![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.csr.utexas.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Magruder-Lori.jpg\")
<\/a>Lori\u00a0Magruder\u00a0joined the Cockrell School of Engineering in 2020 as an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. Prior to that, she was at The University of Texas at Austin’s Applied Research Laboratories for 14 years, where she still spends time as a senior research scientist.\u00a0Magruder\u00a0has been an integral part of the ICESat-2 team for the last seven years, leading the Science Definition Team to support mission development and early on-orbit satellite operations for ICESat-2.<\/p>\n
Magruder\u00a0is an expert in remote sensing. And one of her many important jobs with ICESat-2 is geolocation validation.<\/p>\n
“That means that we make sure things actually are where ICESat-2 says they are,” said\u00a0Magruder.<\/p>\n
To test this,\u00a0Magruder\u00a0travels to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico frequently. There, she places a series of corner retroflectors, small cubes about 8 millimeters in diameter, around the site. She notes where they are and compares them to where ICESat-2 measures them to be.<\/p>\n These little sensors are a very important part of\u00a0Magruder’s work. So much so, that she had a pair of them made into earrings.<\/p>\n Magruder\u00a0moved over to the Cockrell School because she wanted to teach and foster greater student involvement in her research. Magruder\u00a0is teaching a 3D remote sensing course this semester that focuses on lidar and photogrammetry systems, data analysis and applications. As part of her research, students are working on developing new missions and techniques for ICESat-2 in bathymetry \u2014measuring the depth of bodies of water \u2014 and monitoring sea floors.<\/p>\n In the last year,\u00a0she\u00a0has published nearly a half-dozen\u00a0papers related to ICESat-2. They’ve covered a variety of aspects of the satellite, including geolocation and several other topics:<\/p>\n “These measurements allow us to map places that have never before been mapped, filling in a big void in our knowledge of the world,”\u00a0Magruder\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Like most everyone else, the ICESat-2 science team has been working remotely since the onset of the pandemic. To spice up the spring meeting this year,\u00a0Magruder\u00a0challenged team members to pick their favorite world landmark, or fun offbeat place, and see if it had been captured by ICESat-2.<\/p>\n The pool in Krausnick, Germany, the world’s largest indoor waterpark, was the winner of the contest.<\/p>\n The team also presented snapshots of breathtaking features, including the collapse of the Pine Island Glacier, the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica; the first underwater post office off the coast of Australia; the pyramids in Egypt; Fenway Park in Boston; and Nikumaroro Island, the possible landing spot of aviation legend Amelia Earhart, who disappeared on a flight in 1937.<\/p>\n The competition was a morale booster and also an interesting demonstration of all that the satellite has, and has not, captured during its time in orbit.<\/p>\n “I can tell you that ICESat-2 has not measured the Eiffel Tower yet but has hit my parent’s house in Kansas,”\u00a0Magruder\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<\/a>\n
\n
\n
<\/a>