Interview with Betty Heller-Kaikov.
1. Could you share a bit about yourself and your career?
I am a German scientist interested in using satellite observations to derive knowledge about physical processes on the Earth. Particularly, I am interested in the temporal variations of the Earth’s gravity field. I studied Geophysics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; Bachelor), at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS, one Master semester abroad), and at the Ludwig Maximilian University and Technical University of Munich (LMU and TUM; joint Master program). For my PhD research, I am currently working at the Chair for Astronomical and Physical Geodesy (APG) at TUM.
I have been involved in the project “Geophysical modelling of vertical motion processes constrained by geodetic and geological observations (UPLIFT)“ for 3 years. I have been involved as a PhD student, leading the project P2 on “Interpretation of gravity and gravity changes in light of uplift processes”: https://www.asg.ed.tum.de/iapg/uplift/cohort-1/p2/
2. What was the goal and results of your work in the project?
The Earth’s gravity field varies in time due to various geophysical processes. Measurements of the temporal gravity variations of the Earth include signals from all processes that involve a displacement of masses on Earth. These signals include ice mass changes (e.g., in Greenland or Antarctica), earthquakes (e.g., the 2004 Sumatra earthquake), and hydrological variations (such as floods, droughts, groundwater changes, or seasonal variations). Satellite gravity data, such as that obtained from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites, reflect the sum of all these mass displacement signals. The goal of my work in the UPLIFT project is to develop signal separation algorithms that can separate these individual signal components from their measured sum. One of my findings is that neural network-based algorithms developed for pattern recognition tasks in image data are applicable to the signal separation task in temporal gravity data, if the latter are brought to the respective image data format.
3. Beyond your research, did the project bring other benefits to your career, such as networking, conferences, or new opportunities?
For me, being part of the UPLIFT research training group was a unique experience of getting in contact with researchers from other disciplines such as geophysics, geology, geomorphology, mathematics, and computer science. Especially the networking with the other ECS in the project (9 PhD students and 1 PostDoc) was very enriching for my PhD time. Also, working on my project P2 gave me the opportunity to get started with employing GPU-accelerated machine learning algorithms for my research goals. Also, I had the chance to contribute to several conferences, give invited talks, and do a several-month research stay in the US, which gave me the opportunity to communicate my research, discuss with other scientists, and gain insights into many scientific fields and methods.