A Tribute to a Community-Oriented Satellite Remote Sensing Scientist

This presentation is dedicated to Mr. Hal Woolf, a lifelong NOAA scientist, who made significant contributions to the meteorological satellite remote sensing community, both nationally and internationally. The talk will be focused on the algorithms, models and software developed by Hal and used by remote sensing scientists around the world. Hal was a pioneer in atmospheric sounding and fast radiative transfer modeling. His collection of meteorological data spanning more than 30 years was of unique importance in efforts to validate satellite sounding profiles and which also provided climatological data for the development of various sounding and imaging sensors' statistical/physical forward models. Moreover, Hal's “International Export” packages for sensors aboard polar orbiting satellites - that he developed and maintained for more than two decades - will also be highlighted. The past and current success of the now broadly-used meteorological polar orbiting satellites will be traced back to Hal's ingenuity and to his career-long support of direct-broadcast users worldwide.

Hal's legacy is carried into the future by a remote sensing community that has so richly benefited from Hal's many decades of devoted effort.