Prof.Dr. -Ing. habil. R. (Roland) Klees

Profile

I obtained the degree of Diplom-Ingenieur in Surveying (FH) at Fachhochschule Mainz in 1979 (summa cum laude), the degree of Diplom-Ingenieur in Geodesy at the University of Karlsruhe in 1983 (summa cum laude), the degree of Vermessungs-Assessor in 1986 (summa cum laude), the degree of Promotion in Geodesy at Karlsruhe University (Dr.-Ing.)  in 1991 (summa cum laude), and the Habilitation (habilis, Dr.-Ing. habil.) in Geodesy at Karlsruhe University in 1993. In 1993, I became head of the System Theory and Modelling group at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ). Since 1994 I am professor of Physical Geodesy at TU Delft and head of the section Physical and Satellite Geodesy.

Research themes

• Gravity field modelling
• Sea level, ice and climate change
• Models and data
• Mass redistribution and climate change

Research

My involvement in physical and satellite geodesy over more than 25 years has provided me with in-depth experience on a wide range of topics such as theory of boundary value problems and integral equations, numerical and approximation methods, statistical methods in geodesy, satellite gravity field modelling, geoid modelling and height system realization, time-varying gravity and mass redistribution in the Earth’s system, and performance analysis of satellite gravity missions.

Key publications

• R Klees, Gravity field determination using boundary element methods, Surveys in Geophysics 14, 419-432, 1993.
• R Lehmann, R Klees, Numerical solution of geodetic boundary value problems using a global reference field. Journal of Geodesy 73, 543-554, 1999.
• R Klees, P Ditmar, P Broersen, How to handle colored observatioin noise in large least-squares problems. Journal of Geodesy 76, 629-640, 2003.
• P Ditmar, R Klees, X Liu, Frequency-dependent data weighting in global gravity field modelling from satellite data contaminated by non-stationary noise. Journal of Geodesy 81, 81-96, 2007.
• R Klees, R Tenzer, I Prutkin, T Wittwer, A data-driven approach to local gravity field modelling using spherical radial basis functions. Journal of Geodesy 82, 457-471, 2008.
• R Klees, EA Revtova, BC Gunter, P Ditmar, E Oudman, HC Winsemius, HHG Savenije, The design of an optimal filter for monthly GRACE gravity models. Geophysical Journal International 175, 417-432, 2008.
• R Klees, I Prutkin, The combination of GNSS-levelling data and gravimetric quasi-geoid heights in the presence of noise. Journal of Geodesy 84, 731-749, 2010.
• DC Slobbe, FJ Simons, R Klees, The spherical Slepian basis as a means to obtain spectral consistency between mean sea level and the geoid. Journal of Geodesy 86, 609-628, 2012.
• H Hashemi Farahani, P Ditmar, R Klees, Assessment of the added value of data from the GOCE satellite mission to time-varying gravity field modelling. Journal of Geodesy 88, 157-178, 2014.
• DC Slobbe, R Klees, B Gunter, Realization of a consistent set of vertical reference surfaces in coastal areas. Journal of Geodesy 88, 601-614, 2014.

More publications

Educational activities

BSc Applied Earth Sciences

• AESB1440, Introduction to Geophysics and Remote Sensing, 1st year (instructor).

BSc Civil Engineering

• CTB1210, Dynamics and Modelling, 1st year (responsible instructor).

MSc track Geoscience and Remote Sensing

• CIE4611, Geomeasurement processing (instructor).
• CIE4603, Geosignal Analysis (instructor).
• CIE4607 Sea level, oceand and bathymetry (instructor).
• CIE4613 Climate change science & ethics (responsible instructor).

Projects

• PI, Vertical reference frame for the Netherlands mainland, wadden islands and continental shelf (NEVREF), STW Open Technology Program, 2014-2107.
• PI, Vertical stability of the Netherlands first order height system (NAP), Rijkswaterstaat, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, 2011- 2018.
• Co-I (PI Henk Dijkstra), Stability of the Caribbean coastal ecosystems under future sea level changes (SCENES), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Caribbean Research Program, 2015-2018.