DR. WILSON - RESEARCH
DR. WILSON
Dr. Wilson is a member of the project science team for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) dual satellite mission, and with students is developing methods to estimate changes in water storage in river basins from time variations in the gravity field measured from space. See the website at www.csr.utexas/grace. Dr. Wilson is also principal investigator in the development of a surface gravimeter system for measuring changes in ground water storage. This NSF funded project is being conducted with colleagues from the Department, the Bureau of Economic Geology, the US Geological Survey, and the University of Arizona. Dr. Wilson's interests in geophysics cover two main areas, geodesy and applied seismology. In the area of geodesy he has support from NASA to investigate the causes of earth rotation and gravity field changes that arise from air and water mass redistribution due to weather and climate. This is an interdisciplinary area, and Dr. Wilson works with hydrologists, oceanographers, aerospace engineers, and others. Dr. Wilson is a member of the Center for Space Research in the College of Engineering, and his work in geodesy involves heavy collaboration with scientists in that unit. See the websites for the Center for Space Research Projects that he is working on: related to global water balance: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/research/ggfc and related to the global angular momentum budget of the earth: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/eos
Sponsored Research Activities
2004-2007 NSF: Development of an Integrated Superconducting Gravity
Meter Sensor System for Subsurface Water Storage (PI with
co-I’s Scanlon and Sharp) $494,000.
2004-2007 NASA: Validating GRACE’s Low Degree Gravity Determination
with Earth Rotational Observations $268,000, (Co
Investigator; PI is JL Chen)
2004-2007 NASA: Terrestrial Waters Storage Variations Using GRACE:
Estimation, Uncertainty and Validation $243000. (PI of UT part
of multi-institutional grant)
2002-2005 NASA: Estimating Water Content Variations, Error Analysis,
and Validation of GRACE, Earth System Science Fellowship
for Ki-Weon Seo, $72,000, (PI)
2000-2014 NSF: Large Scale Mobile Shakers and Associated
Instrumentation for Dynamic Field Studies of Geotechnical and
Structural Systems (Co-PI with PI K. Stokoe and Co-PI
E. Rathje), $3,773,000. for development, $4,100,000 for
operations.
1999-2003 NASA: Variations in Space Geodetic Time Series due to
Water Redistribution and Other Sources (Principal Investigator
$310,000.
1996-1999 NASA: EOS Global Change Fellowship, Angular Momentum
Balance of the World’s Oceans and Antarctic Ice Sheet
Variations, supporting T.J. Johnson and V. Nuth
$66,000.
1996-1999 NASA: Intergovernmental Personnel Agreement, $549,000.
(Principal Investigator) NASA Headquarters Program Scientist
for Geodynamics and Geopotential Fields.
1995-1999 NASA: High Frequency Variations in Earth Orientation and Rotation, $152800. (Principal Investigator).
1995-1997 NSF: Acquisition of GPS Receivers, $28,000. (Principal Investigator)
1995-1998 NSF: Optical Astrometric Data to measure Global Change, $17688 (Principal Investigator)
1992-1997 NASA: Establishment of a FLINN Site in West Texas $149500. (Principal Investigator);
1992-1995 NASA: Space Geodetic Studies of the India-Asia Collison Zone $135,000 (Co-Investigator);
1992-1994 NASA:High Frequency polar motion and geophysical causes $180,000. (Principal Investigator).
1990-2001 NASA: Earth System Dynamics: The Determination and
Interpretation of the Global Angular Momentum Balance Using the
Earth Observing System, $3,787,202. Co Investigator,
with Principal Investigator Prof. B. Tapley, and other Co
Investigators Shum, Rosen, Ponte, Salstein, Schutz.
1987-1990 NASA: Supplemental Graduate Fellowship Support. $54,000 for R. Gutierrez
1986-1991 NASA: Crustal Dynamics Project: $324,967. Studies of
water storage and other contributions to changes in the rotation of
the earth. Principal Investigator
1977-1988 University of Texas at Austin University Research Institute: two grants totalling $8600 for geodetic research support.
1983-1992 Associate Director Project SEER, Solid Earth Exploration
Research, approximately $125,000 annually from industrial
sponsors (with Project Directors Backus and Stoffa).
1983-1984 National Science Foundation: $52,000, Compositional
Gradients in Peridotite: Observations and Numerical Models. (Co
principal investigator with Prof. Doug Smith).
1981-1983 National Science Foundation: $78,000, measurements and
interpretation of compositional gradients in perid
(Coprincipal investigator with Prof. Doug Smith).
1981-1983 National Science Foundation: $55,000, Continuing studies
of basic properties of seismic reflection data and improved
methods of processing and interpretation. (Co-principal
investigator with Professor Milo M. Backus).
1978-1981 National Science Foundation: $98,000, Studies of basic
properties of seismic reflection data and improved methods of
processing and interpretation. (Co-principal
investigator with Milo M. Backus).
