Elena Favaro
Planetary Scientist
Planetary surface processes · Remote sensing · ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover Mission · 3D image analysis and digital elevation model creation
European Space Agency
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About
I am a Research Fellow at the European Space Agency. My research interests lie at the intersection of geology, geomorphology, and atmospheric sciences. At its core, I seek to answer questions relating to the dynamic interplay of processes and mechanisms responsible for the surficial expression of arid environments on Earth and Mars. I use the expresion of landforms (like yardangs and periodic bedrock ridges) and bedforms (like megaripples, dunes, transverse aeolian ridges, dust devils, and wind streaks) in remote areas of Earth and Mars to piece together the complex climatic history that has shaped the landscape, either contemporaneously or at some point in the past.
Selected Publications
Section under construction
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2024Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 626, 118522. · 2025Periodic Bedrock Ridges (PBRs) are repeating, symmetrical, wind-transverse, bedrock-abraded linear ridges that occur on Mars as parallel sets. Here, we extend our previous survey of PBRs at Oxia Planum – the landing site of ESA's ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover – to include three additional sites along the margins of the circum-Chryse basin to understand patterns in PBR orientation and occurrence. We analyzed PBR crestline orientation at each study site and found them to be consistent across this large region, but their orientations do not align with global circulation model winds, suggesting contemporary winds are not responsible for PBR development. Furthermore, we used observations of landscape-level stratigraphic relationships at Oxia Planum to constrain the formation age of PBRs to be late Noachian to early Amazonian. Their consistent orientations and age suggest that the Chryse-margin PBRs formed concurrently and represent modification of an ancient palaeosurface. In addition, we find a tendency for PBRs to preferentially occur in regions where Fe/Mg-rich phyllosilicate minerals were detected in hyperspectral remote sensing data. We conclude that regional scale aeolian processes formed the circum-Chryse PBRs, and that exposed bedrock with Fe/Mg-rich phyllosilicate detections were either more susceptible to PBR formation, or better preserve PBRs than other regional lithologies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118522
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2021Earth Surface Processes and Landforms · 2021Yardangs are streamlined ridges that form in arid environments on Earth and Mars through wind-driven abrasion of consolidated substrates. Currently, there is limited consensus on the mechanisms that initiate and establish patterns of yardangs on the landscape. In this work, we examine the spatial organization of yardangs in the Campo de Piedra Pómez ignimbrite deposit of north-western Argentina and identify evidence of antecedent controls on yardang patterns and formation. We mapped 14,826 yardangs in the region using a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) and satellite imagery. We classified yardangs as points using a two-stage decision rule based on morphology and spectral characteristics. Point pattern analysis shows that yardangs in the study area are not randomly distributed and commonly exhibit directional anisotropy in point pattern. The anisotropic pattern manifests as bands of closely-spaced yardangs oriented transverse to the dominant northwesterly wind direction. We hypothesize that banding is controlled by pre-existing antecedent topography in the bedrock, such as fumaroles or ridges associated with pyroclastic flow deposits. We present evidence from other locations on Earth and Mars to illustrate that the transverse banding is a common pattern in yardang landscapes.
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2021Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets · 2021Aeolian features at Oxia Planum—the 2023 landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover (ERFR)—are important for Mars exploration because they record information about past and current wind regimes, sand transport vectors, and lend insight to the abrasion, deposition, and transport of granular material. To characterize the wind regime and erosional history of Oxia Planum we used a combination of manual observational and machine-learning techniques to analyze the morphometrics, distribution, and orientation of 10,753 aeolian bedforms (Transverse Aeolian Ridges[TARs]) and landforms (Periodic Bedrock Ridges [PBRs]) around the ERFR landing ellipses. We found that, irrespective of the scale of the TARs, crestline azimuths are consistent across the study area and we infer that the bedform forming winds blew from NW-NNW toward SE-SSE. PBR azimuths show a substantively different orientation to the aeolian bedforms, and we infer that the winds necessary to abrade PBRs had a N-NNE or S-SSE orientation (180° ambiguity). From observations of active dust devils and windstreaks from repeat imagery, we infer a W-WNW or E-ESE (180° ambiguity) wind dominates today. Finally, we compare the inferred wind direction results from the aeolian landscape to modeled wind data from Mars Global Circulation Models. We note that, despite landscape evidence to the contrary, modeled contemporary wind direction lacks the consistent directionality to be responsible for the orientation of aeolian features in Oxia Planum. These results characterize aeolian features ERFR will encounter and suggests multiple wind regimes have influenced the surficial expression of the landing site.
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2020Icarus · 2020The Puna Plateau of northwestern Argentina is a promising region for analogue investigations of Martian aeolian processes owing to its high altitude, low atmospheric pressure, aridity, geology, and widespread granular and bedrock aeolian landforms. Despite a growing body of research about the region's enigmatic aeolian landforms, little is known about the contemporary aeolian environment, processes, and landscape dynamics. To address this gap, we used a combination of modelled weather data, satellite imagery, and field measurements to characterize the wind regime, aeolian sediment transport, and allied surface changes. The study focused on the Campo de Piedra Pómez (CPP) – a volcanic landscape with a variety of Mars analogue landforms: gravel-mantled megaripples, yardangs, ventifacts, periodic bedrock ridges, and aeolian rat-tails. Modelled weather data from the European Center for Medium-Range Forecasting's ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset confirm the contemporary dominance of northwesterly winds in this region, consistent with the primary orientation of yardangs. These data also indicate the presence of less frequent southeasterly winds, which may explain why re-entrant profiles are observed on the southeast flanks of a small portion of the yardang population, and why some aeolian rat-tails point to the northwest. Observations from multi-temporal satellite imagery indicate that deposition and displacement of small sediment patches overlying ignimbrite bedrock is relatively common across the region. Samples retrieved from sediment traps deployed over one year in the region suggest a broad range of particle densities are mobilized by wind, which implies a wide range of wind speed for fluid entrainment. Conventional aeolian transport models do not consider the effects of particle density variations on transport processes. However, in areas with multiple density sediment present, our results point towards a need for aeolian models to consider density when quantifying and qualifying sediment transport.
Brief CV
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2024 – PresentEuropean Space Agency Research Fellow / Noordwijk, Netherlands.
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2020 – 2023Postdoctoral Research Associate The Open University Planetary Environments Group / Milton Keynes, UK.
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2014 – 2020Doctor of Philosophy (Geography) University of Calgary / Calgary, Alberta.