Geomatics (GM)
Email: michele.crosetto@cttc.catPhone: +34 93 645 29 00
Education and training
5-year Degree in Civil engineer, Politecnico di Torino (Italy), October 1993.
Specialization in Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and GIS, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) (Switzerland), 1994-1995.
PhD in Topography and Geodetic Sciences, Politecnico di Milano (Italy), December 1998.
Work experience
CTTC. January 2014 to March 2015: Head of Remote Sensing Department. March 2015 to present: Head of the Geomatics Division.
Institute of Geomatics. January 2002 to December 2013. Head of the Active Remote Sensing Unit.
Cartographic Institute of Catalonia. January 2001 to December 2001. Researcher.
Joint Research Centre. January 1999 to July 2000. Auxiliary Agent of the European Commission.
Research
His main research activity is related to the analysis of spaceborne, airborne, and ground-based remote sensing data and the development of scientific and technical applications using active sensor types, as for example Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Real Aperture Radar (RAR) and Laser Scanners. In addition, he has experience with passive sensors. From the application point of view, he is specialized in the measurement and monitoring of deformations using differential interferometric SAR (DInSAR) techniques. Some of his most relevant research works concern (i) algorithms and analysis methods of Interferometric SAR (InSAR), Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR) and terrestrial SAR; (ii) measurement of deformations with DInSAR, with emphasis on topics related to the evaluation of the quality of measurements and the validation of DInSAR techniques; (iii) terrestrial active remote sensing techniques: laser scanner and terrestrial SAR and RAR.
He actively participated in the elaboration of the strategic plan of CTTC, contributing to the three research lines of the Remote Sensing Department. He leads the “Satellite radar remote sensing” research line.
He has a strong network of international cooperation, built over twenty years of multidisciplinary research activity. In particular, he has co-chaired three ISPRS Working Groups of ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing): WG VII/2, “SAR Interferometry” (2008-2012); WG VII/2, “DEM generation and surface deformation monitoring from SAR data” (2012-2016); and WG III/3, “SAR-based Surface Generation and Deformation Monitoring” (2012-2021).
He is the chair of the Advisory Board of the Copernicus European Ground Motion Service. He actively participated in the White Paper of the European Ground Motion Service.
Research projects
Since 2002 he has led or contributed to the preparation of tens of proposals for regional, national, European, and international organizations, both public and private. This activity has driven the research of the Active Remote Sensing Unit of the Institute of Geomatics and the Remote Sensing Department of CTTC. In addition, it has secured stable funding of these research groups over almost twenty years.
He acted as Principal Investigator or Technical Manager in the following projects: the Validation project of Terrafirma (ESA), the Independent Service Validation Group of RESPOND (ESA), MOMPA (Interreg/POCTEFA), Ground Motion Advisory Board (European Environment Agency), 3 projects of MINECO or Ministry of Science and Innovation (AURORAE, MIDES, DEMOS), 6 projects of DURSI/AGAUR (ARGO, MORFÉ, SAXUM, SAXA, EGEA, RSE) and several industrial projects (METRO-C, Calabria, Bradar, Seattle, Glòries, Sixense, Atacama, FGC, etc.).
He acted as Work Package or Task leader in several projects. These include the following European projects: RAPSODI (5th FWP), Galahad (6th FWP), SUBCOAST (7th FWP), TERRAFIRMA (ESA), Pangeo (7th FWP), APHORISM (7th FWP), MOMIT (H2020), HEIMDALL (H2020), U-Geohaz (ECHO/H2020) and GIMS (H2020).
IPR contribution
He is author of this patent: Crosetto, M. and Monserrat, O. (2012). “Método para monitorizar desplazamientos de terreno y de elementos creados por el hombre usando datos de radar de apertura sintética terrestre (GBSAR)”, Spanish patent, 201031149. Crosetto, M. and Monserrat, O. (2014). “A method for monitoring terrain and man-made feature displacements using Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GBSAR) data”. European patent, application nº 11382216.7.
He has contributed to the creation of the spin-off of CTTC called Geokinesia. Two of the three technologies transferred to this company come from the Remote Sensing Department. This technology transfer involves the payment of royalties to the CTTC.
Dissemination
He is author of more than 65 journal papers and more than 130 conference papers. He has been a guest editor in one special issue of Remote Sensing: “Urban Deformation Monitoring using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry and SAR tomography”. He provided more than 15 keynotes and invited talks. He acted as chairman in more than 15 international conferences. He is an associated editor of the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
According to Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=E3aHd1wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao), accessed in July 2020, his publications received 4182 citations, with an H-index of 33 and a i10-index of 67. He has 8 publications with more than 100 citations, where 3 of them have more than 300 citations.
Since 2011 he has co-organized yearly the International Course on “Ground-based SAR for deformation monitoring: data analysis”. In 2019 the 8th edition was celebrated.
He has been always active to promote the dissemination within the Institute of Geomatics (IG), where from 2002 to 2013 he was the coordinator of the internal IG meetings, and the Division of Geomatics, with several contributions to the Division Geotalks.
Training
He has been supervisor of the following PhD students: Paola Vallone (23/03/2007) – Applications of radar remote sensing to geology, University of Palermo (co-supervisor); Paz Fernández (24/09/2009) – Vertical movement determination by means of radar interferometric techniques DInSAR, University of Granada (co-supervisor); Oriol Monserrat (15/03/2012) – Deformation measurement and monitoring with Ground-Based SAR, Polytechnic University of Catalonia; Sara Frangioni (April 2015) – Applications of SAR interferometry for monitoring ground deformations and engineering infrastructures. University of Florence (co-supervisor); Núria Devanthéry (31/10/2014) – Persistent Scatterer Interferometry data analysis, Polytechnic University of Catalonia; Yismaw Wassie (ongoing); Mohammad Mirmazloumi (ongoing).
Starting from 2002 he has been supervising tens of TFC/TFG. In this period his group has hosted more than 25 long-stay visiting researchers. This has been key to create an international network of researchers to perform academic activities, joint research, and to prepare joint proposals.
Miscellaneous
ISPRS Best young author award at the ISPRS Congress “Geo-imagery bridging continents”. Istanbul, Turkey, 12-23 July 2004. Crosetto, M. “Deformation measurement using interferometric SAR data”.
Best young author award at the ISPRS Symposium “Integrated Systems for Spatial Data Production, Custodian and Decision Support”. Xian, China, 20-23 August 2002. Crosetto, M., Crippa, B., Barzaghi, R., Agudo, M. “Modelling and analysis tools for interferometric SAR observations”.
In 2001 he was granted a five-year contract in the frame of the 2001 Ramón y Cajal Programme of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.
The Ramón y Cajal contract was followed by the inclusion in the Program I3 (Programa de incentivación de la incorporación e intensificación de la actividad investigadora).
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8545-5490