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Attila Komjathy

Group Supervisor

About

Bio

Attila Komjathy is the Group Supervisor of Near Earth Tracking Systems Group (335S)  and a Principal member of the Tracking Systems and Applications Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the California Institute of Technology, specializing in remote sensing techniques for terrestrial and planetary applications.

He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering of the University of New Brunswick, Canada where he currently also serves as an adjunct professor. Dr. Komjathy spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is recipient of several NASA awards including an Exceptional Space Act Award, Best Paper and JPL Group Achievement Awards. Dr. Komjathy is JPL’s primary interface to the GATEW working group (Global Navigation Satellite System Augmentation to Tsunami Early Warning System) under the leadership of IUGG and IAG . He served an Editorial Board member of the AGU’s Radio Science and also worked as associate editor for Springer’s GPS Solutions ­– the Journal of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. In addition, he served as Commission Chair for the URSI National Committee “Ionosphere and Radio Propagation” since 2018. The US Institute of Navigation elected Dr. Komjathy as a Fellow for contributions to remote sensing of Earth’s ionosphere using GNSS signals in 2015.

Education

  • Post-doc at University of Colorado at Boulder, 1997-2001
  • Ph.D., University of New Brunswick, Canada, 1997

Research Interests

Dr. Komjathy investigates GPS and other sensors to study the temporal and spatial variation of the global ionosphere including the use of global empirical, physics-based and assimilative ionospheric models. Specializes in developments of real-time remote sensing techniques conducting research in natural hazards detection of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions using ground- and space-based GNSS data and infrasound measurements. Dr. Komjathy leads new activities that expand the group’s focus beyond GNSS-related remote sensing techniques, targeting novel terrestrial and planetary applications including planetary surface and atmospheric coupling.

Topic Area(s)

Experience

Professional Experience

Works at JPL since 2001

Achievements

Awards & Recognitions

Publications

  1. Martire, C., Lu, W., Vergados, P. [Komjathy] et al. GNSS-based automated detection of the 2025 Kamchatka tsunami 30 minutes before landfall using GUARDIAN. Nat Hazards 122, 391 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-026-08151-4
  2. Luhrmann, F., Park, J., Wong, WK. [Komjathy] et al. (2025). Detection of ionospheric disturbances with a sparse GNSS network in simulated near-real time Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.5 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence. GPS Solut 29, 54. https://doi.org/10.1007s10291-024-01808-2
  3. Naciri, N., Y. Bar-Sever, W. Bertiger, S. Bisnath, A. Komjathy, M. Miller, L. Romans, B. Szilagyi, and M. Vallisneri (2025) “Analysis of a High Accuracy Service based on JPL’s Global Differential GPS,” NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation March 2025, 72 (1) navi.686; DOI: https://doi.org/10.33012/navi.686
  4. Silber, E., D.C. Bowman, C.G. Carr, [Komjathy] (2024). Geophysical Observations of the 2023 September 24 OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Reentry, The Planetary Science Journal, 5:213 (47pp), 2024 September. DOI 10.3847/PSJ/ad5b5e
  5. Inchin, P. A., Kaneko, Y., Gabriel, A.‐A., Ulrich, T., Martire, L., Komjathy, A., et al. (2024). Three‐dimensional numerical modeling of coseismic atmospheric dynamics and ionospheric responses in slant total electron content observations. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2023GL108068. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL108068.
  6. Martire, L., Runge, T.F., Meng, X. …[Komjathy] et al. The JPL-GIM algorithm and products: multi-GNSS high-rate global mapping of total electron content. J Geod 98, 44 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-024-01860-3
  7. Swaima, T.D., E. Hough, Z. Yap, J. D. Jacob, S. Krishnamoorthy, D.C. Bowman, L. Martire, A. Komjathy, and B.R. Elbing (2024). Performance Characterization of Heliotrope Solar Hot-Air Balloons during Multihour Stratospheric Flights, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-23-0091.1
  8. Vergados, P., S. Krishnamoorthy, L. Martire, S. Mrak, A. Komjathy, Yu T. Jade Morton, and I. Vilibic (2023). Prospects for Meteotsunami Detection in Earth’s Atmosphere Using GNSS Observations, GPS Solutions https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-023-01492-8
  9. Martire, L., Krishnamoorthy, S., Vergados, P., A. Komjathy, et al. The GUARDIAN system -- a GNSS upper atmospheric real-time disaster information and alert network. GPS Solut 27, 32 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-022-01365-6, Dec 3, 2022
  10. Matoza, R.S., et al., …[A. Komjathy] (2022) “Atmospheric waves and global seismoacoustic observations of the January 2022 Hunga eruption, Tonga,” Science
    10.1126/science.abo7063 (2022), (May 12, 2022)
  11. Meng, X., Ravanelli, M., Komjathy, A., & Verkhoglyadova, O. P. (2022). On the north-south asymmetry of co-seismic ionospheric disturbances during the 16 September 2015 Illapel M8.3 earthquake. Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL098090. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098090. (April 6, 2022)
  12. Jonah, O. F., Vergados, P., Krishnamoorthy, S., & Komjathy, A. (2021). Investigating ionospheric perturbations following the 2020 Beirut explosion event. Radio Science, 56, e2021RS007302. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021RS007302 (Sept 2021)
  13. Liu, Q., et al., …[A. Komjathy] (2021) “The cooperative IGS RT-GIMs: a reliable estimation of the global ionospheric electron content distribution in real time,” Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4567–4582, 2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4567-2021 (Sept 23, 2021).
  14. Brissaud, Q., Krishnamoorthy, S., Jackson, J. M., Bowman, D. C., Komjathy, A., Cutts, J. A., et al. (2021). The first detection of an earthquake from a balloon using its acoustic signature. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL093013. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093013 (May 20, 2021)
  15. Inchin, P., J.B. Snively, Y. Kaneko, M.D. Zettergren and A. Komjathy (2021). “Inferring the evolution of a large earthquake from its acoustic impacts on the ionosphere.” AGU Advances.
  16. Liu Q., M. Hernandez-Pajares, H. Hang, … [A. Komjathy…] (2021). “The cooperative IGS RT-GIMs: a global and accurate estimation of the ionospheric electron content distribution in real-time.” Earth Systems Science Data, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2021-136
  17. Ravanelli, M., Occhipinti, G., Savastano, G., A. Komjathy, et al. GNSS total variometric approach: first demonstration of a tool for real-time tsunami genesis estimation. Sci Rep 11, 3114 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82532-6.
  18. Schunk, R. W., Scherliess, L., Eccles, V., Gardner, L. C., Sojka, J. J., Zhu, L., X. Pi, A.J. Mannucci, A. Komjathy, C. Wang, G. Rosen (2021). Challenges in specifying and predicting space weather. Space Weather, 19, e2019SW002404. https:// doi.org/10.1029/2019SW002404
  19. Krishnamoorthy, S., D.C. Bowman, A. Komjathy, M.T. Pauken and J. A. Cutts (2020). “Origin and mitigation of wind noise on balloon-borne infrasound microbarometers," The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 148, 2361 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0002356
  20. Bowman, D., Paul E. Norman, Michael T. Pauken, Sarah A. Albert, D. Dexheimer, X. Yang, S. Krishnamoorthy, A. Komjathy, J. Cutts (2020). “Multi-hour stratospheric flights with the heliotrope solar hot air balloon,” Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-19-0175.1.

Google Scholar Listed Publications:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gHs13iMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao