Following our publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research, a few news outlets picked up the story and featured the work on their webpages. Check out the original press release HERE and the research article HERE. I particularly liked the take from AGU Blogosphere and Science Daily. Although apparent thermal inertia (ATI) is typically used for methods in planetary geology, it can still be a useful tool for Earth surface processes.

This time-series of data show how apparent thermal inertia (ATI), calculated from ASTER data, varies across a section of playa and dune surfaces in the White Sands Dune National Monument. High values shown here typically correspond to the wettest areas, where as low values are quite dry.