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Simon Hook is the manager of the Science Division at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research is focused on improving our understanding of geologic, hydrodynamic and ecologic processes on planets. He is currently studying large lakes and wildfires on Earth. He also applies his knowledge of terrestrial geologic processes to other planets, in particular Mars.
Simon is an expert on optical radiometry, in particular thermal infrared spectroscopy. He is a member of several instrument teams including ASTER, MODIS, NPP, Landsat and AATSR. He has developed validation sites at Lake Tahoe, CA/NV, Salton Sea CA and Russel Ranch CA for determining the absolute radiometry of airborne and spaceborne mid and thermal infrared radiometers and surface temperature retrieval algorithms. The measurements at the sites are unique and now used as an absolute reference standard for multiple instruments developed by both domestic and foreign research agencies.
Simon continues to develop new instrumentation, in support of scientific studies especially infrared radiometers and spectrometers. He was recently selected as the Principal Investigator for the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS). ECOSTRESS is planned for launch to the International Space Station in 2017. ECOSTRESS will measure the temperature of plants and use that information to study how plant ecosystems use water. He is also working on a new airborne Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES). A key aspect of Simon's research is the development of new techniques to analyze and extract critical information from optical remotely sensed data, in particular, temperature and emissivity. Techniques developed by Simon are widely used by researchers and have been incorporated into commercial packages and form the basis for the standard temperature and emissivity products from ASTER and MODIS.
Simon is actively involved in planning activities at NASA and other agencies and is currently leading an effort to develop the thermal infrared sensor on the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) Mission recommended by NRC Decadal Survey for Earth Science. As part of the HyspIRI work, Simon led the development of the Prototype HyspIRI Thermal Infrared Radiometer (PHyTIR) which will be used on the ECOSTRESS mission.
Recent Book Chapters
Peer Reviewed Papers (80+ Publications in Web of Science, last 10 publications below)