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Alan Gillespie Professor Office: Johnson Hall 343    (Mailing Address) Phone: 206-685-8265 Fax: 206-543-2379 (shared) E-Mail: gillespie* * to send email, replace * with @ess.washington.edu

Areas of Interest:
Glacial Geomorphology and Remote Sensing

Research Groups:
Astrobiology
Climate and Paleoclimate
Quaternary Research
Remote Sensing

Other UW Academic Affiliations:
UW Quaternary Research Center
Director, UW-ESS Remote Sensing Laboratory

Current Research:
Alan Gillespie is a Quaternary geologist and works in the Remote Sensing Laboratory. His research interests are in glacial geomorphology, geochronology and landform evolution. His interest in remote sensing is in its application to these problems. Gillespie is currently supported by funds from NASA, NSF, and Save the Earth Foundation.

Gillespie is a member of the Japanese-American ASTER team, which is designing and building a visible-thermal multispectral scanner which will orbit earth later this decade. From a geologist's viewpoint, thermal images are especially interesting because they discriminate effectively among different silicate minerals, which comprise most of the land surface of earth. Gillespie uses ASTER images of glacial moraines and outwash fans as part of a study of paleoclimatic conditions in central Asia and North America during the beginning of the last glaciation, 100,000 years ago. He is also an investigator on the SIR-C project, which will acquire synthetic-aperture radar images from the Space Shuttle. Gillespie and Robin Weeks, a postdoctoral research associate, will use the radar images to study the smoothing of alluvial fan surfaces and lava flows as they weather. This research is part of a long-term study using remote-sensing data to estimate relative ages of geomorphic landforms. A major focus of the Remote Sensing Laboratory is the development and application of special algorithms that treat images as consisting of spectral mixtures, to measure vegetation. This technology is being used to study patterns of deforestation and regrowth in the Pacific Northwest.

Selected Publications:
Gillespie, A.R., 1991, Testing a new climatic interpretation for the Tahoe glaciation. Natural History of Eastern California and High-Altitude Research, Proc. White Mtn. Research Stn. Symposium, v. 3, p. 383-398.

Gillespie, A. R., 1991, Quaternary subsidence of Owens Valley, California. Natural History of Eastern California and High-Altitude Research, Proc. White Mtn. Research Stn. Symposium, v. 3, p. 356-382.

Gillespie, A. R., 1991, Trail Canyon fans: Capture history of Rock Creek. In: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 91-290, Reheis, M. C., Slate, J. C., Sawyer, T. L., Sarna-Wojcicki, A. M., Harden, J. W., Pendall, E. G., Gillespie, A. R., and Burbank, D. M. eds., p. 178-184.

Bierman, P. R. and Gillespie, A. R., 1991, Range fires: A significant factor in the dating and evolution of geomorphic surfaces, Geology, v. 19, p. 641-644.

Gillespie, A. R., 1992, Spectral mixture analysis of multispectral thermal infrared images, Remote Sensing of Environment, v. 42, p. 137-145.

Gillespie, A. R., 1992, Enhancement of multispectral thermal infrared images: Decorrelation contrast stretch, Remote Sensing of Environment, v. 42, p. 147-155.

Bursik, M. I., and Gillespie, A. R., 1993, Late Pleistocene glaciation of Mono Basin, California, Quaternary Research, v. 39, p. 24-35.

Reheis, M. C., Sawyer, T. L,. Slate, J. L., and Gillespie, A. R., 1993, Geologic map of Late Cenozoic deposits and faults in the southern part of the Davis Mountain 15' Quadrangle, Esmeralda County, Nevada, U.S. Geologic Survey, Misc. Invest. Series Map I-2342.

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