Prateek Tripathi, our first NV5 Geospatial Student Spotlight, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Geomatics Engineering Group, Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. His research interests include hyperspectral remote sensing image analysis, Earth, Lunar and Mars geology, spectroscopy and its applications, UAV applications, and machine learning applications. “It has always been my dream to study planetary science,” says Tripathi.
Under the direction of Dr. Rahul Dev Garg, Tripathi is working on the identification and characterizations of analogs for planetary surfaces by integrating the Raman, VNIR-SIR, thermal range spectra from the field with hyperspectral imagery of the Earth and Moon. “I have worked on the surface composition and future scope to explore different extra-terrestrial surfaces like the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter,” explains Tripathi. The focal point of his research is to look for Earth-like features or processes on other planetary surfaces to search for signs of life. Recently one of his research papers on the first results of PRISMA hyperspectral data was published in a peer-reviewed science journal.
“ENVI® plays a crucial role in my research. I use ENVI to process every type of remote sensing dataset (Earth and planetary), including panchromatic imagery, visible and infrared imagery, hyperspectral imagery, and microwave (ENVI SARscape), and ultraviolet imagery,” says Tripathi.