Week 7 :)
I got home today from class and was pleased, upon checking my e-mail, to find that I had been offered an internship with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. Should I choose to accept this position, I would be working with Dr. Tom Stepinski on a project involving crater detection on Mars.
If this strikes your fancy, feel free to click the link at the bottom of this entry to read a full project description.
Maybe this would work as a senior project, and I could continue the work when I return in the fall under the supervision of a resident planetary geologist.
Until then, I await hearing back from the other institutions to which I have applied and continue to read about Syrtis Major- just in case.
Completing a New Catalog of Impact Craters on Mars
Advisor: Tomas F. Stepinski (Lunar and Planetary Institute)
Project Motivation: Impact craters are among the most studied features on Mars. Their
importance stems from worth of information that a detailed analysis of their number and
morphology can bring forth. A limited number of Martian craters have been cataloged manually by means of visual inspection of images. More extensive catalog, that utilizes crater detection algorithm, is currently under construction. This project is an integral part of constructing this new catalog. It involves performing quality control and supplementing the catalog by prominent craters that have not been detected by the algorithm.
Approach: The project uses Martian digital topography, obtained from the Mars Orbiter
Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data to detect craters and to calculate their diameters and depths. The topography-based crater detection algorithm has already detected craters over the entire surface of Mars but the results need to reviewed and supplemented by manual measurements where necessary.
Goals: The goal of this project is to derive a final version of the new catalog of Martian craters. An intern will use established data structure to make additional measurements of craters’ locations and their depths using ArcGIS software.
Impact: This project is designed to provide an intern with hands on experience with a
wide variety of tools and methods used in Mars research. An intern will become familiar
with the MOLA data and software suites designed to analyze the data. In addition, an intern will have an opportunity to become familiar with issues related to Martian surfaces and its geologic history.
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