Title: An overview of VLF radio remote sensing

Speaker: Dr. Morris Cohen

Schedule:

• Lunch: 11:30 am
• Presentation: 12-1 pm

Abstract:

An overview of VLF radio remote sensing will be presented. The following sub-topics will be covered during this talk:

• Very Low Frequency (VLF) applications to communications and navigation
• Remote sensing of the ionosphere, magnetosphere and lightning
• VLF radio instrumentation
• Electrically short antennas for VLF or HF applications
• Imaging through metal and conductors
• Power grid cybersecurity with passive VLF monitors

Biography:

Morris Cohen received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2003 and 2010, respectively, and served as a research scientist until August 2013. From September 2012 until August 2013, Dr. Cohen was appointed as AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation. In Fall 2013, he joined the faculty in the School of ECE. He is a winner of the NSF CAREER Award in 2017, the ONR Young Investigator Award in 2015, and was chosen for the Santimay Basu Prize in 2014, an award given once per 3 years to an under-35 scientist by the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).

Dr. Cohen is interested in the natural electricity of the Earth, including lightning, the electrically charged upper atmosphere, and the radiation-filled space environment. He uses radio waves at low frequencies measured all around the world to understand them, and develops resulting practical applications. His group also works on novel techniques to generate low frequency waves with nonconventional electrically-short antennas. He is an author of more than 60 journal publications. He employs a “flipped classroom” model in some of his courses to make the experience more active and engaging.

He enjoys hiking, cooking, and traveling the world for work and play with his family.

Research interests:

• Radio wave emissions from lightning
• Advanced signal processing of low frequency radio data
• Global lightning geolocation, mapping, and characterization
• Low frequency radio waves in the upper atmosphere and in space
• Low frequency radio instrumentation