Mars, the best-known extra-terrestrial object, due to its similarity to Earth and its proximity, currently is and will be one of the most important goals of space exploration.
The Mars Lab studies processes on Mars in order to understand not only the Red Planet, but also many phenomena observed on Earth. Moreover, a comparative study of Mars and Earth provides crucial information for developing models of the terrestrial planets’ evolution.
Our interdisciplinary research focuses on:
- Studying aeolian processes (dominant on Mars) based on data from Mars (from rovers, landers, and orbiters), numerical simulations (fluid mechanics), laboratory tests (e.g. in an aerodynamic tunnel)
- Geomorphological mapping of Mars, necessary for understanding near surface processes and conducting future planetary exploration
- Studying of the lower atmosphere of Mars (e.g. electromagnetic phenomena, dust storms, analysis of meteorological data, and atmospheric circulation models)
- Studying the subsurface of Mars using electromagnetic techniques for liquid water detection
- Developing automatic techniques, using machine vision and machine learning, to process and analyze data from space missions, and to create visualizations of geophysical processes
Current Projects:
- Study of aeolian transport in the equatorial regions of Mars
- Tomography of the Martian ground using inverse solutions for ELF waves generated by dust storms in the ground-ionosphere waveguide