About Me

I am fascinated by images of space missions that show us icy moons from close. Currently on a Postdoc.Mobility fellowship sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), I am working at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Alyssa Rhoden. The title of the project with a funding period of 2 years is Unravelling Europa's tidal evolution through lineament sequencing. I earned my PhD in the planetary imaging group (PIG) of Prof. Dr. Nicolas Thomas at the Physics Institute, Division of Space Research and Planetary Sciences , of the University of Bern. During these four years, I was studying surface processes and their relation to tidal forces on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. As an affiliate of the Europa Imaging System (EIS) of NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched in October 2024, I am working towards an algorithm that autonomously detects and analyses linear surface features in images of Europa. During my PhD and continuing, I train deep learning neural networks for mapping linear features on Europa in Galileo data.



Selected publications

Download by clicking on the image.

(Publication) LineaMapper

In preparation of Europa Clipper, I trained a neural network for the extraction of lineaments in Galileo images of Europa's surface. More work is needed to make the output more robust, but LineaMapper v1.0 is a proof-of-concept for automated lineament mapping. The code is open source.

Go to the PDF by clicking on the image.

Haslebacher, C., Thomas, N., & Bickel, V. T. (2024). LineaMapper: A deep learning-powered tool for mapping linear surface features on Europa. Icarus, 410, 115722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115722

(Publication) Ground-based observations through the lens of climate change

For my master thesis with Prof. Dr. Brice-Olivier Demory, I investigated how climate change impacts ground-based observations. We found a strong increase in precipitable water vapor and temperature. Read the beautifully illustrated CNET article about our findings.

Press release University of Bern , Europlanet .

Article in the Europlanet Magazine, Issue 4, 2023.

Go to the PDF by clicking on the image.

Haslebacher, C., Demory, M.-E., Demory, B.-O., Sarazin, M., & Vidale, P. L. (2022). Impact of climate change on site characteristics of eight major astronomical observatories using high-resolution global climate projections until 2050. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 665. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142493


Talks and Seminars

Date Title Place
16. Sept 2022 Statistical analysis of manually segmented linear surface features in Galileo images of Europa Europa Clipper Lecture Series (online)
13. Oct 2023 Mapping lineaments in the Europa regional maps with the deep-learning tool LineaMapper Europa Clipper Lecture Series (online)
30. Jan 2024 Mapping lineaments on Europa with the deep-learning tool LineaMapper for a spatio-temporal analysis of lineament azimuths Southwest Research Insitute, Boulder, Colorado, USA
12. May 2025 Accelerating a Geological Lineament Analysis on Europa for the Europa Clipper Mission with Deep Learning SVCP Planetary Science, JPL, California, USA 14. May 2025 Accelerating a Geological Lineament Analysis on Europa for the Europa Clipper Mission with Deep Learning YLY Lunch Seminar, CalTech, California, USA


Outreach

Augmented Reality

(Currently only works well for iPhones.) Scan the QR-code and zoom in to Europa's southern leading hemisphere and compare different lineament mappings.

By Thibaut Roger.








Past Outreach Activities

Kindergarden visit 'Europa'

In December 2025, I got the chance to visit a Kindergarden in Switzerland to tell them about the icy world Europa.

Pint of Science 2024

In May 2024, I visited space enthusiasts in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to tell the story of NASA's journey to Europa with Europa Clipper.

Abstract: Der Jupitermond Europa ist eine beeindruckende Eiswelt mit einem unterirdischen Wasserozean, der ihn zu einem potenziellen Ort für Leben macht. Die NASA-Sonde Galileo hat Europa aus der Nähe erforscht und dabei Fragen aufgeworfen. Schon bald, im Oktober 2024, wird die NASA eine neue, aufregende Mission zu Europa ins All senden. Ein faszinierendes Instrument an Bord ist die Kamera «Europa Imaging System» (EIS), die hochauflösende Bilder von der Oberfläche zur Erde senden und bisher unbekannte Terrains auf Europa enthüllen wird. Begleiten Sie mich auf dieser Reise zu Jupiters Eismond Europa!

Pint of Science 2023

In May 2023, I gave a public talk in Bern, Switzerland, at the Pint of Science 2023 in the 'O Bolles' cafe and bar. The audience was excited, curious, and asked great questions.



Contact Me

Please contact me at caroline.h.space (at) gmail.com or caroline.haslebacher (at) contractor.swri.org.