Author Description
Tom Farr received BS and MS degrees from Caltech, and a PhD from the University of Washington, all in Geology. After a short time as an engineering geologist, he joined the Radar Sciences Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has been since 1975. At JPL, he helped develop the first geologic applications of imaging radar using aircraft, satellites, and the Space Shuttle. He was the Deputy Project Scientist on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 2000 as well as the lead air-to-ground payload communicator. Tom has been a science investigator on European and Japanese satellite programs and has studied the geology of Mars, Venus, and recently Saturn’s moon Titan. His current projects include piecing together the history of water in the Sahara with radar images and monitoring of groundwater with orbital radar. He has participated in or led geological expeditions to Tibet, northwestern China, the Egyptian Sahara, and our local deserts, including geology training of Shuttle astronauts.
