Applied mathematician, GNSS meteorologist, and runner.

Dr. François Vandenberghe joined the JCSDA in Boulder in November 2017. He will provide science support to verify and validate newsource Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) observations, determine their error characteristics, develop and refine effective data quality control, and quantitatively test the impact of adding these data to NOAA’s operational Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) modeling systems. GNSS-RO provides quasi-vertical soundings of atmospheric properties related to pressure, temperature, and humidity that may be assimilated into NWP models as aggregate observables (refractivity, bending angles or phase delay).

François began to work on GNSSRO with data from the early GPS/ MET experiment during his postdoc at NCAR. With NCEP collaborators, he contributed to the development of the first bending angle (forward and adjoint) observation operator for the GFS model in 1999. He then joined NCAR’s Research Applications Laboratory where he worked on data assimilation applications, primarily in support of the Department of Defense. Over his years at NCAR, François has been involved with GPS radio-occultation science in its multiple aspects: space-borne, airborne and ground-based and for various applications ranging from the government, the military and the private sector. He has collaborated with leading scientists from the U.S., Taiwanese and European GNSS science community and is seated on several Thesis committees.

François has a Ph.D. in Remote Sensing from the School of Mines of Paris, a M.S. in Signal Processing and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Apart from science, he is an avid tennis player and enjoys skiing the Rockies.