Dr. Sabrina Roswitha Keil
Postdoc
I am a Postdoctoral researcher in Geophysics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) since 2023, currently focusing on the seismic exploration of the Moon. I completed my PhD in Geophysics at LMU in 2023, where my research centered on induced seismicity related to geothermal energy production.
CV
2023/08 - present Postdoc in the NEPOS project at LMU and collaboration with the CSIC institute in Barcelona, Spain
2023/02 - 2023/08 Postdoc in the GAB project at LMU
2019/09 - 07/2023 PhD student in Geophysics, Seismology at LMU
2017/10 - 2019/08 Master´s degree in Geophysics at LMU and TUM
2014/10 - 2017/09 Bachelor´s degree in Geosciences at FAU Erlangen
- 2024 University Award of the city of Munich for PhD Thesis
- 2024 Advancement Award LMU Munich for PhD Thesis
- 2024 Best Dissertation Award Geocenter Munich for PhD Thesis
- 2023 Outstanding Student Presentation Award - Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG)
- 2020 Outstanding Student Presentation Award - American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Research Interests
My research interests span various aspects of seismology, including induced seismicity, ambient noise techniques, numerical modeling, rotational seismology, and planetary seismology, with a particular focus on lunar seismology.
© Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DRL)
Seismic Exploration of the Moon
The imaging of the near surface structure - in particular on the Moon - has strong practical implications. First, the race is on to detect ice-bearing rocks near the surface from which water could be extracted and used as a resource for crewed missions. Second, due to the substantial bombardment of the lunar surface with meteorites and the lack of an atmosphere, observatories or habitats may have to be built underground. It has been proposed that cavities from ancient lava flows below the lunar surface could be used to place infrastructure.
In the NEPOS project we develop concepts for mobile seismic arrays that work in an autonomous way using robotic technology. A specific focus of this project is on aspects of experimental design and optimization, search and mobility aspects, and the automated seismic data processing and analysis. The scientific challenges include the understanding of wavefield effects of icy rocks and caves in a strongly scattering environment, the provision of optimal source-receiver configurations to detect them, as well as an integrated data-processing workflow from observation to subsurface image including the quantification of uncertainties.
Running project
- NEPOS – Near-Surface Seismic Exploration of Planetary Bodies with Adaptive Networks (2023-2026, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG))