Research & Equipment

Research

Research Approaches

Modeling within our group includes analog experiments and geophysical simulations of geologic processes, ranging from the flow of lava, impact melts, and glaciers to structural and tectonic modeling of fault systems within planetary bodies.

The remote sensing focus within our group includes ground-, aerial-, and satellite-based imaging systems, which are used to establish precision topographic measurements using photogrammetry and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In addition to the use of visible imagery for geomorphological studies and planetary analog research, our group utilizes ground-based Forward Looking Infrared Imager (FLIR) data and near-Infrared satellite imagery to quantify the thermodynamics of active volcanic processes.

Field observations provide vital information about the geologic processes operating on the Earth and other planetary bodies through time. Our field work combines classical approaches with geodetic measurements and state-of-the-art imaging systems to inform and constrain geophysical models for planetary analog research. 

See examples of our recent field campaigns in Iceland.

Machine learning provides a powerful framework for cluster analysis and computer vision, which we employ to quantify the spatial organization of geological features on terrestrial bodies and enable automated landform identification and change detection.

Equipment

Aerial Systems

Kites:

  • 7' to 11' Delta Wings
  • 15 and 30 sq ft Ultrafoils
  • 6.5' FLED
  • 7' Rokkuka

Trimble UX5-HP Fixed-Wing

1 × DJI Mavic 2 Pro Quadracopter

DJI Phantom 3 Quadracopter (Retired)

DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quadracopter (Retired)

Computer Hardware

  • 13-ich Retina Display
  • 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7;
  • 16 GB of RAM (1600 MHz DDR3);
  • Intel Iris Graphics Card (1536 MB);
  • 1 TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
  • Running Windows 7 (64-bit) using Parallels.

  • 9.7 inch Retina display (264 ppi)
  • Lightning connector
  • Dual Core 1.4 GHz Apple A7 processor
  • 128 GB of Memory

3 x Dell Laptops

3 × Model Dell Precission T7600

  • OS: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Xeon Processor E5-2667 (Six Core, 2.9 GHz, 15M, 8.0 GT/s, Turbo)
  • RAM Memory: 32 GB of RAM (DDR3 RDIMM, 1600 MHz, ECC Memory)
  • Storage Memory: 12 TB of internal storage (4 × 3 TB, 7200 RPM 3.5” SATA 6 Gb/s Hard Drives)
  • Video: 2 × Dual Nvidia Quadro K5000 video cards (4 GB, 2 DP + DVIi + DVId)
  • Monitor:1 × Dell UltraSharp 30” Premier Color Monitors, Wacom Cintiq 24” touch-screen digitization tablet, SharperTechnology True3DI 24” Stereo3D Display
  • Input: SharperTechnology S2-V 3D-Stealth Mouse

 2 × Model Dell Precission T7610

  • Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Xeon Processor E5-2697 (Twelve Core, 2.7 GHz, 30M, 8.0 GT/s, Turbo)
  • RAM Memory: 128 GB of RAM (DDR3 RDIMM, 1600 MHz, ECC Memory)
  • Storage Memory: 512 GB SATA SSD boot drive, 2 TB of internal storage (4 × 3 TB, 7200 RPM 3.5” SATA 6 Gb/s Hard Drives)
  • Video: 1× Dual Nvidia Quadro K5000 video cards (4 GB, 2 DP + DVIi + DVId)
  • Monitor: 2 × Dell UltraSharp 30” Premier Color Monitors

  • OS: OS X (and Windows 7 using Parallels)
  • Processor: Intel Xeon E5 Processor (Six Core 3.5 GHz; 2MB of L3 Cache)
  • RAM Memory: 64 GB of RAM (4x16 GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
  • Storage Memory: 1 TB PCIe-based flash storage;
  • Video: Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each;
  • Monitor: 1 × Dell UltraSharp 30” Premier Color Monitors

Computer Software

10 x Microsoft Office 2013

4 x Apple Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand

1 x Adobe Creative Suite 6

1 x Adobe Acrobat X Pro

1 x Corel Graphics Suite X7

1 x KalidoGraph

10 × MATLAB 2015

1 × IDL (Version 8.3)

30 × GoogleEarth Pro

10 x ESRI ArcGIS (Version 10.2)

10 × Trimble Advanced Business Center

5 × BAE Systems Socet Set

5 × JMARS

2 × Pix4D

1 x ENVI (Version 4.8)

Geophysical and Surveying Equipment

4 × Trimble R10 GNSS GPS Recievers

10 × Trimble Juno Handheld GPS

This weather station includes: 1 × HOBO U30-NRC 15-channel USB data logger; 5 × Wind Speed Smart Sensor (Cup Anemometers); 1 × Wind Direction Smart Sensor (Vane Anemometer); 2 × Temp/Relative Humidity (RH) Sensors (12-bit) with Solar Radiation Shields; 1 × Barometric Pressure Sensor; 1 × Solar Radiation Sensor (Silicon Pyranometer); 1 × Rain Gauge (0.01"); Large Solar Panel (3 Watts); and two tripod-supported masts (2 m and 3 m height).

10 × Trimble Juno Handheld GPS