Professor Mal Heron

Professor Room: MP141 Phone: +61 7 4781 5184 Email: mal.heron@jcu.edu.au

CAREER PROFILE:

BSc (Physics) 1965 The University of Auckland, New Zealand
MSc Hons I (Physics) 1967 The University of Auckland, New Zealand
PhD (Radio Science) 1971 The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Lecturer in Physics, James Cook University, 1971, with progression by promotion to Reader in Physics, 1984
Appointed Professor of Physics and Head of the Department of Physics, James Cook University, 1987
Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, JCU, 1999-2002
Head of the School of Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, JCU, 1997 - 1999
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Science & Engineering) 1989-1994
Director JCU Technologies Pty Ltd 1989-1994
Director Queensland Science and Engineering Consultants Pty Ltd 1996-2004
Director, Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University, 2003 - present

Fields of Expertise -

  Experimental Physics:

Instrumentation; Radio Wave Propagation; Electromagnetics; Physics of Remote Sensing; Ionospheric Physics; Marine Physics; Meteorology; Data Acquisition and Processing;
Environmental Physics; Electronic Engineering.

Research projects; Consultancy contracts; University Physics Department; Science & Engineering sector, James Cook University; Executive Group, JCU; Quality Management, University Senior Management, Leadership.

TEACHING:

All levels of undergraduate Physics, with content specialisation in electromagnetism and optics; and with paedagogic specialisation in Physics for students who have not studied Physics before.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

• HF Ocean Surface Radar
  

  Ocean surface radar (OSR) is a new technology for measuring continuous 2-dimensional maps of sea surface currents. Beam-forming versions of OSR can also map significant wave heights, swell height and direction and wind direction. OSR systems have also been developed for military applications and the techniques of target location (ships and aircraft) are software enhancements of data from the same hardware platforms. All of the equipment is shore-based, and there are no components in the water. The radar works by receiving radar energy scattered from the rough sea surface. Instead of minimising this clutter, as we would on a ship’s radar, for ocean parameter analysis, we use spectral analyses of the echoes to determine water velocity. Since the early ‘80s I have been involved, internationally, in the development of HF ocean surface radar technology. The Coastal Ocean Surface Radar (COSRAD) used a beam-forming array of antennas for receive as well as transmit. Present emphasis is on the acquisition and installation of an HF radar in the Capricorn/Bunker Group of reefs in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef, funded by an ARC LIEF grant in 2005 to James Cook University, The University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Marine SCience. This work marks a change in the HF radar research at JCU away from prototype hardware (and associated discovery and development research) towards applications. We are re-focussing our effort because of the commercial availability of HF radar systems, and the need to produce research output for the applications industry.

  An area of the Great Barrier Reef which has drawn world-wide attention is the Capricorn-Bunker Group where there has been significant coral bleaching in recent years. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has linked with the World Bank and the Australian Institute of Marine Science to set up a long-term study of coral bleaching in this area (Heron island, one of 24 global monitoring sites: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/CB_indices/coral_bleaching_indices.html). We will establish the new HF radar to operate over the Capricorn/Bunker Reefs in order to support these research initiatives and to link the applications development of the radar with the specific requirements of coral bleaching studies. Given that mixing is considered to be a key variable in explaining whether or not a bleaching event happens or not, precise monitoring of wind and wave conditions is particularly critical.

  The conditions for coral bleaching to occur include very low current speeds and very low wind (and wave) conditions. The sea surface radar is capable of producing wind wave data as well as surface current maps. This technology will provide a strong background of physical oceanography data which will enable us to determine ‘near misses’ as well as occurrences of the bleaching conditions in this area.

• VHF Ocean Surface Radar
  

  The VHF OSR uses the same physical principles as the HF systems, except that now the resonant (Bragg) wavelength of the sea wave is around 1 m. The HF radar genre produces maps of surface currents up to 150km from the coast and with a spatial resolution of 1-7km. The surface current speeds are usually good to about 5cm/s. There is a niche technology for high resolution surface current mappers, with a grid spacing between surface current vectors of around 100m. The VHF radar system fills this niche. With VHF systems we will be able to look at small-scale features in the currents. This will bring immediate benefits to understanding of sediment transport, scouring (beach management and channel dredging) and horizontal mixing (water quality and waste water discharge). The experimental VHF COSRAD system has been used in several deployments including sediment transport study for the Cairns Port Authority, circulation in Sydney Harbour in partnership with Telstra for the Australian Yachting Federation prior to the Olympic Games in 2000, a circulation study for the Coffs Harbour City Council, and circulation in a tidal estuary as part of a European MAST3 project, Inlet Dynamics Initiative: Algarve.

  The VHF COSRAD system has an operating range of 1.5km and this is a critical limitation in many cases because the smallest of coastal eddy circulation structures are of this order. An example of this is shown in Figure 1, which is a map of currents made at Trinity Inlet in Cairns using the experimental VHF COSRAD radar system. We need to improve the operating range to 5 km. This will not only cover the scale of structures like that shown in Fig.1, but also will be useful to provide a nested current map within the scale of the HF systems. Helzel Messtechnik GmbH in Hamburg, Germany have adapted their production boards of the HF WERA radar to the higher frequency of 152.2MHz in the new VHF system called PortMap. The new PortMap system is being tested and evaluated in Townsville during 2005.

  Figure 1 illustrates how the VHF COSRAD system works, by depicting ocean surface current vectors at the entrance to Trinity Inlet in the Port of Cairns in North-East Australia. In this case the anomalous circulation is produced by an interaction between the water in the Bay and water from Trinity Inlet (which has a phase delay on the tidal flow) after high tide.

• Remote Sensing of Sea Surface Salinity
  

  A Scanning Low Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SLFMR) was acquired under an ARC Large Infracstructure and Equipment grant. It is an airborne sea surface salinity mapper and is a prototype instrument in the development of future satellite-borne salinity mappers.

  The SLFMR methodology is based on the work of Blume et al. [1] and Ulaby et al. [2]. The receiver design uses the null-feedback, Dicke-switched radiometer technique described by Ulaby et al. [2] and Skou [3]. The radiometer operates at 1.413 GHz, with a bandwidth of 24 MHz. A Butler matrix [4] is used to form 6 beams which are scanned sequentially to form a swath parallel to the aircraft track. An evaluation of the performance of the SLFMR is given by Burrage et al. [5]. With the aeroplane at a cruising altitude of 3,000 m each of the beam footprints is about 1,000 m across and is sampled every 3.5 s. This means that we can average three time samples to get an overall 1 km spatial resolution. The resolution in the salinity measurements is about 1 psu under these conditions. An independent infrared radiometer is used to measure the sea surface temperature.

  The sea surface brightness temperature depends on the surface salinity and temperature and also on the incidence angle [6]. Corrections are made for atmospheric absorption of the microwave emission from the sea surface, for microwave emission from the atmosphere and for reflection at the sea surface of the down-coming sky radiation. The angle of incidence for the emission from the sea surface is modulated by surface waves and a correction is made for the change in slopes of the wind waves as the wind speed varies [7].

  Figure 2. Sea surface salinity map for the Herbert River plume 27 February 2000. The river plume is shown as green arc(24 PSU) some 7 km from the eastern side of Hinchinbrook Iisland with higher salinity water (yellow=28 PSU) close to the island and sea water (orange=35 PSU) offshore.

  We have carried out evaluation and validation work on the Herbert River, and work continues in collaboration with NRL, Stennis Space Center on technical evaluation.

  In 2004 a new-generation instrument, a Polarimetric L-band Multi-beam Radiometer (PLMR) was acquired under an ARC LIEF grant to University of Melbourne, Flinders University, University of Newcastle and JCU. This is a dual-polarised radiometer with six receive channels operating in a push-broom mode (rather than the scanning mode of the SLFMR). It is a one-off prototype, built specifically for the Australian group by ProSensing in Massachussetts and delivered in March 2005. We are carrying out acceptance tests in April (in Adelaide with the consortium partners) and will use the PLMR in a study of flushing of the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon in the second half of 2005.

References
[1] Blume, H.C., B.M. Kendall and J.C. Fedors, Measurement of ocean temperature and salinity via microwave radiometry, Boundary Layer Meteorol., 13, 295-308, 1978.
[2] Ulaby F.T., R.K. Moore and A.K. Fung, Microwave remote sensing: Active and passive, Vol 1, Artech House, Norwood MA, 1981.
[3] Skou, N., Microwave radiometer systems: design and analysis, Artech House, Norwood MA, 1989.
[4] Skolnik, M.I., Introduction to radar systems, McGraw-Hill Book Compnay, New York NY, 1980.
[5] Burrage, D., M. Goodberlet and M. Heron, Simulating passive microwave radiometer designs using SIMULINK, Simulation, January 2002.
[6] Klein, L.A. and C.T. Swift, An improved model for the dielectric constant of sea water at microwave frequencies, IEEE J. Oceanic Eng., OE-2:1, 104-111, 1977.
[7] Hollinger, J.P., Remote passive microwave sensing of the ocean surface, Proc. 7th Int. Symp. On Remote Sensing of the Environment, Ann Arbor, MI, 17-21 May, 1807-1817, 1971.

• Attenuation of Radio Waves in Bushfires
  

  The State Fire Brigades have depended on, and still depend on, the line-of-sight HF, VHF and UHF land mobile transceiver as a means of communication during fire suppression work (see Luke et al., 1978; Britton, 2002). There are technical and operational reasons for preferring VHF and UHF over HF bands (Luke et al., 1978), mainly arising from antenna size, noise levels, interference and available bandwidth. The move to VHF away from HF beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present has been accompanied by increasing reports of deterioration in communications when the radio waves are propagating through or near to intense bush fires (Foster, 1976). There is no evidence to show that this is indeed a frequency-dependent phenomenon, or just a coincidence in timing of increased awareness and technical changes. Foster (1976) suggested that ionisation of the air in the atmosphere could be the main cause of deterioration in radio wave communications in and around bushfires.

  In this project we seek to evaluate the occurrence of ions in a bushfire event, and relate the presence of ions in the flame to radio wave attenuation on propagation paths through the ionised cloud.

References:
Britton N.R. The Bushfires in Tasmania, February 1982-how the disaster relevant organizations responded- Disaster Investigation Report No.6 ( JCU: Townsville).
Foster T. (1976) “Bushfire: history, prevention and control.”, (A. H. and A.W. Reed Pty Ltd: Sydney )
Luke R. H. and McAuthur A. G. (1978) “Bushfires in Australia”, (Australsan Government Publishing Service: Canberra)

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:

In the last 2 years Mal Heron has been:

• Re-elected to Vice-President of the International PORSEC organisation (2002);
• Awarded PORSEC Distinguished Service Medal, 2002;
• Invited to convene a session of the Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM) Conference in 2003;
• Invited to convene a session at the IUGG Conference in Cairns in 2005;
• Appointed adjunct Professor at the Centre for Remote Sensing and Ocean Sciences at the University of Udayana, Indonesia;
• Invited as visiting scientist at the NOAA Coral Bleaching Group in Washington DC, in 2002, and 2004;
• Invited as official visitor to the Naval Research Lab at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, USA; and as a result was.
• Granted a funded 3-year program on microwave radiometer technology by NRL/Stennis;
• Invited to convene the Fourth International Radio Oceanography Workshop in North Queensland in April 2004, and as a result of that successful Workshop was
• Invited to be Guest Editor (one of three) for a Special Issue of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering on HF and VHF Ocean Surface Radar which will appear in 2005.
• Invited to convene a session at IEEE Oceans04 conference in Kobe, Japan;
• Appointed Australian representative to IEEE Accreditation Workshop, Bangkok, 2004.

Mal Heron is currently an Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. In the past two years he has undertaken peer reviews for the Australian ARC, the Canadian CRC and the New Zealand Marsden funding schemes. He is currently reviewing more manuscripts than he is writing (for a variety of Journals).

COMPETITIVE FUNDING (Last five years)

STUDENT PROJECTS

Current supervisions (2005) are:

PUBLICATIONS (Last 5 years & Career Best):

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

1. Ocean wave models for short-wave remote sensing data analysis, M.L.Heron, W.J.Skirving and K.J.Michael, IEEE Trans. Geoscisence and Remote Sensing, accepted December 2004.

2. Structure and Influence of Tropical River Plumes in the Great Barrier Reef: Application and Performance of an Airborne Surface Salinity Mapper, Burrage, D.M., Heron, M.L., Hacker, J.M., Miller, J.L., Stieglitz, T.C., Steinberg, C.R. and Prytz, A., 2003., , Rem. Sensing of Env.,85, 204-220, 2003.

3. Evolution and dynamics of tropical river plumes in the Great Barrier Reef: An integrated remote sensing and in situ study, Burrage,D.M., M.L.Heron, J.M.Hacker, T.C.Stieglitz, C.R.Steinberg and A.Prytz, J. Geophys. Res. Special issue on Salinity, 10.1029/2001JC001024, 30 Nov 2002.

4. Simulating Passive Microwave Radiometer Designs Using SIMULINK, Burrage, D.M., Heron, M.L. and Goodberlet, M., 2002, Simulation, 78(1): 36-55, 2002.

5. Applying a Unified Directional Wave Spectrum to the Remote Sensing of Wind-Wave Directional Spreading, Heron, M.L., 2002, Canadian J. Remote Sensing, 28: 346-353.

6. Wave Height and Wind Direction from the HF Coastal Ocean Surface Radar, Heron, M.L., and Prytz, A., 2002, Canadian J. Remote Sensing, 28, 385-393.

7. Cumulative probability noise analysis in geophysical spectral records, M.L. Heron and S.F. Heron, Int. J. Remote Sensing, 22, 2537-2544, 2001.

8. Effects of Streptokinase and Deoxyribonuclease on Viscosity of Human Surgical and Empyema Pus, Simpson, G., Roomes, D. and Heron, M. 2000. Chest, 117: 1728-1733.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PAPERS, AND REPORTS:

9. The Effect of bimodal sea spectra on HF radar wind analysis, M.L.Heron, IEEE Oceans04, CDROM, 2004

10. Remote sensing of sea surface salinity: a case study in the Burdekin River, north-eastern Australia, M.L. Heron, A.Prytz, T.Stieglitz and D.M.Burrage, Proceedings PORSEC Conference, Concepcion, Chile, CDROM, 2004.

11. Ocean surface radar current measurements in the surf break zone at Coffs Harbour, Heron, M.L. and A. Prytz, Proc. IEAust. Coasts and Ports, CDROM, 2003.

12. Swell wave period and direction off Tweed Heads monitored by HF ocean surface radar Bathgate, J.S, M.L. Heron and A. Prytz, , Proc. IEAust. Coasts and Ports, CDROM, 2003.

13. Remote sensing of sea surface salinity using an airborne scanning low frequency radiometer, M.L. Heron, D.M. Burrage, A.Prytz and M. Goodberlet, PORSEC02 Conference Proceedings, vol 1, 145-148, 2002.

14. Dispersion in Port Phillip Bay observed by HF radar, P.NN.I. Kalangi, M.L. Heron and A. Prytz, PORSEC02 Conference Proceedings, vol 1, 176-181, 2002.

15. Calibration of the scanning low frequency microwave radiometer, A. Prytz, M.L. Heron, D.M. Burrage and M. Goodberlet, Proceedings IEEE/MTS Oceans 2002, 29-31 Oct., Biloxi, USA, 2002, (Proceedings CDRom).

16. Terrigenous runoff in the tropics observed with a scanning low frequency radiometer, M.L. Heron, D.M. Burrage and A. Prytz, Proceedings IEEE/MTS Oceans 2002, 29-31 Oct., Biloxi, USA, 2002, (Proceedings CDRom).

17. Modelling and observation of tropical river inflow to the coastal ocean, S. Tabeta, I.S.F. Jones and M.L. Heron, Proceedings IEEE/MTS Oceans 2002, 29-31 Oct., Biloxi, USA, 2002, (Proceedings CDRom).

18. Ocean surface radar for Port management, M.L. Heron and A. Prytz, Sea Australia, The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 21.2, February, 2000.

19. VHF ocean surface radar measurements in the Inlet Dynamics Initiative: Algarve (INDIA) Project, M.L. Heron and A. Prytz, 27th Int. Conf. On Coastal Eng., 339, 2000.

20. Hydrodynamic modelling of a dynamic inlet, B.A O’Connor, S.Pan, M.Heron, J. Williams, G.Voulgaris and A. Silva, 27th Int. Conf. On Coastal Eng., 64, 2000.

21. Wind speed and direction from the HF coastal ocean surface radar, M.L. Heron and A. Prytz, Ocean Winds, IFREMER, Brest, 46, 2000.

22. Sea surface salinity remote sensing campaign on the Great Barrier Reef, M.L. Heron, D.M. Burrage and J. Hacker, Oceans from Space, Venice, 51, 2000.

23. Mesoscale structure in coastal ocean waters inside the Great Barrier Reef, P.N.I. Kalangi, M.L. Heron and A. Prytz, PORSEC Proc VII, 589-92, 2000.

24. Effects off spatial structure on the microwave evaporation duct, M.L. Heron, A.S. Kulessa, R.L. Jaycock and G.S. Woods, PORSEC Proc VI, 604-606, 2000.

TEN CAREER BEST PUBLICATIONS:

Burrage,D.M., M.L.Heron, J.M.Hacker, T.C.Stieglitz, C.R.Steinberg and A.Prytz, Evolution and dynamics of tropical river plumes in the Great Barrier Reef: An integrated remote sensing and in situ study, J. Geophys. Res. Special issue on Salinity, 10.1029/2001JC001024, 30 Nov 2002.

A comparison of algorithms for extracting significant wave height from HF radar ocean backscatter spectra, Heron, S.F. and M.L. Heron, J.Ocean and Atmos. Technology, 15, 1157-1163, 1998.

Wave height measurements from HF radar, H.C. Graber and M.L. Heron, Oceanography, 10, 90-92, 1997.

Transport processes affecting banana prawn postlarvae in the estuaries of the Gulf of Carpentaria, M.L. Heron, H.X. Wang and D.J. Staples, in "The Biophysics of Marine Larval Dispersal", Eds P.W. Sammarco and M.L.Heron, AGU, 253-278, 1994.

Directional spreading of fetch-limited short-wavelength wind waves, M.L.Heron, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 17, 281-285, 1987.

Line Broadening of HF ocean surface radar backscatter spectra, M.L.Heron, J. Oceanic Eng., OE-10, 397-401, 1985.

The height of electron content changes in the ionosphere from ATS-6 beacon data, K.Davies and M.L.Heron, J.Atmos. Terr. Phys., 46, 47-53, 1984.

Island wakes in shallow coastal waters, E.Wolanski, J.Imberger and M.L.Heron, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 10555-10569, 1984.

Transequatorial propagation through equatorial plasma bubbles – discrete events, M.L.Heron, Radio Science, 15, 829-835, 1980.

A probabilistic method of palaeobiogeographic analysis, R.A.Henderson and M.L.Heron, Lethaia, 10, 1, 1977.