Alena Melic
Research Area:
Grazing angle GNSS-R for precise altimetry
Bio:
I am Alena Melic, a doctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg. I received my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and my master’s degree in Embedded Systems, both from TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). Before starting my PhD, I worked in industry in PCB design and software engineering. I also served as a system administrator at the Austrian Scientific Computing Research Center- where I focused on the parallelization of software, such as COMSOL, MATLAB, and Fortran-primarily for numerical methods in physics, including electromagnetics, sensor systems, fluid dynamics and oceans acoustics (my love for the sea is no secret-I am a competitive swimmer, diver and skipper).
My current research focuses on GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R) at grazing angles- a technique for satellite-based altimetry in polar regions. Traditional ice altimetry methods face limitations in certain areas such as signal availability, resolution or performance. Grazing angle GNSS-R, originally derived from radio occultation, offers a complementary approach to traditional methods. My project aims to improve the signal processing to enhance the precision and robustness of GNSS-R grazing angle altimetry.