Local says he’s surprised by high honor

La Cañada resident and Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Moustafa Chahine was recently elected to one to the highest professional distinctions accorded to engineers and scientists as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

“It was a surprise,” Chahine said on being told of the honor.

Chahine is the senior research scientist at JPL, he moved with his wife Marina to La Cañada in 1960 and raised his two sons: Tony, an eye doctor and Steve, a writer. Marina Chahine is a longtime teacher at La Cañada High School who is presently teaching advanced placement history courses.

“The whole family grew up here, we have enjoyed our life in La Cañada tremendously,” the honoree said.

In the press release announcing Chahine’s election, the academy stated that he was chosen for his “leadership in determining the structure and composition of the Earth’s atmosphere from space observations.”

The academy was founded in 1964 and provides engineering leadership in service to the nation. It operates under the same congressional act of incorporation that established the National Academy of Sciences, signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. It now has more than 2,000 U.S. and foreign members.

Academy members are called upon by government officials to weigh in on several issues faced by the fields of science and engineering. They give direction and advice to those who ask for their help, Chahine said.

Chahine has worked for JPL for about 49 years. His primary interests are in the remote sensing of planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and in climate change processes. One of the remote-sensing methods he developed enables infrared remote sensing through clouds.

“When I started this over 40 years ago it was to [study] the atmosphere around Venus,” he said. “The first application of my theory was to understand Venus. Later on we started looking at Earth.”

Chahine’s theory is now being used to study carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere.

“Everyone assumes that carbon dioxide is well mixed in the atmosphere. It’s not,” he explained.

Carbon dioxide is thought to be one of the leading causes of global warming. Although the subject of CO2 has been something Chahine has been studying for a while, the issue has been brought to light like never before.

“When a celebrity like former Vice President Al Gore uses our data to testify in front of Congress on the effects of CO2, that makes a difference,” he said.

In the past Chahine and his colleagues have written several articles about the gas, but it didn’t reach the mass audience.

“The public doesn’t read geophysical science reports,” he said.

The studies continue to see what effect CO2 has on the atmosphere. At this point they have found that because the gas does not mix, it can and has been tracked around the world.

“We have shown how carbon dioxide travels across the Pacific,” he said. “You can see how it is moving around; there is no place on Earth that is immune from carbon dioxide.”

Chahine looks forward to continuing studies of how this gas affects the Earth. And is looking forward to his initiation into the National Academy of Engineering on Oct. 4 at the academy office in Irvine.

“All I know from my colleagues that are in the academy like [director of JPL] Charles Elachi, is that it will be very interesting,” he said.