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Dr. Raquel Rodriguez Monje

Researcher

About

Bio

Raquel Rodriguez Monje is an instrument system engineer at the Radar Concepts and Formulation group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is currently developing millimeter- and submillimeter-wave radar instruments for Earth and planetary science applications. These include cutting-edge multi-frequency doppler radar for ground, airborne and spaceborne observations of clouds and precipitations, as well as differential absorption radars. Prior to joining JPL, she made significant contributions in the development of instrumentation for millimeter and submillimeter astronomy.

Education

  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, 2008
  • M.S. Digital Communications System and Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, 2003
  • M.S.+B.S. Telecommunication Engineering, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain, 2003

Research Interests

Millimeter and submillimeter-wave technology, measurements, and applications.

Experience

Professional Experience

  • Instrument System Engineer, Radar Concepts and Formulation Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (2015 – present)
  • Senior Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Physics, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (2011-2015)
  • Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Physics: Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (2008-2011)
  • Graduate Student Research Assistant: Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden (2003 – 2008)
  • Research Assistant:  Ericsson AB Microwave and High-Speed Electronics, Sweden (2002 – 2003)

Achievements

Awards & Recognitions

  • JPL Award | North Star Award (2025)
  • NASA Award | Group Achievement Award | Convective Processes Experiment-AW and -CV, For exceptional accomplishment of the CPEX team and their contribution to atmospheric and weather research (2024)
  • NASA Award | Group Achievenemt Award | The IMPACTS Team (2024)
  • NASA Award | Group Achievement Award | For outstanding scientific achievements of the Clouds, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes- Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) airborne Earth Science Mission Team (2020)
  • NASA Award | Group Achievement Award | For successful delivery of first-of-a-kind airborne Doppler scatterometer for concurrent measurements of ocean vector winds and currents over a wide swath (2018)
  • JPL Voyager Award (2018)

Publications

  1. R. R. Monje, R. M. Beauchamp, O. O. Sy, S. Tanelli and S. L. Durden, "Airborne Demonstration of an ultra-compact Millimeter-Wave Radar for Atmospheric Measurements," in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2025.3598714.
  2. S. v. Berkel et al., "Ultra-Fast Low-Loss SPST Switch Using Planar GaAs Diodes for G-Band Radar Receiver Protection," in IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 852-863, Sept. 2025, doi: 10.1109/TTHZ.2025.3588046.
  3. Yurk, N. Y., Lebsock, M., Socuellamos, J., Rodriguez Monje, R., Cooper, K., and Kollias, P.: Vertical Wind and Drop Size Distribution Retrieval with the CloudCube G-band Doppler Radar, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-618, 2025.
  4. Socuellamos, J. M., Rodriguez Monje, R., Lebsock, M. D., Cooper, K. B., and Kollias, P.: Dual-frequency (Ka-band and G-band) radar estimates of liquid water content profiles in shallow clouds, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6965–6981, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6965-2024, 2024.
  5. Socuellamos, J. M., Rodriguez Monje, R., Lebsock, M. D., Cooper, K. B., Beauchamp, R. M., and Umeyama, A.: Multifrequency radar observations of marine clouds during the EPCAPE campaign, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2701–2715, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2701-2024, 2024.
  6. J.M. Socuellamos, R. R. Monje, K. B., Cooper, M. D. Lebsock, S. P. Nagaraja, J. V. Siles and S. Tanelli, “A G-band Radar with Doppler Capability to Profile Atmospheric Phenomena”, submitted to IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., Aug. 2023.
  7. Richard J. Roy, et al., “First Airborne Measurements with a G-band Differential Absorption Radar,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2022.
  8. R. R. Monje, R. M. Beauchamp, K. B. Cooper, S. Joshi and S. Tanelli, "A compact W-band breadboard radar for Atmospheric Measurements," 2020 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf20), 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/RadarConf2043947.2020.9266363.
  9. Ken B Cooper, Richard J Roy, Robert Dengler, Raquel Rodriguez Monje, Maria Alonso-delPino, Jose V Siles, Okan Yurduseven, Chaitali Parashare, Luis Millán, Matthew Lebsock, "G-Band Radar for Humidity and Cloud Remote Sensing," in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2995325.
  10. Ken B Cooper, Raquel Rodriguez Monje, Robert J Dengler, Corey J Cochrane, Maria Alonso-Delpino, Adrian Tang, Tristan Ossama El Bouayadi, Omkar Pradhan, "A Compact, Low Power Consumption, and Highly Sensitive 95 GHz Doppler Radar," in IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 5865-5875, 1 June1, 2020, doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2020.2972535.
  11. R. Roy, M. Lebsock, L. Millan, R. Dengler, R. Monje, J. Siles, and K. Cooper, “Boundary-layer water vapor profiling using differential absorption radar”, Atmopsheric Measurement Techniques 11(12), 6511-6523 (2018).
  12. R. Monje et al. “Long range-Doppler Demonstration of a 95 GHz FMCW Radar”, 15th European Radar Conference, 26-28 Sept. 2018, Madrid, Spain
  13. Ken B. Cooper, Raquel Rodríguez Monje, Luis Millán, Matthew Lebsock, Simone Tanelli, Jose V. Siles, Choonsup Lee, and Andrew Brown, “Atmospheric Humidity Sounding Differential Absorption Radar Near 183 GHz,” IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 15, no. 2, 2018.
  14. Cooper, K. B., Durden, S. L., Cochrane, C. J., Rodríguez Monje, Raquel, Dengler, R. J., Baldi, Chad, "Using FMCW Doppler Radar to Detect Targets up to the Maximum Unambiguous Range", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2017, Vo. 14, Issue:3.
  15. J. W. Kooi, R. A. Chamberlin, R. Monje, F. Rice, A. Kovacs, H. Yoshida, K. Cooper, B. Force, D. Miller, M. Gould, D. Lis, B. Bumble, R. LeDuc, J. A. Stern, and T. G. Phillips Performance of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory Dual-Color 180-720 GHz Balanced SIS Receivers, IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, Vol 4, No 2, March 2014, p129-164.
  16. J.W. Kooi, R. Chamberlin, R. Monje, B. Force, D. Miller and T. G. Phillips, Balanced Receiver Technology Development for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, 2 (1). pp. 71-82. ISSN 2156-342X
  17. Monje, R. R., Belitsky, V., Vassilev, V., Pavolotsky, A., Lapkin, I., Desmaris, V., Meledin, D., Henke, D., Dochev, D. A 0.5 THz Sideband Separation SIS Mixer for APEX Telescope, Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, held April 28-30, 2008, in Groningen.
  18. R. Monje, V. Belitsky, V. Vassilev, A Novel Design of Broadband Waveguide Directional Couplers and 3-dB Hybrids, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, 2006.
  19. R. R. Monje, Vessen V. Vassilev, Alexey Pavolotsky and Victor Belitsky, High Quality Microstrip Termination for MMIC and Millimeter-Wave Applications, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, 2005.