Dr Mel Sandells (UNN)
Associate Professor Mel Sandells is PI for this Science Team. Mel Sandells has over 20 years experience in snow physics, including development and coupling of thermodynamical and microwave remote sensing models. She was one of the original developers of the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) model. She was PI for the AKROSS project, evaluating SMRT in altimetry mode for snow on sea ice for the first time. The AKROSS field campaign took place in Cambridge Bay in 2022 and collected a unique dataset including micro-CT analysis of snow microstructure and snow and sea ice surface roughness. She has experience in simulation of passive, active and altimetry measurements over snow over the frequency range 1-243 GHz and was a member of the Prototype SMOS Level 2 Processor Expert Support Laboratory prior to launch. Mel is currently a member of the CIMR Mission Advisory Group and ESA European Scientists on Spectrum for Earth Observation (ESSEO) committee and is President of the International Commission on Snow and Ice Hydrology.
Dr Lina Zschenderlein (FMI)
Lina is a scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), where she focuses on the development of snow retrieval algorithms for microwave remote sensing, notably the L2 Terrestrial Snow Area and Snow Water Equivalent products for CIMR. Her background includes a BSc in aerospace engineering and an MSc in Earth and space physics and engineering, including avalanche studies at the University Centre in Svalbard. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Waterloo. Meanwhile, she has been a visiting researcher at Environment and Climate Change Canada, and she supported the 2023 and 2025 CryoSAR field campaigns in preparation for the Terrestrial Snow Mass Mission by conducting in situ snow microstructure measurements in Muskoka, ON and the Rockies, AB.
Dr Esteban Alonso-González (IPE)
Esteban is an environmental engineer specialised in snow data assimilation. He obtained his PhD at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE) from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). He has worked as a postdoctoral researcher from the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) at the Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère (CNES), on the TRISHNA (Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource Assessment) satellite preparation mission. He has been awarded a Marie Curie Global fellowship and an ESA-CCI postdoctoral fellowship. He is currently a tenure track researcher at IPE-CSIC. He is the main developer of the Multiple Snow Data Assimilation System (MuSA), a versatile data assimilation system capable of merging different types of observations with an ensemble of snowpack simulations. MuSA is currently the data assimilation tool that brings together the largest number of algorithms and is being used in various international operational and research initiatives.
Dr Amy Macfarlane (UNN)
Dr Iris de Gélis (Estellus)
Dr Johnny Rutherford (UNN)