Sinéad Farrell

Sinéad Louise Farrell
Alma materUniversity College London
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Maryland, College Park
University College London
ThesisSatellite laser altimetry over sea ice (2007)

Sinéad Louise Farrell is a British-American space scientist who is Professor of Geographic Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research considers remote sensing and climate monitoring. She was science lead for the ICESat-2 Mission, which used laser altimetry to make height maps of Earth.

Early life and education

Farrell was an undergraduate student in geological science at University College London.[citation needed] She remained at UCL for doctoral research, where she studied space and climate physics. Her research considered satellite laser altimetry, using data collected from ICESat to understand sea-ice covered regions of the Arctic.[1][2] Farrell worked as a postdoctoral researcher at UCL for one year, after which she was appointed at research fellow at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA NESDIS) laboratory.[3] She was made a research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2009.[citation needed]

Research and career

In 2011, Farrell was appointed to the faculty in the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.[3][4] She moved to the Department of Geographical Sciences as an associate professor in 2019.[citation needed] Farrell studies polar oceans and sea ice. She has been involved with several NASA missions, and demonstrated the ability of satellite data to better understand ice-covered water.[5]

Farrell was part of Operation IceBridge, a NASA mission that revealed ridges on sea ice.[6] She leads the NASA ICESat-2 Science Team, which was able to demonstrated that the Arctic lost one third of its volume from 2003, and that glacial lakes were forming under ice in the Antarctic.[7][8][9] Using ICESat-2,[10] Farrell was able to accurately measure the topography of sea ice, which she proposed could be used to map sea ice models.[11] In 2022, anomalously warm weather caused one of the lowest levels of sea ice in modern record.[12]

Selected publications

  • Seymour W. Laxon; Katharine A. Giles; Andy L. Ridout; et al. (28 February 2013). "CryoSat-2 estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume". Geophysical Research Letters. 40 (4): 732–737. Bibcode:2013GeoRL..40..732L. doi:10.1002/GRL.50193. ISSN 0094-8276. Wikidata Q56679591.
  • Thorsten Markus; Tom Neumann; Anthony Martino; et al. (March 2017). "The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2): Science requirements, concept, and implementation". Remote Sensing of Environment. 190: 260–273. Bibcode:2017RSEnv.190..260M. doi:10.1016/J.RSE.2016.12.029. ISSN 0034-4257. Wikidata Q58057957.
  • Waleed Abdalati; H. Jay Zwally; Robert Bindschadler; et al. (May 2010). "The ICESat-2 Laser Altimetry Mission". Proceedings of the IEEE. 98 (5): 735–751. doi:10.1109/JPROC.2009.2034765. ISSN 0018-9219. Wikidata Q58058047.

Personal life

Alongside her research, Farrell campaigns to improve access to science. In 2021, when no women were nominated to be fellows in the cryosphere section of the American Geophysical Union, she decided not to elect anyone at all.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Satellite laser altimetry over sea ice | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  2. ^ "Study Sheds New Light on Arctic Sea Ice Volume Losses". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). February 13, 2013. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  3. ^ a b "Center for Satellite Applications and Research - NOAA / NESDIS / STAR". NOAA / NESDIS / STAR website. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  4. ^ "Sinead Farrell | CICS-MD". cisess.umd.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  5. ^ "Bothnian Bay Before the Breakup". Earth Observatory, NASA Goddard Space Center. 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  6. ^ Blumberg, Sara (2018-09-05). "ICESat-2 Scientists to Investigate Icy Mysteries". NASA. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  7. ^ "New observations from ICESat-2 show remarkable Arctic sea ice thinning in just three years". AGU Newsroom. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  8. ^ Ramsayer, Kate (2021-03-03). "NASA Scientists Complete 1st Global Survey of Freshwater Fluctuation". NASA. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  9. ^ Ramsayer, Kate (2020-12-09). "Beyond Ice: NASA's ICESat-2 Shows Hidden Talents". NASA. Retrieved 2022-12-02.
  10. ^ Yang, L. Magruder, T. Neumann, H. A. Fricker, S. L. Farrell, K. M. Brunt, A. , D. Hancock, K. Harbeck, M. Jasinski, R. Kwok, N. Kurtz, J. Lee, T. Markus, J. Morison, A. Neuenschwander, S. Palm, S. Popescu, B. Smith, Y. (2019-09-20). "New Earth Orbiter Provides a Sharper Look at a Changing Planet". Eos. Retrieved 2022-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Duncan, K.; Farrell, S. L. (2022-09-28). "Determining Variability in Arctic Sea Ice Pressure Ridge Topography With ICESat‐2". Geophysical Research Letters. 49 (18). Bibcode:2022GeoRL..4900272D. doi:10.1029/2022GL100272. hdl:1903/30634. ISSN 0094-8276. S2CID 252363231.
  12. ^ "UMD Researchers Use Novel Remote-Sensing to Measure Sea Ice in Fine Detail".
  13. ^ Harvey, Chelsea (October 22, 2021). "Nominees for a Science Award Were All White Men – Nobody Won". Scientific American. Retrieved 2022-12-02.