I am a fifth year graduate student at the W.M Keck Remote Sensing Lab. I completed my undergraduate degree in geology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel where I also received my Masters degree researching the geology, geochemistry and geochronology of a Precambrian- Early Cambrian alkaline rocks suite from southern Israel. My interests here at the lab are the development and application of remote sensing techniques, in the framework of environmental, geomorphic, and geologic investigations, and in the context of furthering our understanding of physical processes that affect our environment. The projects I’ve been involved in recently include: 1) Designing a temperature / emissivity separation algorithm for MTI - a US Department of Energy satellite operated by the Los Alamos [Mushkin et al., 2005]. 2) Development of a new technique to measure surface roughness from orbit on Earth and on Mars [Mushkin & Gillespie, 2005; 2006]. 3) Compensation for the effects of surface roughness on thermal infrared images [Mushkin et al., 2006] and 4) the existence of near-surface ice in the mid-latitude of Mars [Gillespie et al., 2005]. My dissertation is focused on Late Quaternary tectonic activity in the central part of the Gobi-Altay fault system in southwestern Mongolia. I combine field work with analyses of remotely sensed visible – thermal infrared images and DEM’s to characterize the distribution of geologically recent deformation in parts of Mongolia that have not been previously studied in this respect and at the scale of the entire fault system, rather than across a single strand.

Selected recent publications:

*Mushkin, A., Balick, L. K. & Gillespie, A. R. (2005). Extending surface temperature and emissivity retrieval to the mid-infrared (3–5 μm) using the Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI). Remote Sensing of Environment, 98 (2-3), p.141-151.

*Mushkin, A. & Gillespie A. R. (2005). Estimating sub-pixel surface roughness using remotely sensed stereoscopic data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 99 (1-2), p.75-83.

*Gillespie, A. R., Montgomery, D. R. & Mushkin, A. (2005). Are there active glaciers on Mars? , Nature (438) -Brief communication arising.

*Mushkin, A. & Gillespie A. R. (2006). Mapping sub-pixel surface on Mars using high-resolution image data; Geophysical Research Letters (33) L18204, doi:10.1029/2006GL027095.

*Mushkin, A. & Gillespie, A.R. (submitted).Using ASTER Stereo Images to Quantify Surface Roughness. Invited chapter in - Land Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Change: NASA’s Earth Observing System and the Science of ASTER and MODIS. Eds. Ramachandran, B., Justice, C. & Abrams, M., Springer-Verlag publishing.

Mushkin, A., Bayasgalan, A. & Gillespie, A. R. (2004). Constraints on lateral offsets along the Gobi-Altay fault system, southwestern Mongolia. GSA Abstr. Prog. 36(5), 138.

Mushkin, A., Javkhlanbold, D., Bayasgalan, A. & Gillespie, A. R. (2004). Large Paleo Landslides Along the Western Part of the Gobi-Altay Fault System in Southwestern Mongolia. Eos Trans. AGU, 85 (47), Fall Meet. Suppl., T11C-1280.

Mushkin, A., Gillespie, A. R., O'Neal, M., Danilina, I., Abbott, E. A., and Balick, L., 2006. Using sub-pixel roughness estimates from ASTER stereo images to compensate for roughness effects in the thermal infrared. Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing II, University of Valencia, Spain.

Danilina, I., Mushkin, A., Gillespie, A. R., O'Neal M. A., Abbott E. A. & Pietro L. S., (2006) Roughness effects on sub-pixel radiative temperature dispersion in a kinetically isothermal surface. Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing II, University of Valencia, Spain

* reviewed publications