Desmond Power is the Vice President of Remote Sensing at C-CORE, leading a group of 40 individuals with expertise on geomatics, radar systems, and earth observation. C-CORE’s Remote Sensing group represents one of the largest private sector organizations that perform research and development in Canada on earth observation and geomatics. Desmond has 32 years of professional experience, having started with C-CORE (St. John’s, NL) in 1991. In the first seven years of his career, Desmond primarily worked on high frequency over the horizon radar. In 1998, Desmond started work on microwave radar systems and satellite synthetic aperture radar. Desmond has since branched out into work on earth observation (electro-optical and SAR) and geomatics, with a strong focus on research and applications development. The research performed by Desmond’s group includes iceberg and vessel detection, SAR-based winds, earth observation-based water quality and river ice monitoring, ice charting and sea ice thickness measurement, satellite and ground-based interferometric SAR (for ground deformation monitoring), vehicle detection and monitoring, wetlands monitoring and oil slick detection.
To date, Desmond’s group has completed several hundred individual projects on various applications of remote sensing and geomatics. The group also performs space systems development and is involved in a large number of satellite development projects, including SAR calibration transponders and covert SAR receivers. He is the co-principal investigator of two CubeSat developments involving a GNSS Reflectometry payload.
Desmond is a member of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics and is presently the Newfoundland and Labrador Branch President. He is a member at large of the executive of Canadian Remote Sensing Society, a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a P.Eng. registered with Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador. Desmond holds a Bachelor and Master of Engineering Degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland.