Rachel Klima

Dr. Rachel Klima is a planetary geologist whose research focuses on planetary spectroscopy—in particular, using reflected light to characterize the mineralogy of solid surfaces in the solar system. She is interested in how planetary differentiation proceeds in different environments throughout the inner solar system. In the laboratory, her research centers on understanding how mineral structure and composition affect the spectral properties observed in reflectance data, so that we can improve our ability to probe the geochemistry of surfaces from orbit. Dr. Klima has worked with data calibration for several infrared spectrometers as well as with analysis of data covering the Moon and Mercury. She is currently contributing to the development of a number of mission concepts to study the Moon, Mercury, and asteroids.