Hello everyone, welcome to a research update post! We are just entering our 5th month with COVID-19 restricting normal research schedules and methods and I don't think we will be out of woods until the New Year (that is considering the new school year does not set us back again...). I could not think of something specific to write about this week, so I decided since it is the start of August I will summarize my work from July.
Summer Virtual Conferences
Starting at the beginning of the month, I attended the LunGradCon meeting via Zoom. LunGradCon is an annual meeting where graduate students and post-doctorates present their research linked to lunar science and exploration. It is an opportunity for them to practice presenting their research, meet other students and postdocs in their field, and network with professors who are looking for new MSc and PhD students and postdoc fellows. I got to present my Iceland lava flow research and got a bit of engagement. It definitely gave me more confidence in my presentation skills and I got to meet some really cool people in the lunar science field. It also was a chance for me to prepare for the NASA Exploration Science Forum (NESF) meeting the following week. At NESF, I presented two virtual posters, one on my Iceland lava flow research (same content I presented at LunGradCon) and a side-project I am a part of studying the geomechanical properties of regolith in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). I thoroughly enjoyed each poster session, and I got to talk with a couple of scientists who gave me some research advice on how to move forward with my results. One idea was to analyze the radar backscattering of lava flows in Iceland and Hawaii that are covered layers of soil with similar thickness to the lunar regolith overlying mare lava. This is actually an idea I have had since I left the field in 2019 so it was very reassuring to hear it was a good follow-up study from a professional.
Writing Papers for My Thesis
After NESF, I focused my time putting together my next three research papers. I discovered that my Iceland lava flow research is going to require a lot more work to make the story compelling and the data statistically reliable. The data I have calculated is not enough to build on my research hypothesis. With advice from my supervisor, Dr Catherine Neish, I have started to process data from other remote sensing instruments that are publicly available. I have been downloading Sentinel-1 data from the asf.alaska.edu website since it contains cross-polarized radar data that can inform us about the roughness of lava flows. I am wanting to use this data to support the radar data I have been analyzing for the past year.
Cross-polarized HV data of Holuhraun lava flow-field. Resolution 40m x 40m.
Cross-polarized VH data of Holuhraun lava flow-field. Resolution 10m x 10m.
The second paper I am writing is about the zircon impact melt temperature research I began at the Johnson Space Center in February. I have a draft that is currently being reviewed by my co-authors. I have mainly been refining the discussion section in the paper and improving the look of my figures. Right now I am on track to have it submitted to the Geology journal this month. The Iceland paper...possibly this month but I will not be upset if I cannot submit it to a journal until September.
The third paper is relatively new. I am working with my supervisor and Dr Ethan Schaefer on a new lava flow roughness study where we are comparing fractal dimension with radar backscatter data. We all have discovered that my radar paper and Ethan's fractal paper have the same conclusion, "our data alone cannot distinguish all lava flow types, especially transitional lava flows with similar roughness.". So the three of us thought, what if there is a connection if we use both types of data. Either or could help fill in the gaps and perhaps make it easier to distinguish lava flow types that have similar roughness under remote sensing data sets. I volunteered to take the lead in writing the paper, but that is further down the line. Right now, I have been searching for optical and radar images of Mare lava flows and impact melt flows on the Moon (we want to include impact melt flows because they have similar morphology and roughness to lava flows, and are easier to trace polygons around their margins). Using the Planetary Data System, USGS ISIS3 commands, bash scripts and ASU Quickmap, I have downloaded over 50 Gb of data, and that is not even including the map projection products I created. Still some work to go through though. I have only just started downloading and processing Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) imagery and Miniature-Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) of lunar impact melt flows from six craters (Tycho, Giordano Bruno, Jackson, Byrgius A, Lowell and Moore F). I have a couple of previews for you guys though from the LROC team website :) Take a look below!
What Will the Future Hold!?
On top of the two conferences, writing my next three papers, and processing planetary images, I have been thinking about what I want to do after my PhD and where I want to go. I have really grown fond of radar remote sensing and analogue field research, it is a field that I do not want to stray away from. Not that I am not open to learning how to read and interpret other remote sensing data sets (e.g., infrared, UV-VIS, etc) or studying the surface of other planetary bodies, I just don't want to let go of radar data and analogue field work. With this in mind, my eyes currently are drawn to the Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Arizona (UofA or ASU, not sure which one yet), ESTEC in the Netherlands, and even Western. I have been talking with a couple of scientists and science team leads about potential post-doc fellowship positions for late next year, and I have started looking into grants and scholarships that would fund my expenses. The most common one I have been recommended to apply to, especially if I want to work at a NASA center or US institution, is the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP). It is a very competitive program where you submit a research proposal to work as a postdoc at either a NASA center or a US institution. You have to reach out to the lead of the project in advance and say you are interested and that you have a research project idea that is related to their research group. If they are interested you fill out the application, submit your proposal and wait for the response. Being an international citizen, the competition is even greater so I would need to make sure my research project idea is compelling, scientifically exciting, and logistically possible. For the next couple of weeks I am thinking about a research project proposal that is related to volcanic analogue research and field instrumentation. Suffice to say, I will be thinking a lot this month... :P
My Summer Project (Non-Work Related)
If you have read my blogs from the month of July you will know that I have started to get more involved in cooking and baking. It has helped me relieve some stress from writing or when my image processing takes 10x times as long because of internet connection issues or remote connections to the lab computers breaking down. Since I started, I created a new Instagram account where I post recipes I have tried out (Not all of them turn out perfect, but that is the point of learning from mistakes and trying new recipes). I have also started creating a new website where I talk about the recipes I try and recipes of my own that I make from scratch or adapt from chefs, bloggers or novice cooks. I have not released it publicly yet. I am going to release it at the start of September after I have finished formatting the website pages, written a couple of blogs, have a sufficient number of photos for a gallery or collage, and completed recipes that I can share.
If you want to see some of the recipes I have tried out, follow me on Instagram @thelavachef.
If you do not have Instagram, check out the gallery below of my most recent creations :)
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