Department of Space Studies
Instrumentation and Space Research Division
Bill Merline joined the GAP group at SwRI in 1996. His primary research interests are imaging of asteroids using spacecraft and ground-based adaptive optics, and participation in the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the NEAR mission to asteroid Eros.
Ph.D. Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, 1995
Ph.D. minor: Physics
B.S. Physics and Astronomy, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1978
B.S. Mathematics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1978
He is an Associate Team Member on the Imaging & Near-Infrared Spectrometer team of the NEAR (Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) Mission to asteroid Eros, the first mission to orbit an asteroid. His chief responsibility is the search for satellites of Eros on approach. The spacecraft enters orbit in January 1999, which will be the start of its 15-month mission.
He is associated with the imaging team of the Galileo spacecraft mission to Jupiter. He (with Clark Chapman) had the prime responsibility for analysis of the Galileo imaging data of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 collision with Jupiter, the only direct images of the actual impacts. He is currently involved with analysis of the Galileo images of Jupiter's satellites Europa, Ganymede, and particularly Callisto, attempting to determine surface histories from the cratering record.
He has played a major role in the analysis of Galileo imaging data of Gaspra, Ida, and Dactyl. He assisted in the determination of the orbit of the satellite of Ida, Dactyl, and in the associated estimates of Ida's bulk density. He had the prime responsibility for the search for additional satellites of Ida and also performed a cursory search for satellites of Gaspra. He was heavily involved in the post-discovery search for Dactyl using HST images, in support of the orbit-determination effort on Galileo. He expects to have the prime responsibility for the search for satellites of asteroids Mathilde and Eros using NEAR images.
He is involved in a project with others at SwRI and at JPL to produce an on-board software technology-demonstration, using artificial intelligence, to automate a search for asteroidal satellites on the first New Millennium Mission, Deep Space 1. He is also leading an effort to detect satellites of asteroids using adaptive optics on ground-based telescopes.
He has been involved in the development of new methods of crater measurement and analysis using computer image displays. Specifically, he has had the prime responsibility for the development of a semi-automated technique for measurement of craters on asteroidal surfaces. This method has been successfully applied to Galileo images of the asteroids Gaspra, Ida, and Dactyl.
He has extensive experience in the analysis of faint and low S/N CCD data. He developed a software model to generate synthetic CCD data of point sources. This included improvement and optimization of techniques for acquisition and reduction of photometric observations of faint astronomical objects, from both ground-based and spacecraft imaging systems. He has been intimately involved in the analysis of the performance of and the calibration of the Galileo Solid-State Imager (CCD) detector and optical system.
Last attempt to update: 11/98
Internet Address: merline@boulder.swri.edu
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