About the author

Bart Root is an Assistant Professor at the TUDelft, educated in astrodynamics and space missions, and the wonders of geophysics. His academic interests are the gravity field determination and interpretation, Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), lithosphere structure, planetary interiors and global mantle convection.

He also tweet at https://twitter.com/Bart_Root (account on hold, but you can still find some cool material in that account)

Peer-reviewed
  • Wörner, L., Root, B., Bouyer, P., Braxmaier, C., Dirkx, D., Encarnacao, J., . . . Witasse, O (2023), Maquis - Concept for a Mars quantum gravity mission. Planetary and Space Science, 239, 105800.
  • Reusen, J.M., R. Steffen, H. Steffen, B.C. Root, and W. van der Wal (2023) Simulating horizontal crustal motions of glacial isostatic adjustment using compressible Cartesian models, Geophysical Journal International, 235 (1), 542–553.
  • Root, B.C., J. Sebera. W. Szwillus, C. Thieulot, Z. Martinec, and J. Fullea (2022), Benchmark forward gravity schemes: the gravity field of a realistic lithosphere model WINTERC-G, Solid Earth, 13 (5), 849-873.
  • Reusen, J.M.,  B.C. Root, W. Szwillus, J. Fullea, and W. van der Wal (2020), Long-Wavelength Gravity Field Constraint on the Lower Mantle Viscosity in North America, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 125, e2020JB020484.
  • Jimenez-Lluva, D. and B. Root (2020), Hybrid optimization of low-thrust many-revolution trajectories with coasting arcs and longitude targeting for propellant minimization, Acta Astronautica, 177, 232-245.
  • Root, B.C. (2020), Comparing global tomography-derived and gravity-based upper mantle density models, Geophysical Journal International, 221, 1542-1554.
  • Rovira-Navarro, M., W. van der Wal, V. R. Barletta, B.C. Root, and L. Sandberg Sørensen (2020), GRACE constraints on Earth rheology of the Barents Sea and Fennoscandia, Solid Earth, 11, 379.
  • Dirkx, D., Mooij, E., and Root, B (2019), Propagation and estimation of the dynamical behaviour of gravitationally interacting rigid bodies, Astrophysics and Space Science, 364, 37.
  • Root, B.C. (2017), Gravity Field Constraints on the Upper Mantle of Northwestern Europe, PhD Thesis, TU Delft, Ridderprint (download).
  • Root, B.C., Ebbing, J., van der Wal, W., England, R., and Vermeersen, L.L.A. (2017), Comparing gravity-based to seismic-derived lithosphere densities: a case study of the British Isles and surrounding areas, Geophysical Journal International, 208, 1796-1810.
  • Root, B.C., Novák, P., Dirkx, D., Kaban, M., van der Wal, W., and Vermeersen, L.L.A. (2016), On a spectral method for forward gravity field modelling, Journal of Geodynamics, 97, 22-30.
  • Root, B.C., Tarasov, L., and van der Wal, W. (2015), GRACE constrained Weichselian ice models in the Barents Sea, Geophysical Research Letters, 42 (9), 3313-3320.
  • Root, B.C., van der Wal, W., Novák, P., Ebbing, J., and Vermeersen, L.L.A. (2015), Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in the Static Gravity Field of Fennoscandia, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 120 (1), 503-518.

Data and Software
Non peer-reviewed
  • Mathworks: link
  • Vening Meinesz project: www.expeditiewikipedia.nl
  • Expeditie Onderzeeboot, TU Delta: link
  • Het Gouden Kalf: het zwaartekrachtsinstrument van professor Vening Meinesz, Chapter in 175 jaar TU Delft: Erfgoed in 33 verhalen, Ed. P.Th.L.M. van Woerkom, Histechnica, 2017.
Research projects
  • 3D-Earth, ESA Support To Science Element (led by Kiel University), project website
  • PEPSCi-2 project funded by NWO: Steamy, watery, rocky worlds (PhD project)
  • 4D Dynamic Earth: Phase 1, ESA funded project, project website
  • NWO-GO project: Mars Reveal: dynamic support of the Tharsis Region revealed by gravity-rate observations (PhD project)
Supervision, or co-supervision*

PhD
  • Jesse Reusen, Satellite gravity based estimates of mantle viscosity for geodynamic modelling, ongoing *
  • Vivian Otieno, Steamy, watery, and rocky worlds.
  • Zixuan Liu *, Autonomous Navigation around an Asteroid.
  • Riva Alkahal, Mars Reveal, dynamic support of the Tharsis Region revealed by gravity-rate observations, ongoing
Msc., Bsc., and  Interns
  • Rozemarijn Vlijm, Round the world with Vening Meinesz, History student, University of Leiden, internship finished 2014-2015 (pdf)
  • Bas Blank, Finding Faults with FEM, graduated 2015*
  • Robin Thor, Mapping the thickness of the Martian elastic lithosphere using maximum likelihood estimation (pdf), graduated 2016 (cum laude)
  • Martin Søndergaard, Evaluating the accuracy of the DopTrack station, internship 2017
  • David Jimenez, Improving the a priori solution in Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimisation, graduated 2017 (pdf).
  • Anne Pronk, Combinations of Low Energy Trajectories for a Lunar L2 mission (pdf), graduated 2018.
  • Óscar González Martínez, Orbit determination of Delfi-C3 using Doppler tracking data from DopTrack ground station, graduated 2017.
  • Marc Rovira-Navarro, Studying the Svalbard-Barents-Kara Ice Sheet using GRACE observations, graduated 2017 (pdf) (cum laude)*
  • Leon van Rossum, Gravity Field Modelling of the Sumatra Slab, graduated 2018 (pdf)
  • Max van Strien, Ganymede: a frozen Enigma, graduated 2019 (pdf)
  • Ernst Olberts, Set up of radio interferometry at the DopTrack ground station for improvement of satellite orbit determination, Bsc. thesis 2018.
  • Lisa de Backer, Seismic analysis of Mars using gravitational potential stresses - InSight, graduated 2018 (pdf).
  • Liselotte Mulder, Finding similarities between the deep mantle structures of Earth and Mercury, graduated 2019 (cum laude) (pdf)
  • Sander Vermeulen,  Combining GRACE, GRACE-gap and GRACE FO gravity fields to produce a long time series, graduated 2019 (pdf).
  • Juan Mussini, An anisotropic flexural isostasy method for investigating the Martian lithosphere, graduated 2020 (pdf).
  • Rimsky Wolfs, On the classification and trajectory determination of meteors and other re-entering objects observed from GSO, graduated 2019 (pdf).
  • Youandi van der Tang, The Origin of Tharsis: A Deep Mantle Gravity Study, graduated 2021 (pdf).
  • Aurelia Bourgeaux, Autonomous estimates of the gravity field for asteroids missions, graduated 2020*.
  • Rens Elbertsen, Building whole Earth models in ASPECT for time-integrated gravimetry, finished project 2020*.
  • Loekie van Gils, The effect of outgassing on Earth-like exoplanets, finished project 2020*.
  • Weilun Qin, Mars Surface Stress Modelling: Investigation on the crustal structure of Mars with finite Element Method, graduated 2021 (pdf).
  • Bodjie van Brummen, Mars Gravity Inversion: Investigating the lateral density density variations of the Martian lithosphere, graduated 2022 (pdf).
  • Aaron Bakx, The compaction of Moondust: a combined gravity and polarisation study of lunar regolith, graduated 2021 (pdf).
  • Stan Spee, Asteroid gravity field estimation below the Brillouin sphere for autonomous navigation, graduated 2022 (pdf)*.    
  • Marijn van Oorschot, Sensor Fusion in Autonomous Navigation for Asteroid Observation missions, graduated 2022 (pdf)*. 
  • Nynke Boersma, Gravity effect of different lithosphere models on gravity power spectra for the Earth, Mars, Mercury, Venus and the Moon, finished project 2021*.
  • Maxime Vincent, Mars mantle density anomaly: benchmark between the SFEC and Fieldstone mantel convection codes, internship 2021.
  • Filippo Tagliacarne, Determining the characteristics of icy moons' impactors: An experimental approach, graduated 2022 (pdf) *.
  • Tim van Voorbergen, Crater impacts on icy moons, ongoing *.
  • Amber Sprenkels, Portable Doppler Tracking Ground Station, graduated 2023 (pdf) *.
  • Marjolein Blasweiler, Dynamic topography by mantle plume contribution to the Tharis Rise on Mars, graduated 2022*.
  • Jesse Wolbers, The Martian Areoid and Gravity Field, finished project 2023 *.
  • Anaïs Cheval, Tube neural orbit predictive control in the vicinity of asteroids with uncertain dynamics, graduated 2023*.
  • Fenna van den Bogaard, Two-layer gravity inversion on Mars: Three different inversion methods to obtain a global density model of the crust and upper mantle of Mars, graduated 2024 (pdf).
  • Esmée Terwindt, Modelling Realistic Sensor Measurements for Autonomous Navigation around Asteroids, ongoing
  • Sabatino Santangelo, Innovative Modelling Approach for Lunar Thermal Evolution, ongoing *
  • Jeremy Lems, Interior and thermal evolution modelling of Ceres to determine source for cryo-volcanism, ongoing*
Courses
  • Physics of Planetary Interiors - in the profile of planetary Exploration
  • Satellite Tracking in the Space Minor of TU Delft (until end 2018)
  • Satellite Orbit Determination - Online Course - practical
  • Planetary Sciences - Planetary gravity field modelling (until end 2022)
  • Ethic of Engineering for Aerospace Engineers (tutor)
Outreach Projects
Awards

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