2010 Annual Research Report

Bishop continues to explore and understand the synergies between landscape and climate, and environmental change using terrestrial analogues.  Using a combination of field work, satellite remote sensing, digital elevation models and spatial statistics within a GIS, significant advances are being made in the interpretation of the evolution and chronology of deserts, on Earth, Mars and Titan. 

 

Study of the Ar Rub al Khali desert (Empty Quarter - Arabian Peninsula), Simpson Desert (Central Australia) and Qaidam Pendi (China) forms the basis for understanding the development of Earth’s largest sand seas, the role in which a changing climate will further activate, or reactivate such arid zones, and how such circumstances relate to the development of the sand seas of Mars, and Titan.  The interactions between fluvial, hydrogeologic, and aeolian landforms are being found to be intimately linked with global climate change, and relevant to all planetary settings. 

 

Similarly, HiRISE data of intracrater dunefields within the Hellespontus region of Mars has enabled Bishop to measure aeolian scours and ripples as wind flow indicators and begin to quantify erosion and sediment transport over seasonal cycles.  These measurements are assisting in the understanding of multiple airflow directions, their controls over dune morphology and dunefield pattern development, and the current rate of landscape change for Mars, relative to terrestrial field studies. 

 

Papers:

Bishop, M.A. (2010) Nearest neighbor analysis of mega-barchanoid dunes, Ar Rub' al Khali, sand sea: The application of geographical indices to the understanding of dune field self-organization, maturity and environmental change.  Geomorphology 120, 186–194. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.03.029

 

Lori K. Fenton, Mark A. Bishop, Mary C. Bourke, Charles S. Bristow, Rosalyn K. Hayward, Briony H. Horgan, Nicholas Lancaster, Timothy I. Michaels, Daniela Tirsch, Timothy N. Titus, Andrew Valdez (2010) Summary of the Second International Planetary Dunes Workshop: Planetary Analogs - Integrating Models, Remote Sensing, and Field Data, Alamosa, Colorado, USA, May18–21, 2010 Aeolian Research 2, 173–178. doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2010.09.001

 

 

Abstracts:

 

Bishop, M.A. (2010) Sedimentological anemometers: ripples and scour flutes of the Strzelecki Desert, Earth and Hellespontus intracrater dunefields, Mars. First International Conference on Mars Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, El Paso, Texas

 

Bishop, M.A. (2010) Obstacle marks: evidence of variable wind erosion and sediment transport, Hellespontus, Mars. Second International Planetary Dunes Workshop: Planetary Analogs – Integrating Models, Remote Sensing and Field Data, Alamosa, Colorado

 

Bishop M.A. (2010) Analogue Understanding Of Cone Pattern Evolution, Tartarus Colles, Mars and Newer Volcanic Province, Earth. Australian Earth Sciences Convention, Canberra, ACT, Australia

 

Bishop, M.A., Tran, D. (2010) Linear dune spacing and the influence of topography, Simpson Desert; An analogue for the understanding of dune formation on Earth and Titan. Tenth Australian Space Science Conference, Brisbane, Qld, Australia 

 

Bishop, M.A., Hector, N., Wheeler, A. (2010) Comparative pattern evolution and self-organization for dunefields of the Ar Rub’ al Khali sand sea, and the north polar plains, Mars. Tenth Australian Space Science Conference, Brisbane, Qld, Australia