Richard Kelly

Professor

EV1-222, ext. 45451
rejkelly@uwaterloo.ca

Richard joined the department in 2006 having spent 5 years as an associate research scientist at NASA. His research interests are in snow and ice hydrology and especially in the measurement of snow and ice from Earth observing remote sensing instruments. His research focuses on the use of active and passive remote sensing instruments to estimate global water storage in seasonal snowpacks.

Find out more about Richard Kelly's research on his website.


Key Areas of Graduate Supervision
remote sensing, snow hydrology, snow climatology, geospatial modelling of snow, citizen science

Recent Courses Taught
GEOG100: On becoming a Professional Geographer
GEOG371: Advanced Remote Sensing Techniques
GEOG471: Remote Sensing Project
GEOG603: Remote Sensing and Earth System Science

Research Interests
My research interests are in snow and ice hydrology and especially in the measurement of snow and ice from Earth observing remote sensing instruments. This research focuses on the use of active and passive remote sensing sensors to estimate global water storage in seasonal snowpacks. I am also interested in how in situ measurement strategies can be deployed to support remote sensing observations and numerical hydrologic models of snow. I have conducted field work in several parts of the world (N. America, Europe and Asia) to support these activities.

These research interests relate to substantial questions concerning how the cryosphere is responding to global environmental change. In many places, seasonal snowmelt makes a significant contribution to the annual water budget. Quantifying regional snow water storage is crucial for effective water resource management. With global environmental change, we are starting to observe changes to seasonal snow dynamics that will affect people in many parts of the world. Fundamental accurate observations and measurements of the cryosphere, therefore, are critical to help better understand changes to the cryosphere and more efficiently manage snow dominated water resource.

Recent Publications (* indicates student supervised)

  • Thompson*, A. and R.E.J. Kelly (2021) Radar retrieval of snow water equivalent for mid-latitude agricultural sites, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.1080/07038992.2021.1898938.
  • Donchenko*, P., King, J., and Kelly, R. (2020) Evaluating Airborne Ku-Band Radar Altimetry over Landfast First-Year Sea Ice, The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-283, in review, 2020
  • Li*, Q., R.E.J. Kelly, J. Lemmetyinen and J. Pan (2020) Simulating the influence of temperature on microwave transmissivity of trees during winter observed by spaceborne microwave radiometery IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Remote Sensing. 13: 4816 – 4824. Doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2020.3017618
  • Saberi*, N., R.E.J. Kelly, J. Pan, M. Durand and A. Scott (2020) The Use of a Monte Carlo Markov Chain Method for Snow-Depth Retrievals: A Case Study Based on Airborne Microwave Observations and Emission Modeling Experiments of Tundra Snow, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2020.3004594
  • Mortimer, C., L. Mudryk, C. Derksen, K. Luojus, R. Brown, R. Kelly and M. Tedesco (2020) Evaluation of long-term Northern Hemisphere snow water equivalent products?, The Cryosphere. 14, 1579–1594 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1579-2020.
  • Thompson*, A, R.E.J. Kelly and J.M.L. King (2019) Sensitivity of Ku- and X-band radar observations to moderate to shallow depth seasonal snow in Ontario, Canada, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. doi: 10.1080/07038992.2019.1704621
  • Li*, Q., Kelly, R.E.J., Leppänen, L., Vehviläinen, J., Kontu, A., Lemmetyinen, J, Pulliainen, J (2019) The Influence of Thermal Properties and Canopy- Intercepted Snow on Passive Microwave Transmissivity of a Scots Pine. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 57(8): 5424-5433. doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2019.2899345.
  • Vanthof*, V.R. and Kelly, R.E.J. (2019) Estimating seasonal surface water storage in rainwater harvesting reservoirs in southeast India using satellite remote sensing, Remote Sensing of Environment 235, doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111437
  • Maslanka, W., M. Sandells, R. Gurney, J. Lemmetyinen, L. Leppänen, A. Kontu, M. Matzl, N. Rutter, T. Watts and R. Kelly (2019) Derivation and Evaluation of a New Extinction Coefficient for use with the n-HUT Snow Emission Model. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 57(10): 7406-7417. DOI 10.1109/TGRS.2019.2913208
  • Saberi*, N., R.E.J. Kelly, M. Flemming*, and Q. Li* (2019) Review of snow water equivalent retrieval methods using spaceborne passive microwave radiometry, International Journal of Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2019.1654144.
  • Thompson*, A, R.E.J. Kelly (2019) Observations of coniferous forest at 9.6 and 17.2 GHz: Implications for SWE retrievals, Remote Sensing, 11(6), doi:10.3390/rs11010006
  • Heygster, G., M. Kaichi, R.E.J. Kelly and G. Liu (2017) Foreword to the special issue on
the Global Change Observation Mission—Water: contributions to global water cycle science from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Remote Sensing, 10(9): 3835-3838.
  • Saberi*, N. and R.E.J. Kelly P. Toose, A. Roy and C. Derksen (2017) Modeling the observed microwave emission from shallow multi-layer tundra snow using DMRT-ML, Remote Sensing. 9(12), 1327; doi:10.3390/rs9121327
  • Li*, Q. and R.E.J. Kelly (2017) Correcting satellite passive microwave brightness temperatures in forested landscapes using satellite visible reflectance estimates of forest transmissivity, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Remote Sensing. Doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2017.2707545
  • Howell, S.E., M. Brady*, C. Derksen and R.E.J. Kelly (2016) Recent changes in sea ice area flux in the Beaufort Sea during the summer months, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 121, doi:10.1002/ 2015JC011464.
  • King*, JM.L., R.E.J. Kelly, A. Kasurak, C. Duguay, G. Gunn, N. Rutter, T. Watts, and C. Derksen (2015) Spatiotemporal influence of tundra snow properties on Ku-band (17.2 GHz) backscatter, Journal of Glaciology, 61(226), doi: 10.3189/2015JoG14J020.