Iceland Field Campaign 2016

I have to admit: Flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) such as the Trimble UX5-HP is a lot easier than flying a kite over lava flows. We covered several square kilometers in no time with this bird! There were two location: the south of Iceland (the Laki lava flow) and in the north of Iceland … Read more

Video Goes Live on NASA Hyperwall

PI Tim Glotch discussing the scales at which we observe the Solar System on the NASA Hyperwall. #AGU15 pic.twitter.com/DGPTzwGeos — RISE2 Science and Exploration (@RIS4E_SSERVI) December 18, 2015 Check out the full video I created using the image and digital terrain model collected using a kite aerial photography (KAP) system.

Artistic Portraits of Earth

Tucson, AZ.  I made a submission of kite aerial photographs to the Third Annual Art of Planetary Science exhibition at University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Creative works of art inspired by the exploration of our Universe were featured next to works that would otherwise only be scientific data. It was a fantastic and unique juxtaposition, with over 200 … Read more

Kite Aerial Photogrammetry of Mud Volcanoes

I have created several digital, three dimensional (3D) models of interesting geologic features over the past few years. This page will catalog a number of these projects and provide examples. In my blog, I plan to describe the methods I’ve used to collect, create and display the data. To get started, I’ve included a small example … Read more

Iceland Field Campaign 2015

Flying a kite for aerial photogrammetry was difficult because Iceland has relatively unpredictable weather, including the wind. I was able to make a couple of flights in the northern part of Iceland near the Holuhraun lava flow, which finished erupting just a few months before our arrival. Most of our mapping work during this summer … Read more

University of Arizona Press Release

I worked on a project on lava flows in Hawaii with Dr. Christopher Hamilton. One of the goals was to study and understand the morphology of the December 1974 flow from Kilauea. A couple years prior, I had started a hobby of kite aerial photography (KAP). Because of the uncertainty around flying unmanned aerial vehicles … Read more

University of Pittsburgh Press Release

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 … Read more