Masahiro Hori received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, in 1993, 1995, and 1998, respectively. He is currently a Researcher with the Earth Observation Research Center (EORC), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. His area of research is recently remote sensing of earth's environmental changes especially for snow, ice, and clouds in the cryosphere. He engaged in validation and analysis of ADEOS-II/GLI Cryosphere products. His main research contributions during the past 12 years have included aerosol-cloud microphysics, directional emissivity of snow and ice, remote sensing of snow surface properties, cloud fraction, and sea ice.