Charles Bachmann - Featured Faculty 2016

His research focuses on remote sensing, especially hyperspectral imaging in the coastal zone and desert environments. Topics such as radiative transfer models, and their inversion to retrieve geophysical and biophysical parameters from spectral imagery of the Earth's surface, constitute key areas. In addition to these physical models, Bachmann also studies more abstract data-driven models based on manifold and graph representations of high-dimensional spectral imagery data, an area in which he holds one of his two US patents. He is deeply involved in calibration and model validation studies in both laboratory and field settings in a variety of applications.

Remote Sensing of the Earth's surface from airborne and satellite imaging systems provides a vast wealth of information useful in a wide range of applications from the environment and agriculture to defense. Spectral imaging, in particular, has become a key tool in these applications because it provides diagnostic information about composition and abundance of materials in each image pixel. Bachmann has developed novel instrumentation that helps validate models for retrieval of geophysical and biophysical parameters from hyperspectral imaging systems, which image the Earth's surface in hundreds of wavelengths of light simultaneously. Bachmann has developed two generations of a first-in-class hyperspectral goniometer: the Goniometer of the Rochester Institute of Technology (GRIT) and GRIT-Two (GRIT-T). Goniometers characterize the angular dependence of the spectrum of light reflecting off, for example, the Earth's surface - information critical to retrieving many important geophysical parameters. These unique instruments can be used in both laboratory and field settings, such as the joint Algodones Dunes experiment in March 2015 conducted jointly by the NASA Goddard Lidar Hyperspectral and Thermal (G-LiHT) sensor team, Bachmann's RIT research group, and several university partners.

Bachmann maintains active collaborations with universities, government laboratories, international partners, and is delighted to be part of the vibrant research environment of the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Laboratory in CIS. More details of Bachmann's research can be found at https://www.cis.rit.edu/faculty-and-staff/profile/cmbpci.

Charles Bachmann
Frederick and Anna B. Wiedman Chair and Associate Professor
College of Science