Dick Denning's Home Page

Richard F Denning Jet Propulsion Laboratory MS 146-102 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109-8099	Email:	Richard.F.Denning@jpl.nasa.gov
	Voice Mail:	(818) 354-2795
	FAX:	(818) 393-0025
	Secretary:

Curriculum Vitae

Current Assignment

        California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory
        Primary: Design, Development and Operations Engineer for the JPL airborne Microwave Temperature Profilers (MTPs).
        Secondary: Data System Design, Development and Operations engineering for the JPL HAMSR airborne spectrometer instrument.
        As the original designer of the data systems for several legacy Water Vapor Radiometers (R-, D-, J- type WVRs), I am also frequently called on for maintenance, upgrades and deployment assistance on these instruments.

Experience

1977–Present Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

Electronics Engineer, E2 to Senior, now Senior Science and Techical Specialist

Over 30 years as the lead engineer designing, building, and flying MTP’s (Pub. 1, 3, 11, 12) and other microwave instruments on three NASA ER-2 aircraft, as well as the NASA CV-990, DC-8, WB-57, NOAA P-3, Lockheed Electra, Russian M-55 Geophysica and NCAR Gulfstream V. These instruments have accumulated over 48 deployments on 8 different aircraft types, over 750 flights, and over 4300 flight hours.
Currently working on HAMSR (pub. 10) upgrades and integration of HAMSR and MTP on the NASA Global Hawk UAV§ 2005-2008 sole engineer for design, construction and integration of a new MTP for the HIAPER aircraft, along with development of HITECH C firmware for 8 microcontrollers and control software in Visual Basic 6, delivered to NCAR in 2008.
2000-2007 Analog/Digital Design Engineer for HAMSR instrument for NASA ER-2 aircraft on CAMEX-4, TCSP and NAMMA missions, concurrently with installing and operating MTP's on the NASA ER-2, DC-8 and WB-57.
1989-1993 Signal Processing Engineer for FIREFLY (pub. 2, 4, 5), an Infra-Red line scanning fire detection, imaging and real-time mapping system for the US forest Service.
1996 Design of motion control and data acquisition engineering for the JPL Cloud Ice Radiometer Breadboard (demonstrated on the NASA DC-8, Christchurch, NZ)
Design of NOAA Data Buoy Radiometer (MTP + WVR) and development of control software.
1981-1984 Design/Operations Engineer for MTP on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (C-141)
1978-1980 Design/Operations Engineer for the first airborne MTP (NASA CV-990, Clear Air Turbulence study)

1970-1976 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

Associate, A3 to A4

Pioneer 10 and 11 Helium Magnetometer
Lake Ontario Ice Growth observations with radiometers at L- C- X- and Ka band.
Big Bear Ice growth studies with microwave radiometers
Soil Moisture and Geothermal field studies with radiometers from 500 MHz to 32 GHz.

1961-1970 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

Electronics Technician, T2 to T6

Mariner II Microwave and IR Radiometers, Science Power Switching Unit
Mariner IV helium Magnetometer and Planetary Scan System
Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, Solar Wind Spectrometer, successfully deployed on the moon on Apollo 12 and 15
Pioneer 10 and 11 Vector Helium Magnetometer, to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond
OGO-E Solar Wind Spectrometer

Education

1959–1961 Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA

Associate in Arts, Electrical Engineering
Awarded “Most Outstanding Student” in Electrical Engineering

Programming Languages

Visual Basic 6
Microchip Mid-Range PICmicro Assembly Language
Hi-Tech C for PICMicro family microcontrollers
GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for Linux
PowerBasic Console Compiler for Windows
Forth

Skills

Data acquisition systems
Temperature measurement systems
Temperature control systems
Microcontroller hardware and software
Radiometer observing strategies and trade-offs
PCB design
Soldering, wiring and assembly

Interests

Photography, including Large format film and digital
Software Defined Radio
Amateur Radio Advanced Class WA6VYH

Awards

NASA Group Achievement Award - Tropical Composition, Cloud Climate Coupling Mission (TC4), San Jose, Costa Rica, 2008
NASA Group Achievement Award - NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Activities (NAMMA), Cape Verde Islands, 2007
NASA Group Achievement Award - Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes Project Team (TCSP), San Jose, Costa Rica, 2006
NASA Group Achievement Award - Sage III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE II) Science Team, Kiruna, Sweden, 2004
NASA Group Achievement Award - Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers - Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE) Science Team, Key West, Florida, 2002
NASA Group Achievement Award - Fourth Convection And Moisture EXperiment (CAMEX-4) , Jacksonville, Florida, 2002
NASA Group Achievement Award - DC-8 Aircraft SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide Experiment, Fairbanks, AK-Bangor, ME, Shannon Ireland, 1998
NASA Group Achievement Award - Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer (POLARIS), Fairbanks, AK, and Barber's Point, HI, 1997
JPL NOVA Award, Technical Achievements and Contributions, Microwave, LIDAR and Interferometry Technology, 1996
NASA Group Achievement Award - Deep Space Station 13 Core Equipment Development Team - Water Vapor Radiometer, 1995
NASA Group Achievement Award - Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment/Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft (ASHOE/MAESA) Experiment Team, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1994
NASA Group Achievement Award - Airborne Arctic Stratospheric Expedition Team (AASE), Stavanger, Norway, 1991
NASA Group Achievement Award - Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment Team (AAOE), Punta Arenas, Chile, 1989
NASA Ames Research Center - Stratosphere/Troposphere Exchange Project (STEP), Darwin, Australia, 1987
NASA Group Achievement Award - Microwave Sounder Unit (MSU) Development Team, 1984
NASA Group Achievement Award - Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-A) Development Team, 1982
NASA Group Achievement Award - JPL Microwave Flight Sensor Group, Meteorological Satellite Project Team, Scanning Multifrequency Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), 1982
JPL Space Science Division - Outstanding Services as part of the Mariner IV Mars Team in the field of Science and Engineering, 1965

Publications

Richard F. Denning, Steven L. Guidero, Gary S. Parks, and Bruce L. Gary, “Instrument Description of the Airborne Microwave Temperature Profiler”, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 94, No. D14, 16,757-16,765, 1989

J. David Nichols, Gary S. Parks, Richard Denning, Anthony Ibbott, Kenneth C. Scott, William Sleigh, Jeffery M. Voss, “Designing and Implementing a Near Real-Time Wildland Fire Information System”, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Prepared for USDA Forest Service National Infrared Operations, 1989

Bruce L. Gary, Richard F. Denning, Stephen .J Walter, “Airborne Radiometric Temperature Profiling”, Proceedings of Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing Applications, MicroRad 1992, Ed R. Westwater editor

Donald Dellepiane, Richard Denning, Anthony Ibbott, David Nichols, Gary Parks, Kenneth Scott, William Sleigh, and Ray Swindlehurst, “Firefly Aircraft System Maintenance Manual”, JPL D-10341, Prepared for U. S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, 1992

Joseph D. Nichols, Gary S. Parks, Richard F. Denning, Anthony C. Ibbott, Kenneth C. Scott, William J. Sleigh, and Jeffery M. Voss, “Mapping Wildfires in Nearly Realtime”, Optical Society of America, Applied Optics, Vol. 32, iss. 30, 5833, 1993, also published as NASA Tech Brief Vol. 17, No.6, Item #57, 1993

A. Tanner, S. L. Durden, R. Denning, E. Im, F. K. Li, W. Ricketts, and W. Wilson, “Pulse Compression with Very Low Sidelobes In an Airborne Rain Mapping Radar”, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, No. 1, 1994

E. Im, W. J. Wilson, F. K. Li, A. B. Tanner, S. L. Durden, R. F. Denning, “Suppression of Range Sidelobes in Spaceborne Rain-Mapping Radar”, NASA Tech Brief Vol. 18, No. 5, Item #87, May 1994, from JPL New Technology Report NPO-18515

Olga Boric-Ludecke, Richard F. Denning, Michael A. Janssen, and Margaret A. Frerking, “Novell L.O. Frequency Control For a 220 GHz Radiometer With a 110 GHz Gunn Oscillator”, 3rd Annual Conference on Telecommunications in Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Services, TELSIKS '97

Olga Boric-Ludecke, Richard F. Denning, Michael. J. Janssen, and Margaret A. Frerking, “Miniature Low-Power Submillimeter-Wave Spectrometer for Remote Sensing in the Solar System”, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 46, No. 12, 1998

Shannon Brown, Bjorn Lambrightsen, Alan Tanner, John Oswald, Douglas Dawson and Richard Denning, “Observations of Tropical Cyclones with a 60, 118 and 183 GHz microwave Sounder”, Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGAARS 2007, IEEE International

M. J. Mahoney, Richard F. Denning, “MTPH Design Document”, provided to NCAR as the deliverable Documentation for the JPL-built Microwave Temperature Profiler for HIAPER, 2008

M. J. Mahoney, Richard Denning, “A State-Of-The-Art Microwave Temperature Profiler” 33rd International Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Environment, Stresa, Lago Maggiore, Italy, 2009