Richard Kelly (He/Him)

Dr. Kelly is a cryosphere Earth observation specialist whose research focuses on microwave remote sensing of seasonal snow, ice-covered landscapes, and sea ice from local to regional scales. His work combines advanced airborne and satellite radar observations of seasonal snow with passive microwave retrievals of regional snow accumulation. He has led field campaigns across Canada, the United States, and Europe to advance understanding of Ku-, X-, C-, and L-band radar and multifrequency passive microwave interactions with seasonal snow.

Richard Kelly is the principal investigator of the CryoSAR airborne synthetic aperture radar system, which supports seasonal snow observations across terrestrial and sea ice environments. CryoSAR is currently deployed throughout Canada in support of the Terrestrial Snow Mass Mission being developed by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Space Agency. He also leads the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) global snow depth product development using data from the AMSR-E, AMSR2, and AMSR3 satellite missions.

Dr. Kelly’s research is supported by NSERC, JAXA, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund–Research Excellence, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. His contributions to remote sensing have been recognized with awards from the UK Remote Sensing Society and NASA. He is a past President of the Eastern Snow Conference and has served as an associate editor, guest editor, and special issue editor for several leading international journals. He is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of the EGU journal Earth Observation (https://www.earth-observation.net/). Dr. Kelly has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the major reference work Comprehensive Cryospheric Science and Environmental Change (https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780323858939/comprehensive-cryospheric-science-and-environmental-change). He joined the University of Waterloo in 2006 following five years at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and earlier faculty appointments at Birkbeck, University of London.

• Seasonal snow and ice

• Climate and the Cryosphere

• Remote Sensing

• Satellite and airborne imaging radar

• Satellite passive microwave

• Field experiments

The following research projects are active (in addition to standard NSERC DG activity):

- CryoSAR Airborne SAR observations of seasonal snow and ice (Project funding: CFI, ORF, ECCC)

- Seasonal snow mass estimation in forest landscapes (Project funding: CSA)

- Sentinel User Preparation in SAR (SUPSAR) - snow parameters (Project Funding: ESA)

- CIMR EUG Project - passive microwave (Project funding: ESA)

- Global snow depth estimation project from AMSR3 (Project Funding: JAXA)

• Ph.D. Department of Geography, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. 1995

• M.A. Department of Geography, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. 1990

• B.Sc. (Hons.) Geography, School of Geography, University of Manchester, United Kingdom. 1988

• 2022 Outstanding Performance Award for outstanding contributions in teaching and scholarship.

• 2019 Outstanding Performance Award for outstanding contributions in teaching and scholarship.

• 2012 Outstanding Performance Award for outstanding contributions in teaching and scholarship.

• 2004 Outstanding Research Associate, Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

• 2000 Remote Sensing Society President's Prize for best paper at the Remote Sensing Society annual conference (Cardiff 1999)

• Chair, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, 2017-2023.

• Associate Dean Research, University of Waterloo, Faculty of Environment, 2015

• Acting Chair, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, 2014

• Faculty Group Leader at the Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center (GEST), University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA/GSFC's Hydrological Sciences Branch (Code 614.3) 2002-2005

• Co-editor-in-chief: EGU Earth Observation (January 2026- )

• Associate Editor, SPIE Journal of Applied Remote Sensing. (2016-2020 )

• Guest Editor, IEEE J-STARS Special Issue on GCOM-W Mission. 2016-2017

• Guest co-editor: The Cryosphere, Special Issue on Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere. (2012-2014)

• Guest co-editor: Hydrological Processes, Eastern Snow Conference Annual Special Issue (2009-2014)

• Associate Editor: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (IEEE J-STARS) (2008-2014)

• GEOG 100 - On Becoming a Geographer
  • Taught in 2021
• GEOG 310 - Geodesy and Surveying
  • Taught in 2025, 2026
• GEOG 371 - Advanced Remote Sensing Techniques
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Zschenderlein L., Kelly R., and Luojus K., Investigating the Dual-Look Capability of WindSat for Passive Microwave Snow Mapping, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 23, Canada, 2026.

• Gelinas A., Filali B., Langlois A., Kelly R., Mavrovic A., Demontoux F., and Roy A., New Wideband Large Aperture Open-Ended Coaxial Microwave Probe for Soil Dielectric Characterization, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, Canada, 2025.

• Li Q., Kelly R., and Leppanen L., Land Snow Surface Temperature Estimation Using an Optimized Near Real-Time Passive Microwave Algorithm, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, Canada, 2025.

• Kelly R., Thompson A., Wang W., Akhavan Z., Welch J., Toose P., Derksen C., Montpetit B., and Meta A., The Airborne Cryospheric SAR System (CryoSAR): Characterizing Cold Season Hydrology Using Ku and L-Band Polarimetric SAR Observa, International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS, 6559-6561, Canada, 2024.

• King F., Kelly R., and Fletcher C.G., Evaluation of LiDAR-Derived Snow Depth Estimates From the iPhone 12 Pro, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 19, Canada, 2022.

• Saberi N., Kelly R., Pan J., Durand M., Goh J., and Scott K.A., The Use of a Monte Carlo Markov Chain Method for Snow-Depth Retrievals: A Case Study Based on Airborne Microwave Observations an, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 59, 1876-1889, Canada, 2021.

• Thompson A., and Kelly R., Estimating wind slab thickness in a Tundra snowpack using Ku-band scatterometer observations, Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 12, 1123-1135, Canada, 2021.

• Li Q., Kelly R., Lemmetyinen J., De Roo R.D., Pan J., and Qiu Y., The influence of tree transmissivity variations in winter on satellite snow parameter observations, International Journal of Digital Earth, Volume 14, 1337-1353, Canada, 2021.

• Thompson A., and Kelly R., Considerations for Ku-Band Radar Retrieval of Snow Water Equivalent at Mid-Latitude Ontario Agricultural Sites, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Volume 47, 119-142, Canada, 2021.

• Li Q., Kelly R., Lemmetyinen J., and Pan J., Simulating the Influence of Temperature on Microwave Transmissivity of Trees during Winter Observed by Spaceborne Microwave Radi, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Volume 13, 4816-4824, Canada, 2020.