Dr. Alan Gillespie

Professional background: Quaternary geology, glacial geology/geomorphology, geochronology (¹⁰Be, ³⁹Ar-⁴⁰Ar)

Spectral remote sensing, thermal infrared spectral imaging, spectral mixture analysis, hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy, image processing

Current research interests:

1) Enormous outburst floods from glacier- and landslide-dammed lakes down rivers in Alaska, the Himalaya, and Siberia.  Some floods from landslide-dammed lakes occurred recently and may occur again. Understanding these “megafloods” is important to public safety, and also to giant floods on Mars in the distant past. 

2) The advance and retreat of mountain glaciers in desert mountain ranges.  Paradoxically, some of the larger advances occurred as the climate warmed, since warm air carries more moisture than cold air.  This study has relevance to understanding how climate has changed over the past thousands of years, and how changes now underway may affect glacier and permafrost behavior regionally. 

3) The creation of giant canyons, or “chasmas,” on Mars.

4) I also continue to serve on NASA/JPL’s ASTER program.  ASTER is a high-resolution multispectral imager carried aboard Terra, an Earth-orbiting satellite.  ASTER is a joint project between Japan and the US.  My role has involved the creation, characterization and maintenance of the Thermal Infrared imaging products, specifically Land Surface Temperature and Land Surface Emissivity.

5) Archeoastronomy and epigraphy, with emphasis on calendrical petroglyphs in the Southwest.