London Meeting, April 1998 - home page
Digital topographic mapping
of Mercury
A. C. Cook1 (tcook@ceps.nasm.edu),
T. R. Watters1 & M. S. Robinson2
1Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air
and Space Museum, Washington D.C.
2Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University,
Illinois
We describe a cartographic project to re-process and semi-automatically
stereo match Mariner 10 vidicon stereo pair images.
Three different patch-based digital stereo matching
algorithms have been tested: a JPL VICAR Tracker3
program, an ISIS stereo matcher, and the Gotcha matcher from University
College London/Laserscan. Comparisons will be made with Viking
Orbiter stereo pairs. One problem found, when using
Mariner 10 images, has been with the noise present
and its effects on the automatic detection of reseau calibration marks.
Manual inspection of the results must be used to detect such errors. The
stereo matched products for Mercury will be combined to produce
a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of approximately
60% of the imaged hemisphere of the planet, sampled
at 1km grid spacing, for eventual distribution to the planetary science
community. Additional sources of topographic information, such photoclinometry,
limb profile images, and Earth-based radar profiles, will be
discussed. Some example DEMs will be shown for the Discovery,
Michelangelo, and Tolstoj areas. Mapping opportunities from
proposed future missions to Mercury will also be described.
Extra-terrestrial
Mapping Home Page
Comments to Dr. Randy Kirk
This page updated: 28 January, 2002, by Mark
Rosiek
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