Undergraduate participation in research concentrated on remote sensing applications to the understanding of geologic processes on the Earth and terrestrial planets will allow students in the mid- Atlantic region of the U.s. to take advantage of the research efforts underway at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Within the Museum's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, researchers are using data obtained from a variety of Earth-looking and planetary spacecraft to study aeolian processes and real-time changes in desert environments as they relate to the geologic record of climate change, the roughness of volcanic surfaces measured via radar to determine physical parameters that are used to constrain hypotheses for the origin of similar surfaces on Venus, and structural landforms in intraplate regions on Earth as analogs to extraterrestrial structures. A two-year program of undergraduate participation is proposed to allow a close association between the student and mentor, and to broaden students' interests in, and knowledge of earth science processes.
