Ross Maidment

I am an Earth Observation scientist and TAMSAT* operations lead within the Earth Observation and Space Research Division (Department of Meteorology) at the University of Reading. For over 15 years, I have been working in the fields of remote sensing and climate, with particular interest over Africa. My primary interests are: • Remote sensing and satellite rainfall estimation • Development of climate services to support the climate, agricultural, financial and humanitarian aid sectors. • Improving characterisation and understanding of climate variability and change across Africa *The TAMSAT (Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite and ground-based observations) group (http://www.tamsat.org.uk) have supported African national hydrometeorological services and other organisations since 1977 to provide climate services to stakeholders across multiple sectors, including agriculture, finance, and health. These services, based on TAMSAT operational, satellite- based rainfall estimates, and more recently, soil moisture estimates, enable identification of weather-related hazards (e.g. drought) which informs actions (e.g, advising farmers on when to plant or triggering insurance pay outs for farmers).