Every two years, the Apolo conference series brings together researchers involved in the use of polarimetry as a remote sensing technique. On this occasion, it awards its François Arago prize to a person for scientific contributions in this specific field. This year, the prize was awarded to François-Marie Bréon, Research Director and Deputy Director of the LSCE, for his work as a whole.
In particular, it rewards the researcher’s contributions to the space missions of the Cnes Polder instrument on board the Japanese satellites ADEOS-1, ADEOS-2, then the French mini-satellite Parasol. The aim of these missions was to study the properties of clouds and aerosols, whose impact on climate is crucial, by analyzing the light reflected by the Earth and its atmosphere.
In this context, François-Marie Bréon has developed algorithms for characterizing surface reflectances, the presence of aerosols in the atmosphere, and the estimation of drop sizes in clouds. The products of these algorithms have led to a better understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions. The specialist has also developed tools and databases for the community, enabling simplified exploitation of observations from the various missions.
Note: François Arago (1786-1853) was a great French physicist, astronomer and statesman. Thanks to his optical instrumentation, he pioneered the discipline of polarimetric observations in geophysics and astrophysics, and is one of the founders of polarimetry as a tool for remote sensing.