R. Keith Raney

GRSS President 1988-1989

Dr. R. Keith Raney (Harvard, BS 1960; Purdue, MSEE 1962; Michigan, Ph.D. 1968) before retirement was with the Space Department of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (1994-2012). He was responsible for earth observation systems development, space-based radar conceptual design, and radar system analysis. Principal contributions include delay-Doppler radar altimeter and hybrid fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) architectures. While with the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (1976-1994) Dr. Raney was the scientific authority for the world’s first digital processor for the SeaSat SAR and was responsible for the conceptual design of Canada’s RADARSAT SAR (launched in 1995). He contributed to the designs of NASA’s Venus radars Pioneer and Magellan, the ERS-1 microwave AMI instrument of the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Shuttle Imaging Radar SIR-C. ESA’s CryoSat radar altimeter design is based on his delay-Doppler concept, which subsequently was adopted for the current state-of-the-art (Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich). Dr Raney was the design architect for the Mini-RF hybrid-polarimetric radars on India’s Chandrayaan-1 and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Following his 2012 retirement, Dr. Raney pursues radar interests through his private firm 2kR, LLC.

Dr. Raney holds US and international patents on various aspects of radar, including the chirp scaling SAR processing algorithm, hybrid-polarimetric SAR architecture, and onboard processing for the delay-Doppler altimeter. He has been a lecturer and workshop leader for remote sensing training programs in the United States, Norway, Denmark, Brazil, Ecuador, Turkey, Mexico, India, and Spain on behalf of the United Nations, NATO, the ESA, and other international organizations. Review and advisory committee service includes NASA, the Office of Naval Research, the National Academy of Sciences, the Canadian and European Space Agencies, Germany’s Helmholtz Society, the Danish Technical Research Council, and ONERA (France). For two years, Dr. Raney was the technical delegate from Canada to the Space Conference of the Americas. He served three years with the Committee on Earth Studies of the National Research Council, three years with the Science Council of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, and most recently four years on the ESA Director’s Advisory Committee for Earth Observations. He currently is an Honorary Advisor to India’s private radar firm SISIR. Dr Raney has over 500 major presentations and significant publications, including “Space-Based Remote Sensing Radars,” Chapter 18 in The Radar Handbook, 3rd Edition, M. Skolnik, Ed.: McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Dr. Raney served on the GRSS AdCom for 8 years (1984 – 1992) and was President for two terms (1988 – 1989). He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy. His honors from the Canadian Remote Sensing Society include the 1999 Gold Medal and the 2021 Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing Prize Paper award. His IEEE recognitions include the 1990 GRSS Outstanding Service Award, the 1993 GRSS Distinguished Achievement Award, the 1998 GRSS Transactions Prize Paper Award, the 2000 IEEE Millennium Medal, and the 2007 IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for radar technologies and applications. (Jan., 2024)

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