Home from Away: The Earth as an Analogue for Understanding Planetary Geologic Processes

我们太阳系中的行星和卫星代表了一组不同的世界，由不同的地质过程形成。研究它们的表面地质学告诉我们行星是如何随着时间的推移形成和演变的，因为撞击坑，火山活动，构造运动和侵蚀塑造了景观。研究遥远世界地质的最佳方法是将人类或着陆器送到那里，但这是一项复杂而昂贵的工作。相反，我们所拥有的关于其他行星的大部分信息来自地球和轨道望远镜的远程观测。为了了解我们的行星邻居的地质情况，我们必须了解如何将遥感数据与其表面的物理和化学性质联系起来。为此，我们可以研究地球上的模拟环境，其中地面真实信息相对容易获得。这个地面实况可以与相应的遥感数据相关联，并用于对其他行星表面的地质进行推断。我的研究计划的长期目标是通过在各种地形中进行实地工作并将观测结果与遥感数据进行比较，来描述太阳系中行星和卫星景观的形成过程。这将通过三个短期目标来实现：1。为了了解撞击熔化物是如何在新的月球陨石坑周围就位的：鉴于月球上没有侵蚀，月球撞击陨石坑可以作为研究撞击陨石坑形成过程的原始实验室。在新的月球陨石坑周围经常观察到的一个特征是撞击熔化物的流动状沉积物。我们将用遥感仪器检查月球撞击熔融沉积物，以限制其成分，并将数据与地球上的模拟环境进行比较。2.要确定土星卫星泰坦上的撞击坑是如何被侵蚀改变的：量化其他星球上的侵蚀量是困难的，因为原始的表面地形是未知的。通过研究地球上的撞击坑，我们可以限制其他世界上形成陨石坑的过程。我们建议使用小型无人机的数据来远程识别地球上侵蚀撞击坑中的撞击融化，并使用卫星图像来描述地球和泰坦上侵蚀撞击结构的特征。3.为了限制熔岩流如何在火星上就位：火山作用是火星上最常见的地质过程之一。为了了解火星熔岩流是如何随着时间的推移而被安置和修改的，我们将使用背包式激光雷达系统来描述冰岛熔岩流的表面粗糙度。我们将把这些数据与该网站的公开雷达和热红外图像进行比较。通过实现这些目标，我们将获得有价值的数据，这些数据可用于限制塑造我们太阳系世界的地质过程。反过来，这将告诉我们地球的演变，并提供洞察地球将如何适应未来的地质变化。

The planets and moons in our solar system represent a diverse set of worlds, shaped by different geologic processes. Studying their surface geology teaches us about how planets form and evolve over time, as impact cratering, volcanism, tectonism, and erosion shape the landscape. The best way to study the geology of distant worlds is to send humans or landers there, but this is a complex and expensive endeavour. Instead, most of the information we have about other planets comes from remote observations from Earth-based and orbital telescopes. To understand the geology of our planetary neighbours, we must understand how to relate remote sensing data to the physical and chemical properties of their surfaces. To do this, we can study analogue environments on Earth, where ground truth information is relatively simple to obtain. This ground truth can be correlated to corresponding remote sensing data and used to make extrapolations about the geology of other planetary surfaces. The long-term goal of my research program is to characterize the processes working to shape the landscapes of the planets and moons in our solar system, by conducting field work in a diverse set of terrains and comparing the observations to remote sensing data. This will be accomplished through three short-term objectives: 1. To understand how impact melt is emplaced around fresh lunar craters: Given the absence of erosion on the Moon, lunar impact craters serve as pristine laboratories for studying the impact cratering process. One feature that is commonly observed around fresh lunar craters is flow-like deposits of impact melt. We will examine lunar impact melt deposits with remote sensing instruments to constrain their composition, and compare the data to analogue environments on Earth. 2. To determine how impact craters are modified by erosion on Saturn's moon Titan: Quantifying the amount of erosion on other worlds is difficult, since the original surface topography is unknown. By studying impact craters on Earth, we can constrain the processes working to shape craters on other worlds. We propose to use data from small aerial drones to remotely identify impact melt in an eroded impact crater on Earth, and satellite imagery to characterize eroded impact structures on Earth and Titan. 3. To constrain how lava flows are emplaced on Mars: Volcanism is one of the most common geologic processes on Mars. To understand how Martian lava flows are emplaced and modified over time, we will characterize the surface roughness of a lava flow in Iceland with a backpack LiDAR system. We will compare this data to publicly available radar and thermal infrared images of the site. By carrying out these objectives, we will obtain valuable data that can be used to constrain the geologic processes that have shaped the worlds in our solar system. This, in turn, will teach us about the evolution of Earth and provide insight into how the planet will adapt to future geologic changes.