JANUS Team Member Pan Liang, Ph.D. Celebrates 20 Years
02/03/2025
Senior Staff Scientist I Pan Liang, Ph.D., is celebrating 20 years with JANUS Research Group (JANUS). Pan began her career as a research scientist specializing in microwave radiative transfer modeling and retrieval algorithms for the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Conical-Scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder (CMIS) program. Pan joined JANUS as part of the recent acquisition of AER.
As a member of the CMIS team, Pan made several immediate contributions in the development of microwave surface emissivity models to support algorithms to retrieve atmospheric and earth surface parameters from CMIS measurements. Over time, Pan continued to expand her role and areas of expertise to include high-performance radiative transfer modeling, atmospheric retrieval simulation testbeds, and even more esoteric topics in microwave physics like Zeeman splitting of oxygen absorption lines, which is critical to measuring temperature high in the atmosphere. Her recent accomplishments include making the first ever atmospheric temperature measurements from a space-borne hyperspectral microwave sensor.
Over her 20 years, Pan has contributed to the Space Force Weather Satellite Follow-on-Microwave (WSF-M) and developed and delivered algorithms for WSF-M's Soil Moisture and Soil Depth environmental data records (EDRs). Since April 2024, Pan has worked with a team on calibrating and validating EDRs using ground truth and comparable satellite-measured data. With additional WSF-M FU-1 Final Operational Capacity (FOC) milestones planned for Q2 2025 and FU-2 planned for launch in 2028, Pan will continue to provide her expertise and skills to this program.
Additionally, Pan has worked on the NOAA Research & Technology Maturation for the Exploitation of Emerging Technologies (RTMEE), making improvements to the Community Radiative Transfer Model, including adding capabilities for new sensors and technologies. She has also worked on the NOAA Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS), working to incorporate AER's Optimal Spectral Sampling (OSS) method into GDAS for fast and accurate radiative transfer calculations in spectral bands.
During her 20-year career, Pan has faced some challenges, one of the most notable being managing challenging interactions and balancing multiple priorities. She has successfully navigated this challenge by maintaining detailed progress status reports and conducting daily check-ins to identify potential issues and address them early on, staying in the scope of the work to meet each milestone. Her dedication and abilities earned her Employee of the Quarter recognition in 2018.
Pan has long been a driving force behind AER's research advancing microwave remote sensing of the atmosphere and land surface for NOAA, DOD, and NASA programs. Her unparalleled knowledge of AER's simulation testbed has allowed the company to guide engineers toward sensor designs optimizing on-orbit measurement performance while minimizing cost, complexity, and risk. Recently, Pan added Zeeman line splitting and hyperspectral microwave capabilities to JANUS's atmospheric sounding algorithm suite, allowing us to run atmospheric retrievals on the most advanced microwave sensors flying in space today.
Pan continues to be on the leading edge of algorithm and radiative transfer model development. As we look ahead to the next generation of atmospheric sounding satellites now in development at NOAA and the DOD, we expect Pan will be a part of the exciting technologies that will emerge from this research.
When she isn't working, Pan spends time in the fencing world, traveling the country to see her children participate in fencing meets. She loves to spend time at home playing with her dog, Cooper, and she loves to collect stuffed animals and says she still has the teddy bears from her childhood. Yet another example of her tireless dedication to things that matter to her. JANUS is incredibly fortunate to have someone with Pan's experience, skills, and dedication to support our future work for our customers.
