a large range of wind speeds and Earth incidence angles" (secondary author) * 2015:

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...

Fellow * 2015: Recipient of the AMS Verner E Suomi Award for "pioneering, painstaking work to accurately retrieve geophysical parameters from satellite microwave instruments and using these measurements to elucidate climate trends"

Selected peer-reviewed publications

* Wentz, F. J., (1975) "A Two-Scale Scattering Model for Foam-Free Sea Microwave Brightness Temperatures", ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 80(24), 3441-3446 * Wentz, F. J., (1978) "The Forward Scattering of Microwave Solar Radiation From a Water Surface", ''Radio Science'', 13(1), 131-138 * Wentz, F. J., (1983) "A Model Function for Ocean Microwave Brightness Temperatures", ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 88(C3), 1892-1908 * Wentz, F. J., S. Peteherych and L. A. Thomas, (1984) "A Model Function for Ocean Radar Cross-Sections at 14.6 GHz", ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 89(C3), 3689-3704 * Wentz, F. J., L. A. Mattox and S. Peteherych, (1986) "New Algorithms for Microwave Measurements of Ocean Winds: Applications to SeaSat and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager", ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 91(C2), 2289-2307 * Wentz, F. J., (1991) "A Simplified Wind Vector Algorithm for Satellite Scatterometers", Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 8(5), 697-714 * Wentz, F. J., (1992) "Measurement of Oceanic Wind Vector Using Satellite Microwave Radiometers", ''IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing'', 30(5), 960-972 * Wentz, F. J., (1997) "A Well Calibrated Ocean Algorithm for Special Sensor Microwave / Imager", ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 102(C4), 8703-8718 * Wentz, F. J. and R. W. Spencer, (1998) "SSM/I Rain Retrievals Within a Unified All-Weather Ocean Algorithm", ''Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences'', 55(9), 1613-1627, * Wentz, F. J. and M. C. Schabel, (1998) "Effects of Satellite Orbital Decay on MSU Lower Tropospheric Temperature Trends", ''Nature'', 394, 661-664 * Wentz, F. J. and D. K. Smith, (1999) "A Model Function for the Ocean-Normalized Radar Cross Section at 14 GHz Derived From NSCAT Observations", ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 104(C5), 11499-11514, * Wentz, F. J., C. L. Gentemann, D. K. Smith and D. B. Chelton, (2000) "Satellite Measurements of Sea Surface Temperature Through Clouds", ''Science'', 288(5467), 847-850, * Wentz, F. J. and M. C. Schabel, (2000) "Precise Climate Monitoring Using Complementary Satellite Data Sets", ''Nature'', 403(6768), 414-416, * Wentz, F. J., P. D. Ashcroft and C. L. Gentemann, (2001) "Post-Launch Calibration of the TRMM Microwave Imager", ''IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing'', 39(2), 415-422, * Wentz, F. J., L. Ricciardulli, K. A. Hilburn and C. A. Mears, (2007) "How Much More Rain Will Global Warming Bring?", ''Science'', 317, 233-235, * Wentz, F. J., P. D. Ashcroft and C. L. Gentemann, (2001) "Post-Launch Calibration of the TRMM Microwave Imager", ''IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing'', 39(2), 415-422, * Wentz, F. J., L. Ricciardulli, (2011) "Comment on "Global Trends in Wind Speed and Wave Height"", ''Science'', 334, 905, * Meissner, T., and F. J. Wentz, (2012) "The emissivity of the ocean surface between 6 – 90 GHz over a large range of wind speeds and Earth incidence angles", ''IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing'', 50(8), 3004-3026,

References

External links

RSS profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wentz, Frank 21st-century American engineers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)