 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
About us
- Our Mission
- Leadership Chairs
- Board of Trustees
- Staff
- Jobs
- Volunteer
- FAQ
- Site Map
- Giftshop
- Our Location
- Contact Us
Dr. Adrian Brown
SETI Institute Post-Doctorial Researcher
Dr. Adrian Brown is a postdoctoral researcher at the NASA Ames Research Center and SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, United States of America.
Adrian has a background in computer science and electrical engineering - his first degree was in Electrical Engineering from the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, Australia.
After recieving his Electrical Engineering degree, Adrian served with the Royal Australian Navy as a Weapons Engineer and Fire Control Officer on Her Majesty's Australian Ships CANBERRA and ARUNTA, in addition to numerous shore postings around Australia.
Adrian is a certified Java programmer, and has worked as a Software Engineer for a variety of commercial projects for IBM, Zurich and Bunnings. He has a Masters in Computer Science from the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales.
Adrian is a certified Java programmer, and has worked as a Software Engineer for a variety of commercial projects for IBM, Zurich and Bunnings. At Macquarie, Adrian studied with Prof. Malcolm Walter, the head of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. He was recently granted his PhD in Planetary Science. His topic was "Hyperspectral Mapping of Ancient Hydrothermal Systems". Further information is available here. He was also supervised by Dr. Thomas Cudahy of CSIRO Exploration and Mining in Perth, Western Australia.
Adrian is qualified in remote first aid and as an outback four wheel drive exponent.
Adrian is a fully qualified Private pilot, and has used this skill to enhance his knowledge of remote sensing by flying over study regions in Western Australia. He holds current endorsements on C172 and Piper Warrior single engine aircraft.
Adrian is an Australian citizen, having been born and bred in Melbourne, Victoria. He is keen on personal fitness. He is a fan of the Australian Rules football club Essendon, and an avid listener to JJJ.
Research Highlights
I am now pursuing a NASA Postdoctoral Program which I received from NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, near San Jose in the South San Francisco Bay area of California. I am pursing the topic of Density Functional Theory, in order to elucidate the vibrational spectra of sulfate minerals, which are thought to be common on Mars.
I am studying at the SETI Institute with Dr. Janice Bishop, who is a co-invesitgator on the Compact Reconnaissance Infrared Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). This instrument is currently onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO or Mister Oh). It arrived at Mars in March 2006 and will return its first data in September 2006. My CRISM releated research page is here.
Mars Water and the Mars Polar Regions
As a part of the CRISM targeting team, I am assisting Dr. Rob Green from JPL with targeting Mars polar targets for CRISM. This involves picking out targets that CRISM will observe and then analysing the images that come back. The Mars Polar regions are an ever changing and fascinating region of the Solar System, where carbon dioxide and water ice interact at temperatures down to minus 180 degrees Celcius. It's unlikely any organisms live there, but CRISM will be looking for seasonal changes in mineralogy and tracking the movement of water and carbon dioxide ices from the surface and into the atmosphere in order to understand how water ice on Mars behaves on that planet today.
I've started work on a spectral analysis program that will be used to analyse the CRISM data as it comes back to Earth. It is called MR PRISM, and will eventually be made public. Stand by for future announcements.
Hyperspectral Remote Sensing
My PhD work concentrated on using high resolution spectrometers (which record light in various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum) to look at the surface of the Earth. This work I am now continuing on Mars, where similar spectrometers are being used to probe the Martian surface.
Western Australia
My favourite place in the world is Western Australia, and several of my field sites are based there. Western Australia is home to only 2 million people, and yet covers almost half of Australia - about 3 times as large as Texas. Western Australia is also the oldest part of the Earth's surface - many regions data back 3.5 billion years, almost three quarters of the Earth's history. It's an amazing place.
Acidic Dry Lakes
Western Australia is an arid place, home to many lakes which get wet during winter and dry out for long periods of time. Many of these lakes are acidic - with pH levels of 4 or less. This makes them inhospitable places - but could make them the closest thing on Earth to a Martian environment - hence my interest.
Sulfate minerals
Sulfates have been detected in large abundances on Mars. On Earth, we often find sulfates in areas such as dry lake beds, where sulfate salts have built fragile crystals as water has evaporated.
Quantum Chemistry
I am using computer programs to solve the Schrodinger wave equation for sulfate structures in order to determine electron probability densities and bonds strengths, and eventually their vibrational spectra. With this information, it will be possible to link light absorptions with sulfates directly to the underlying causes of the absorption - molecular bonding within the minerals.
Webpage