(image credit: NASA, JPL, DLR, UCLA)
Heggy research focuses on understanding water evolution in Earth’s arid environments as well as planetary surfaces using radar surface and subsurface characterization methods. His research particularly focuses on understanding volatile evolution in the North African Sahara and Arabian Peninsula, as well as Mars, the Moon, Jovian Icy satellites and Near-Earth Objects. His work involves probing structural, hydrological and volcanic elements in terrestrial and planetary environments using different types of radar imaging and sounding techniques as well as measuring the electromagnetic properties of rocks in the radar frequency range. Heggy’s research expertise spans from laboratory electromagnetic characterization of terrestrial samples and planetary analog materials, radar sounding of aquifers in hyper-arid environments, SAR and InSAR image analysis, GPR surveys in desertic, volcanic and ice-rich environments, FDTD numerical simulations of wave propagation, and data analysis of different terrestrial and planetary radar missions. He is currently a member of the science team of the MARSIS instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter (2003-present), the Mini-SAR experiment aboard Chandrayaan-1, the Mini-RF experiment on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2008-present) and the CONSERT radar experiment aboard the Rosetta mission (2004-present). Heggy is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Earth Venture Mission Concept OASIS, currently under formulation, that aims to determine the occurrence and spatial distribution of shallow aquifers in the most arid desertic regions on Earth to understand groundwater dynamic in fossil aquifers and how they respond to climatic and anthropogenic stresses.
Heggy is also a contributing scientist to several proposed planetary and terrestrial radar imaging and soundings experiments and participated in several NASA & ESA mission concept designs at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For instance, he led the concept development for the Mars-2020 Ground Penetrating Radar (SubEx) as the US Science Lead and the Experiment Deputy Principal Investigator. He also serves as the Principal Investigator for the airborne experiment Desert Radar Subsurface Exploration of Aquifers (DESERT-SEA) currently in Phase-A funded by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. Heggy served as a panel member for several NASA programs including the Planetary Instrument Definition and Development program, Planetary Geology and Geophysics program, Mars Data Analysis program, Lunar Data Analysis program, Astrobiology program and the Educational and Public Outreach program in addition to being a panel member on groundwater studies for the National Academy of Engineering (Division 11). He also edited a special JGR-Planets (AGU) volume on terrestrial and planetary radars. He is on the editorial board of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (Springer), Geosciences (MDPI), National Geographic and co-chaired several sessions in international meetings on terrestrial and planetary radar. He was also the co-chair of the American Geophysical Union’s terrestrial and planetary radar session from 2004 to 2014. Heggy has taught academic classes and mentored postdocs and graduate students from UCLA, Caltech, Cambridge University, Paris VI & Paris VII universities, Institut de Physique du Globe, Ecole Normale Superieure, University of Houston, Trento University, University of Torino, and Columbia University.
Heggy authored and co-authored more than 63 peer review scientific papers in the first top tier journals in Earth and Planetary Sciences including Science and Nature and more than 241 proceedings in international conferences with peer review committees.