ppenteado.net

From Exploration to Automation in Earth, Planetary, and Solar Data

Paulo Penteado

Remote sensing scientist with 20+ years of experience turning Earth, planetary, and solar data into insight. Expert in algorithm development, radiative transfer, and scalable geospatial pipelines for NASA missions.

Paulo F. Penteado

ppenteado.net
📧 pp.penteado@gmail.com
📍 Los Angeles, CA
LinkedIn

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Summary

Scientist with over 20 years of experience in developing algorithms and pipelines to explore, process, and visualize remote sensing observations—from Earth to deep space. Proven track record designing mission-critical tools, enabling scalable and automated analysis, and delivering operational products for NASA missions in Earth, planetary, and solar science.


Expertise

  • Remote Sensing: Earth (AIRS, MODIS, VIIRS, ASTER, HyTES, SMAP), Titan (Cassini VIMS, ISS, CIRS, UVIS, RADAR), Sun (Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter), generating data products and visualizations for scientists, stakeholders and the public, including distribution through GIBS, Worldview, Eyes on Earth, A-SIPS, CSPP, DRL.
  • Scientific Software Development: From research algorithms to production pipelines
  • Geospatial Data Mining & Visualization: Interactive and automated tools
  • Radiative Transfer & Geometry Modeling: MODTRAN, Discrete Ordinates, SPICE
  • Data Processing: OpenMP, MPI, EC2/Lambda, CUDA

Core Skills

  • Algorithm development for radiative transfer, observation geometry, and data fusion
  • Automation of bulk data processing and visualization pipelines
  • Mission design tools for observation planning and strategy optimization
  • Remote sensing data mining to detect anomalies, patterns, and trends
  • Programming: IDL, Python, C/C++, Fortran, Java, SQL, Git

Experience

Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Pasadena, CA

Data Visualization Developer (2016 – Present)

  • Built and deployed automated, parallelized pipelines for AIRS hyperspectral products via LANCE/GIBS and Worldview
  • Developed algorithms for radiometric and geometric mapping of solar data (Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter)
  • Contributed to Plume Tracker for detecting atmospheric emissions using radiative transfer modeling
  • Created planning tools for MAIA’s observation targeting and strategy
  • Developed tools for Cassini imaging and hyperspectral observations (VIMS, ISS, CIRS, UVIS, RADAR), including titanbrowse and OMINAS.

Northern Arizona University – Flagstaff, AZ

Postdoctoral Researcher (2013 – 2015)

  • Modeled Titan’s atmospheric and surface properties from Cassini VIMS data
  • Created georeferenced mosaics of planetary data
  • Built searchable databases of planetary observations

Universidade de São Paulo – São Paulo, Brazil

Postdoctoral Researcher (2008 – 2013)

  • Expanded titanbrowse for high-performance hyperspectral exploration
  • Helped discover Titan’s tropical lakes by mining VIMS datasets
  • Initiated work on perceptual colormaps for science visualization

Education

University of Arizona – Tucson, AZ

Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences (2003 – 2008)

  • Developed titanbrowse tool in IDL
  • Analyzed methane clouds and haze on Titan using radiative transfer techniques

Observatório Nacional – Brazil

M.Sc. in Astronomy (2002 – 2003)

  • Simulated angular momentum evolution in asteroid collisions

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

B.Sc. in Astronomy, Magna cum Laude (1998 – 2002)

  • Developed physical simulations of rubble-pile asteroid fragmentation

Tools & Languages

IDL, Python, C/C++, Fortran, SQL, Java, Git, MODTRAN, SPICE, OpenMP, MPI, EC2, Lambda, SExtractor, IRAF, GeoTIFF, KMZ, GeoJSON, GeoCSV, netCDF, HDF, ENVI, ISIS, FITS, VICAR, PDS


Publications

See full list on Google Scholar, Researcher ID, or Scopus.

Selected Publications

  1. Structure of the Plasma near the Heliospheric Current Sheet as Seen by WISPR/Parker Solar Probe from inside the Streamer Belt
    PC Liewer, A Vourlidas, G Stenborg, RA Howard, J Qiu, P Penteado, O Panasenco, CR Braga
    The Astrophysical Journal (2023)
    https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc8c7
  2. Extracting the Heliographic Coordinates of Coronal Rays Using Images from WISPR/Parker Solar Probe
    PC Liewer, J Qiu, F Ark, P Penteado, G Stenborg, A Vourlidas, JR Hall, P Riley
    Solar Physics (2022)
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-022-02058-6
  3. Evolution of a streamer-blowout CME as observed by imagers on Parker Solar Probe and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory
    PC Liewer, J Qiu, A Vourlidas, JR Hall, P Penteado
    Astronomy & Astrophysics (2021)
    https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039641
  4. Tracking solar wind flows from rapidly varying viewpoints by the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe
    A Nindos, S Patsourakos, A Vourlidas, PC Liewer, P Penteado, JR Hall
    Astronomy & Astrophysics (2021)
    https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039414
  5. Trajectory Determination for Coronal Ejecta Observed by WISPR/Parker Solar Probe
    PC Liewer, J Qiu, P Penteado, JR Hall, A Vourlidas, RA Howard
    Solar Physics (2020)
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-020-01715-y
  6. Near-Sun observations of an F-corona decrease and K-corona fine structure
    RA Howard et al., including P Penteado
    Nature (2019)
    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1807-x
  7. Simulating White Light Images of Coronal Structures for WISPR/Parker Solar Probe
    P Liewer, A Vourlidas, A Thernisien, J Qiu, P Penteado, G Nisticò, R Howard
    Solar Physics (2019)
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-019-1489-4
  8. A corridor of exposed ice-rich bedrock across Titan’s tropical region
    CA Griffith, P Penteado et al.
    Nature Astronomy (2019)
    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0756-5
  9. Current paradigms in parallelization: a comparison of vectorization, OpenMP and MPI
    P Penteado
    Journal of Computational Interdisciplinary Sciences (2015)
    https://doi.org/10.6062/jcis.2012.03.03.0057
  10. Software and cyber-infrastructure development to control the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ)
    Includes P Penteado
    SPIE Proceedings (2014)
    https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2054944
  11. Goals and strategies in the global control design of the OAJ Robotic Observatory
    Includes P Penteado
    Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics VII (2013)
    ADS Link
  12. Possible tropical lakes on Titan from observations of dark terrain
    C.A. Griffith, J. Lora, J. Turner, P. Penteado et al.
    Nature (2012)
    https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11165
  13. Radiative transfer analyses of Titan’s tropical atmosphere
    C.A. Griffith, L. Doose, M.G. Tomasko, P.F. Penteado et al.
    Icarus (2012)
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2011.11.034
  14. Latitudinal variations in Titan’s methane and haze from Cassini VIMS observations
    P.F. Penteado et al.
    Icarus (2010)
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2009.11.003
  15. Ground-based measurements of the methane distribution on Titan
    P.F. Penteado, C.A. Griffith
    Icarus (2010)
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2009.08.022
  16. VIMS spectral mapping observations of Titan during the Cassini prime mission
    J.W. Barnes, P. Penteado et al.
    Planetary and Space Science (2009)
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2009.04.013
  17. Characterization of Clouds in Titan’s Tropical Atmosphere
    C.A. Griffith, P. Penteado et al.
    The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2009)
    https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/702/2/L105
  18. Evidence for a Polar Ethane Cloud on Titan
    C.A. Griffith, P. Penteado et al.
    Science (2006)
    https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1128245
  19. The Evolution of Titan’s Mid-Latitude Clouds
    C.A. Griffith, P. Penteado et al.
    Science (2005)
    https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1117702
  20. Observations of Titan’s Mesosphere
    C.A. Griffith, P. Penteado et al.
    The Astrophysical Journal (2005)
    https://doi.org/10.1086/444533
  21. Measurements of CH₃D and CH₄ in Titan from Infrared Spectroscopy
    P.F. Penteado, C.A. Griffith, T.K. Greathouse, C. de Bergh
    The Astrophysical Journal (2005)
    https://doi.org/10.1086/444353
  22. Interacting ellipsoids: a minimal model for the dynamics of rubble-pile bodies
    F. Roig, R. Duffard, P. Penteado, D. Lazzaro, T. Kodama
    Icarus (2003)
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0019-1035(03)00216-1