Dr. Sun received his B.S. in Modern Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, a M.Sc. in Remote Sensing from Nanjing University, China in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1990.  He has been employed by the University of Maryland since 1997 as an Associate Research Scientist. He is currently a Guest Professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a concurrent professor of Nanjing University, China. He is a senior member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).

Research Interests:

Radar Backscatter Modeling, Lidar Waveform Modeling of Vegetated Surface; Active Microwave Research for Forest Ecosystem Analysis; Surface Height and Vegetation Vertical Structure from Interferometric SAR and Lidar; Land cover and Land Use Change Studies Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Representative Publications:

1.      Sun, G, K. J. Ranson, 2000, Modeling lidar return from forest canopies, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (revised).

2.      Sun, G, K. J. Ranson, J Bufton and M. Roth, 2000,“Use of Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA) data as tie points for reducing the error of INSAR generated digital elevation model”, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 81-85.

3.      Sun, G. and K. J. Ranson, 1998, "Radar modeling of forest spatial structure", Int. Jour. Of Remote Sensing, Vol. 19, 1769-1791.

4.      Ranson, K.J. , G. Sun, J. F. Weishampel, and R. G. Knox, 1997, Forest biomass from combined ecosystem and radar backscatter modeling, Remote Sensing of Environment, 59:118-133

5.      Sun, G. and K. J. Ranson, 1995, A three-dimensional radar backscatter model of forest canopies, IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 372-382.

6.      Sun, G. and K. J. Ranson, 1995, Forest ecological studies and radar backscatter modeling, in Microwave remote Sensing for Earth Observation, Eds. by H. D. Guo and L. Z. Zheng, Science Press, Beijing, 1995, pp. 213-223.

7.      Sun, G., D. S. Simonett, and A. H. Strahler, 1991, A radar backscatter model for discontinuous coniferous forests, IEEE Transaction on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. GE-29, No. 4, pp. 639-650.