Mark Helmlinger

Mark Helmlinger is an applied aerospace physicist interested in the advancement of the art and science of remote sensing. Mark joined NEON in 2024. As NEON's AOP Calibration Scientist, he leads NEON's efforts to ensure the operational fidelity, accuracy, and NIST traceability of AOP's airborne measurements. This includes maintaining a hangar-adjacent optical laboratory for the regular calibration of the AOP payloads. Mark is also the ground truth lead for the AOP, a key component of validating AOP data products and ensuring accuracy over the lifetime of the Observatory.

Mark's 30+ years of NASA and aerospace industry experience, as well as worldwide field campaign experience,  will serve NEON well to help build strategic research collaborations and partnerships. Part of the skills he brings to the AOP were honed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as part of the AVIRIS imaging spectrometer group that built the AOP's three NIS systems as well as other notable airborne, orbital, and interplanetary instruments. Mark also looks forward to augmentation of the NEON mission with recent advances in drone and satellite observation technology.