Congratulations to Rolf-Ole and Artem for achieving your PhDs!

Rolf-Ole Rydeng Jenssen and Artem Moiseev both completed their PhDs this May – a big stepping stone on what is still to come. CIRFA is proud of you and we are curious to see you grow even more.

Rolf-Ole defended his PhD thesis «Radar System Development for Drone Borne Applications with Focus on Snowpack Parameters» on 11 Mai.

During the PhD defense of Rolf-Ole Rydeng Jenssen. Photo: private.

The defense took place on May 11, 2021, the thesis is published in Munin. The opponents Professor Laurent Ferro-Famil, University of Rennes 1, France (1. Opponent) and Associate Professor Krishna Agarwal, Department of Physics and Technology, UiT (internal member and leader of the committee) participated online while Dr. Jan Petter Pedersen, Vice President, Kongsberg Satellite Services (2. Opponent) was physically present in the auditoium. The trial lecture on “Deep learning and radar based remote sensing of snow” was streamed and thus available to watch for all interested on the same day.

Professor Svein Ketil Jacobsen, Department of Physics and Technology, UiT (main supervisor), Professor Torbjørn Eltoft, Department of Physics and Technology, UiT and Dr. Rune Storvold, Research Director, NORCE, guided Rolf-Ole`s work.

Rolf-Ole, how did the PhD time feel, and what are your plans ahead?

I started my PhD at UiT/CIRFA in 2017 with an engineering degree in automation, and a master’s degree in applied mathematics and physics. My technical background was a good foundation for developing a radar system for drone mounted applications. The development of this system from ground-based proof of concept up to a fully functional drone-mounted instrument has included a large variety of problems that I believe have given me a unique opportunity to gain a broad set of skills. From hardware and software development to data analysis and, perhaps most importantly, experiment design. The project has allowed me to go on several field campaigns that have given me priceless experience and widened my understanding of polar research. Now, I look forward to developing this radar system further and other projects that might arise.

Artem defended his PhD thesis «Ocean surface currents derived from Sentinel-1 SAR Doppler shift measurements» on 20 Mai.

Artem is PhD candidate at NERSC and affiliated with CIRFA. (Photo: Henrike Wilborn, NERSC), and Ivan Bandura / Unsplash.

His opponents were Professor Roland Romiser, Ocean Sciences, University of Miami (first opponent) and senior researcher Knut-Frode Dagestad, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (second opponent). The leader of the committee is Kjersti Birkeland Daae, Department of Geophysics, Universitetet i Bergen, and the leader of the defense was Professor Thomas Spengler.

Artem, how did the PhD time feel, and what are your plans ahead?

My PhD project started in September 2017 when I relocated to the NERSC a year after graduation from my master’s in physical oceanography in RSHU, St. Petersburg, Russia. The goal of the PhD project was to develop a methodology for retrieving ocean surface currents from satellite-radar observations. It was an ambitious and exciting project that allowed me to combine my previous knowledge in physical oceanography with my passion for programming and data science. Also, a chance to enjoy all the outdoor sports in Norway is a great bonus. My research visit to CIRFA and Tromsø in 2018 – 2019 was a highlight of my stay in Norway, thanks to all people I met there. In the next few years, I will continue working in the same field as a researcher in NERSC. In the future, hopefully, the products we are working on will be regularly used for monitoring surface currents and assimilated in the ocean modes.