Mentor Database

Shridhar Jawak is a Remote Sensing Officer (Sr. Adviser) at the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS), Longyearbyen, Norway. SIOS is an international consortium of 24 member institutes from 9 nations building a long-term sustained monitoring system for Svalbard to address broad Earth system science (ESS) questions. Shridhar’s responsibilities include to inform and advise on the emerging opportunities that broad range of Remote Sensing (RS) and Earth Observation (EO) technology offer to ESS researchers, optimize the usage of satellite and airborne RS (manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles) data for field scientists in Svalbard, organizing tailored training courses, webinars, and online conferences on EO and RS for Svalbard science community, attract space agencies to conduct cal/val activities for satellite missions in Svalbard, and to bring together geospatial product developers and users to improve the usability of satellite data in Svalbard. Shridhar is also responsible for developing EO and RS based services for a wider research community working in Svalbard as a part of developing the observing system. Before joining SIOS, he was a project scientist at the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, India, where he was leading EO and RS activities in polar research particularly focusing on Antarctica, Himalayas, and the Arctic. He has participated in 3 summer expeditions to Antarctica and one field campaign to Svalbard during his doctoral research. He is one of the founder members of the Indian Polar Research Network (APECS-India/IPRN) and served as the first vice-president during 2013-14 and later continued as council member and ex-officio. Presently he is serving on the interim committee of the IPRN. Since 2017, he is involved in APECS-international as a council member.

His current research interests include Earth observation (EO) and Remote sensing (RS) of the cryosphere specifically focusing on usage of multi-satellite (SAR/Optical/LiDAR) and airborne (aircraft/UAVs) data for spatiotemporal changes in extent, velocity, facies and elevation of glaciers from Arctic, Antarctic, and Himalayas. He is also interested in spatiotemporal mapping and changes in vegetation from Arctic and Antarctica using terrestrial, airborne, and satellite-borne remote sensing platforms.

He is currently living in Longyearbyen, Norway, Svalbard.