Remote Sensing
The EPS 380 Planetary Geoscience class as viewed with a FLIR Systems ThermaCAM P45 thermal infrared camera. This is an uncooled, portable thermal infrared camera about the size of a standard video camera, which can detect temperature differences as small as .08 degrees celcius. The P45 instrument can be used to conduct thermal infrared imaging both in the field and lab based settings.
Our planetary group is intimately involved in remote sensing target selection for the two extremely successful Martian Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and Opportunity.
From this computer workstation in the EPS Department, students and researchers communicate with the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena to analyze telemetry data from the Mini-TES (Minature Thermal Emission Spectrometer) on each rover and to select target of interest on the surface of Mars based upon mineralogy and geochemistry.
The "Whale" Panorama displays a 220 degree vista from the slopes of Husband Hill in Gusev Crater on Mars. This approximate true-color mosaic was created from 50 individual images taken by the Spirit MER.