Randolph L Kirk, Ph.D.
Randolph Kirk’s research interests span both geoscience and mapping of planetary bodies. He has participated in many missions to the Moon, Venus, Mars, asteroids, comets, and icy satellites. He helped direct planetary mapping at the USGS since the early 1990s, and has developed practical methods for topomapping by shape from shading and by adapting commercial stereo workstations to planetary use.
Recent Accomplishments
- In 2020, NASA's Mars 2020 rover Perseverance landed in Jezero crater at a site mapped by the Astrogeology Science Center. Perseverence was the ninth Mars lander or rover to go to a site we mapped, all of which landed successfully. (Starting in 1962, 10 Mars landings attempted without USGS mapping failed for a variety of reasons. Just days before Perseverence the Chinese landerTianwen-1 became the first such mission to succeed.) Perseverance also carried our maps onboard and used them to guide its final descent, a technological first.
- We are helping to design and caibrate the Europa Imaging System (EIS) cameras for NASA's Europa Clipper mission and to develop software and procedures for making controlled image and topographic maps. As part of this task, we invented and demonstrated a new technique for correcting distortions in frame images that are read out line-by-line so that they can be used for precision mapping.
- We have used stereo images of Mars obtained by different cameras with pixel scales differing up to 50x to assess the resolution and precision of digital topographic models obtained under real-world (Mars) conditions. We are currently using similar techniques with images of Earth’s Moon to quantify how topographic models can be improved by photoclinometry (shape from shading) techniques using one or multiple images.
Education
- Ph.D., Planetary Science, Minor in Physics, California Institute of Technology, January 1987
- M.S., Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, June 1984
- B.S., Physics, Stanford University, June 1981
Space Mission Participation
- Member, Europa Imaging System Science Team, May 2015–Present
- Member, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter CaSSIS Science Team, August 2010–Present
- Member, LRO and Chandrayaan-1 Mini-RF Science Teams, July 2006–Present
- Member, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE Science Team, December 2001–Present
- Member, Mars Exploration Rovers Science Team, August 2000–June 2018
- Associate, Deep Space 1 MICAS Science Team, March 2000–December 2002
- Participating Scientist, NEAR MSI/NIS Team, August 1999–July 2001
- Associate, Imager for Mars Pathfinder Science Team, July 1996–August 1998
- Member, Mars Express HRSC Science Team, January 2000–March 2020
- Associate, Mars 96 HRSC/WAOSS Science Team, March 1993–December 1996
- Member, Cassini RADAR Instrument Team, December 1990–September 2018
- Magellan Guest Investigator, October 1990–September 1994
- Associate, Voyager Imaging Science Team, 1989
Working Groups
- Member, IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coords & Rotational Elements, August 2012–present
- Member, NASA Lunar Geodesy/Cartography Working Group, December 2007–present
- Member, NASA Mars Geodesy/Cartography Working Group, June 1998–present
- Member, ISPRS Working Group “Planetary Mapping & Remote Sensing”, November 1996–present
- Chair, November 2000-October 2004, Co-Chair, Nove
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 161
Exploring the interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper
The Galileo mission to Jupiter revealed that Europa is an ocean world. The Galileo magnetometer experiment in particular provided strong evidence for a salty subsurface ocean beneath the ice shell, likely in contact with the rocky core. Within the ice shell and ocean, a number of tectonic and geodynamic processes may operate today or have operated at some point in the past, including solid ice con
Authors
James Roberts, William B. McKinnon, Catherine Elder, Gabriel Tobie, John Biersteker, Duncan Young, Ryan S. Park, Gregor Steinbrügge, Francis Nimmo, Samuel Howell, Julie C. Castillo-Rogez, Morgan Cable, Jacob Abrahams, Michael T. Bland, Chase Chivers, Corey Cochrane, Andrew Dombard, Carolyn M. Ernst, Antonio Genova, Christopher Gerekos, Christopher R. Glein, Camilla Harris, Hamish Hay, Paul O. Hayne, Matthew Hedman, Hauke Hussmann, Xianzhe Jia, Krishan Khurana, Walter Kiefer, Randolph L. Kirk, Margaret Kivelson, Justin D. Lawrence, Erin J. Leonard, Jonathan Lunine, Erwan Mazarico, Thomas B. McCord, Alfred S. McEwen, Carol Paty, Lynnae Quick, Carol A. Raymond, Kurt Retherford, Lorenz Roth, Abigail Rymer, Joachim Saur, Kirk Scanlan, Dustin Schroeder, David Senske, Wencheng Shao, Krista Soderlund, Elizabeth Spiers, Marshall Styczinski, Paolo Tortora, Steven Vance, Michaela Villarreal, Benjamin Weiss, Joseph Westlake, Paul Withers, Natalie Wolfenbarger, Bonnie J. Buratti, Haje Korth, Robert Pappalardo, Interior Thematic Working Group
Revealing active Mars with HiRISE digital terrain models
Many discoveries of active surface processes on Mars have been made due to the availability of repeat high-resolution images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. HiRISE stereo images are used to make digital terrain models (DTMs) and orthorectified images (orthoimages). HiRISE DTMs and orthoimage time series have been crucial for adv
Authors
Sarah S. Sutton, Matthew Chojnacki, Alfred S. McEwen, Randolph L. Kirk, Colin M. Dundas, Ethan I Schaefer, Susan J. Conway, Serina Diniega, Ganna Portyankina, Margaret E. Landis, Nicole F Baugh, Rodney Heyd, Shane Byrne, Livio L. Tornabene, Lujendra Ojha, Christopher W. Hamilton
How well do we know Europa’s topography? An evaluation of the variability in digital terrain models of Europa.
Jupiter’s moon Europa harbors one of the most likely environments for extant extraterrestrial life. Determining whether Europa is truly habitable requires understanding the structure and thickness of its ice shell, including the existence of perched water or brines. Stereo-derived topography from images acquired by NASA Galileo’s Solid State Imager (SSI) of Europa are often used as a constraint on
Authors
Michael T. Bland, Randolph L. Kirk, Donna M. Galuszka, David Mayer, R. A. Beyer, Robin L. Fergason
Evaluating stereo digital terrain model quality at Mars Rover Landing Sites with HRSC, CTX, and HiRISE Images
We have used high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of two rover landing sites based on mosaicked images from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera as a reference to evaluate DTMs based on High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and Context Camera (CTX) images. The Next-Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction (NGATE) matcher in the SOCET SET and GXP® commercial photogr
Authors
Randolph L. Kirk, David Mayer, Robin L. Fergason, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Trent M. Hare, Klaus Gwinner
Further adventures in Mars DTM quality: Smoothing errors, sharpening details
We have used high-precision, high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and Mars 2020 rover landing sites based on mosaicked images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (MRO HiRISE) camera as a reference data set to evaluate DTMs based on Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) images. The Next Ge
Authors
Randolph L. Kirk, David Mayer, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Robin L. Fergason, Trent M. Hare, Klaus Gwinner
Evaluating stereo DTM quality at Jezero Crater, Mars with HRSC, CTX, and HiRISE images
We have used a high-precision, high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) of the NASA Mars 2020 rover Perseverance landing site in Jezero crater based on mosaicked images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (MRO HiRISE) camera as a reference dataset to evaluate DTMs based on Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) and MRO Context camera (C
Authors
Randolph L. Kirk, Robin L. Fergason, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Ethan Smith, David Mayer, Trent M. Hare, Klaus Gwinner
Coordination of planetary coordinate system recommendations by the IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements–2020 status and future
Our goal is to request input from the lunar and planetary community regarding issues of planetary coordinate systems and cartography standards. We begin with an overview of the work of the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements. We briefly describe the operations and membership of the Working Group, some of the various uses of the recomme
Authors
Brent Archinal, C. H. Acton, A. Conrad, T. Duxbury, D. Hestroffer, J. L. Hilton, L. Jorda, Randolph L. Kirk, S. A. Klioner, J.-L. Margot, J. Oberst, F. Paganelli, J. Ping, K. Seidelmann, D. J. Tholen, I. P. Williams
Community tools for cartographic and photogrammetric processing of Mars Express HRSC images
In this chapter we describe the software we have developed for photogrammetric processing of images from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) to produce digital topographic models (DTMs) and orthoimages, as well as testing we have performed. HRSC has returned images, including stereo and color coverage of most of Mars at decameter scales. The instrument team has developed an e
Authors
Randolph L. Kirk, Elpitha Howington-Kraus, Kenneth Edmundson, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Trent M. Hare, K. Gwinner
Correction to: Report of the IAU Working Group on cartographic coordinates and rotational elements: 2015
We point out some errors in the most recent report from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements (Archinal et al. 2018). We correct a sign error in Figs. 1 and 2. We also correct the equation for the prime meridian position (W) of Mars’ satellite Phobos in Table 2.
Authors
Brent Archinal, C. H. Acton, A. Conrad, T. Duxbury, D. Hestroffer, J. L. Hilton, L. Jorda, Randolph L. Kirk, S. A. Klioner, J-L. Margot, K. Meech, J. Oberst, F. Paganelli, J. Ping, P. K. Seidelmann, A. Stark, D. J. Tholen, Y. Wang, I. P. Williams
Overview of spirit microscopic imager results
This paper provides an overview of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Microscopic Imager (MI) operations and the calibration, processing, and analysis of MI data. The focus of this overview is on the last five Earth years (2005–2010) of Spirit's mission in Gusev crater, supplementing the previous overview of the first 450 sols of the Spirit MI investigation. Updates to radiometric calibration using in‐
Authors
Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Steve W Squyres, Raymond E. Arvidson, Shoshanna B Cole, Rob Sullivan, Aileen Yingst, Nathalie Cabrol, Ella (Contractor) Lee, Janet Richie, Robert M. Sucharski, Fred J. Calef, James F. Bell, Mary Chapman, Paul Geissler, Lauren A. Edgar, Brenda Franklin, Joel A. Hurowitz, Elsa Jensen, Jeffrey R. Johnson, Randolph L. Kirk, Peter Lanagan, Kevin Mullins, Craig Leff, Justin Maki, Bonnie L. Redding, Melissa Rice, Michael H. Sims, Richard Springer, Annette Sunda, Nicole Spanovich, Laurence A. Soderblom, Alicia Vaughan
Degradation of 100‐m‐scale rocky ejecta craters at the InSight Landing Site on Mars and implications for surface processes and erosion rates in the hesperian and amazonian
Rocky ejecta craters (RECs) at the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) landing site on Elysium Planitia, Mars, provide constraints on crater modification and rates for the Hesperian and Amazonian. The RECs are between 10 m and 1.2 km in diameter and exhibit five classes of preservation. Class 1 represents pristine craters with sharp rims and abun
Authors
J. Sweeney, N. H Warner, V. Ganti, Matthew P. Golombek, M. P. Lamb, Robin L. Fergason, Randolph L. Kirk
Correcting spacecraft jitter in HiRISE images
Mechanical oscillations or vibrations on spacecraft, also called pointing jitter, cause geometric distortions and/or smear in high-resolution digital images acquired from orbit. Geometric distortion is especially a problem with pushbroom sensors, such as the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Geometric distortions occur at
Authors
S.S. Sutton, A.K. Boyd, Randolph L. Kirk, Debbie Cook, Jean Backer, A. Fennema, R. Heyd, A.S. McEwen, S.D. Mirchandani
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 161
Exploring the interior of Europa with the Europa Clipper
The Galileo mission to Jupiter revealed that Europa is an ocean world. The Galileo magnetometer experiment in particular provided strong evidence for a salty subsurface ocean beneath the ice shell, likely in contact with the rocky core. Within the ice shell and ocean, a number of tectonic and geodynamic processes may operate today or have operated at some point in the past, including solid ice conAuthorsJames Roberts, William B. McKinnon, Catherine Elder, Gabriel Tobie, John Biersteker, Duncan Young, Ryan S. Park, Gregor Steinbrügge, Francis Nimmo, Samuel Howell, Julie C. Castillo-Rogez, Morgan Cable, Jacob Abrahams, Michael T. Bland, Chase Chivers, Corey Cochrane, Andrew Dombard, Carolyn M. Ernst, Antonio Genova, Christopher Gerekos, Christopher R. Glein, Camilla Harris, Hamish Hay, Paul O. Hayne, Matthew Hedman, Hauke Hussmann, Xianzhe Jia, Krishan Khurana, Walter Kiefer, Randolph L. Kirk, Margaret Kivelson, Justin D. Lawrence, Erin J. Leonard, Jonathan Lunine, Erwan Mazarico, Thomas B. McCord, Alfred S. McEwen, Carol Paty, Lynnae Quick, Carol A. Raymond, Kurt Retherford, Lorenz Roth, Abigail Rymer, Joachim Saur, Kirk Scanlan, Dustin Schroeder, David Senske, Wencheng Shao, Krista Soderlund, Elizabeth Spiers, Marshall Styczinski, Paolo Tortora, Steven Vance, Michaela Villarreal, Benjamin Weiss, Joseph Westlake, Paul Withers, Natalie Wolfenbarger, Bonnie J. Buratti, Haje Korth, Robert Pappalardo, Interior Thematic Working GroupRevealing active Mars with HiRISE digital terrain models
Many discoveries of active surface processes on Mars have been made due to the availability of repeat high-resolution images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. HiRISE stereo images are used to make digital terrain models (DTMs) and orthorectified images (orthoimages). HiRISE DTMs and orthoimage time series have been crucial for advAuthorsSarah S. Sutton, Matthew Chojnacki, Alfred S. McEwen, Randolph L. Kirk, Colin M. Dundas, Ethan I Schaefer, Susan J. Conway, Serina Diniega, Ganna Portyankina, Margaret E. Landis, Nicole F Baugh, Rodney Heyd, Shane Byrne, Livio L. Tornabene, Lujendra Ojha, Christopher W. HamiltonHow well do we know Europa’s topography? An evaluation of the variability in digital terrain models of Europa.
Jupiter’s moon Europa harbors one of the most likely environments for extant extraterrestrial life. Determining whether Europa is truly habitable requires understanding the structure and thickness of its ice shell, including the existence of perched water or brines. Stereo-derived topography from images acquired by NASA Galileo’s Solid State Imager (SSI) of Europa are often used as a constraint onAuthorsMichael T. Bland, Randolph L. Kirk, Donna M. Galuszka, David Mayer, R. A. Beyer, Robin L. FergasonEvaluating stereo digital terrain model quality at Mars Rover Landing Sites with HRSC, CTX, and HiRISE Images
We have used high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of two rover landing sites based on mosaicked images from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera as a reference to evaluate DTMs based on High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and Context Camera (CTX) images. The Next-Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction (NGATE) matcher in the SOCET SET and GXP® commercial photogrAuthorsRandolph L. Kirk, David Mayer, Robin L. Fergason, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Trent M. Hare, Klaus GwinnerFurther adventures in Mars DTM quality: Smoothing errors, sharpening details
We have used high-precision, high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and Mars 2020 rover landing sites based on mosaicked images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (MRO HiRISE) camera as a reference data set to evaluate DTMs based on Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) images. The Next GeAuthorsRandolph L. Kirk, David Mayer, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Robin L. Fergason, Trent M. Hare, Klaus GwinnerEvaluating stereo DTM quality at Jezero Crater, Mars with HRSC, CTX, and HiRISE images
We have used a high-precision, high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) of the NASA Mars 2020 rover Perseverance landing site in Jezero crater based on mosaicked images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (MRO HiRISE) camera as a reference dataset to evaluate DTMs based on Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) and MRO Context camera (CAuthorsRandolph L. Kirk, Robin L. Fergason, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Ethan Smith, David Mayer, Trent M. Hare, Klaus GwinnerCoordination of planetary coordinate system recommendations by the IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements–2020 status and future
Our goal is to request input from the lunar and planetary community regarding issues of planetary coordinate systems and cartography standards. We begin with an overview of the work of the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements. We briefly describe the operations and membership of the Working Group, some of the various uses of the recommeAuthorsBrent Archinal, C. H. Acton, A. Conrad, T. Duxbury, D. Hestroffer, J. L. Hilton, L. Jorda, Randolph L. Kirk, S. A. Klioner, J.-L. Margot, J. Oberst, F. Paganelli, J. Ping, K. Seidelmann, D. J. Tholen, I. P. WilliamsCommunity tools for cartographic and photogrammetric processing of Mars Express HRSC images
In this chapter we describe the software we have developed for photogrammetric processing of images from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX HRSC) to produce digital topographic models (DTMs) and orthoimages, as well as testing we have performed. HRSC has returned images, including stereo and color coverage of most of Mars at decameter scales. The instrument team has developed an eAuthorsRandolph L. Kirk, Elpitha Howington-Kraus, Kenneth Edmundson, Bonnie L. Redding, Donna M. Galuszka, Trent M. Hare, K. GwinnerCorrection to: Report of the IAU Working Group on cartographic coordinates and rotational elements: 2015
We point out some errors in the most recent report from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements (Archinal et al. 2018). We correct a sign error in Figs. 1 and 2. We also correct the equation for the prime meridian position (W) of Mars’ satellite Phobos in Table 2.AuthorsBrent Archinal, C. H. Acton, A. Conrad, T. Duxbury, D. Hestroffer, J. L. Hilton, L. Jorda, Randolph L. Kirk, S. A. Klioner, J-L. Margot, K. Meech, J. Oberst, F. Paganelli, J. Ping, P. K. Seidelmann, A. Stark, D. J. Tholen, Y. Wang, I. P. WilliamsOverview of spirit microscopic imager results
This paper provides an overview of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Microscopic Imager (MI) operations and the calibration, processing, and analysis of MI data. The focus of this overview is on the last five Earth years (2005–2010) of Spirit's mission in Gusev crater, supplementing the previous overview of the first 450 sols of the Spirit MI investigation. Updates to radiometric calibration using in‐AuthorsKenneth E. Herkenhoff, Steve W Squyres, Raymond E. Arvidson, Shoshanna B Cole, Rob Sullivan, Aileen Yingst, Nathalie Cabrol, Ella (Contractor) Lee, Janet Richie, Robert M. Sucharski, Fred J. Calef, James F. Bell, Mary Chapman, Paul Geissler, Lauren A. Edgar, Brenda Franklin, Joel A. Hurowitz, Elsa Jensen, Jeffrey R. Johnson, Randolph L. Kirk, Peter Lanagan, Kevin Mullins, Craig Leff, Justin Maki, Bonnie L. Redding, Melissa Rice, Michael H. Sims, Richard Springer, Annette Sunda, Nicole Spanovich, Laurence A. Soderblom, Alicia VaughanDegradation of 100‐m‐scale rocky ejecta craters at the InSight Landing Site on Mars and implications for surface processes and erosion rates in the hesperian and amazonian
Rocky ejecta craters (RECs) at the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) landing site on Elysium Planitia, Mars, provide constraints on crater modification and rates for the Hesperian and Amazonian. The RECs are between 10 m and 1.2 km in diameter and exhibit five classes of preservation. Class 1 represents pristine craters with sharp rims and abunAuthorsJ. Sweeney, N. H Warner, V. Ganti, Matthew P. Golombek, M. P. Lamb, Robin L. Fergason, Randolph L. KirkCorrecting spacecraft jitter in HiRISE images
Mechanical oscillations or vibrations on spacecraft, also called pointing jitter, cause geometric distortions and/or smear in high-resolution digital images acquired from orbit. Geometric distortion is especially a problem with pushbroom sensors, such as the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Geometric distortions occur atAuthorsS.S. Sutton, A.K. Boyd, Randolph L. Kirk, Debbie Cook, Jean Backer, A. Fennema, R. Heyd, A.S. McEwen, S.D. Mirchandani