Gary Hoffmann Email & Phone Number

Palmdale, CA

• Hired as a career, mid-level Programmer Analyst IV for the NASA Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) in support of an existing long-term maintenance contract. With the transition of the contract, transferred approximately.
• Played a lead role in planning and executing a complete spectral and radiometric characterization experiment for the PICARD instrument that is expected to result in a greatly improved calibration.
• During the aforementioned calibration experiment, assembled preliminary spectral response functions revealing the presence of a significant optical artifact affecting calibration.
• Provided field support during validation flights for PICARD instrument in 2023. Developed & implemented new procedures for evaluating and tracking image quality for this instrument in the field.
• Facilitated post-COVID return-to-work by providing training and advice to new and returning ASF field analysts and engineers during airborne science campaigns.
• As lead analyst for PICARD in 2021 & 2022, coordinated experimental efforts to characterize and remove the artifact identified in 2020.

Palmdale, California, United States

• Instigated an engineering redesign of protective covers that turned an awkward two-person post-flight activity into an easy one-person task and mitigated future damage to expensive components.
• Working amidst COVID-19, enabled two airborne science campaigns despite travel restrictions that had grounded all other NASA science aircraft. Earned a NASA Group Achievement Award in 2024 for efforts supporting the.
• Following field support of engineering test flights, identified a heat-related artifact in 2020 that was making it impossible to calibrate properly the short-wave infrared detector of the PICARD instrument.
• Created and provided same-day wildfire mapping imagery for U.S. Forest Service during FIREX-AQ in 2019. Recognized with a NASA Group Achievement Award in 2023 for efforts supporting this campaign.
• In 2019, assigned to be on-site analyst at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center hangar in Palmdale, CA, to take over a retiring colleague’s role as local administrative point of contact and support aircraft data.

Moffett Field, CA

• Provided field support for Operation IceBridge during two Arctic campaigns aboard P-3 Orion aircraft and an Antarctic campaign aboard the NASA DC-8 as an operator for Digital Mapping System.

Moffett Field, CA

• Designed and assisted in implementing a software tool that allowed the team’s analysts to quickly remove a noise artifact that they had been unable to adequately correct prior to hiring.

San Diego Metropolitan Area

• Core responsibilities: Airborne LIDAR bathymetry processing, analysis and calibration, including GPS processing, flight planning and other tasks. Position involved regular use of ArcGIS, CARIS, Fledermaus, Matlab.
• Quickly began working closely with the head optoelectronics engineer on improving the LIDAR instrument and geometric calibration procedures, as well as diagnosing and troubleshooting any issues with the collected data.
• Began development of process control procedures and software tools to be used by field technicians in monitoring geometric uncertainty of the system to enable quick assessment when the LIDAR needed to be recalibrated.
• Substantially improved the efficiency of product generation workflows, automating tedious and time-consuming tasks with Matlab, ArcGIS, and shell scripts.

Santa Barbara, California, United States

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Earth And Planetary Sciences

Dissertation: Tectonic processes and submarine flows in the Bismarck Volcanic Arc, Papua New Guinea

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Imaging Sciences, Highest Honors

Minor: Mathematics and Literature Thesis: Visual enhancement of the Archimedes Palimpsest using a target detection algorithm