London Meeting, April 1998 - home page
USGS Experiences Mapping the
Mars Pathfinder Landing Site
Randolph L. Kirk (rkirk@flagmail.wr.usgs.gov)
U.S. Geological Survey, 2255 N. Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, AZ
86001, USA
The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) obtained 5 full panoramic sets of
images, varying in color and stereo coverage and degree of data compression,
from the highly compressed First Look to the losslessly compressed, 15-filter
Super Pan. These sequences permit detailed mapping of the landing site
out to 10s of meters from Sagan Memorial Station. Our experiences
mapping with a combination of in-house (USGS’s ISIS) and commercial (LHZ
Systems’ SOCET Set) software will be reported. We have constructed
a 3D control network from points measured in the losslessly compressed
sequences and registered the remaining images to it. The control
net and revised camera pointing will be published, and are being used to
construct seamless panoramic and planimetric mosaics and a preliminary
digital terrain model (DTM) of the landing site. We are also using
SOCET Set to collect a much more densely sampled DTM that will be distributed
digitally, and will be used to generate:
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(1) single frames and panoramic mosaics with as many as 15 filter bands,
with parallax between images from the two cameras removed;
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(2) orthorectified mosaics in planimetric (overhead) view;
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(3) arrays of (x,y,z) coordinates and surface normal vectors registered
to the images and mosaics; and
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(4) contours of elevation and range.
Panoramas and planimetric maps at scales of 1:25 and 1:50 will be published,
with and without topographic contours and nomenclature. Photometric
modeling using the DTM may also make it possible to produce spectral datasets
precisely corrected for the subtle variations of solar and sky illumination.
Interactive stereomatching may permit mapping of selected landforms to
ranges of 100s of meters from the spacecraft, bridging the gap between
the IMP-derived maps, those planned to be made from Mars Global Surveyor
data, and our topographic map compiled from 40 m/pixel Viking Orbiter images
during the site selection process.
Extra-terrestrial
Mapping Home Page
Comments to Dr. Randy Kirk
This page updated: 28 January, 2002, by Mark
Rosiek
This site is maintained and hosted by USGS, Astrogeology Research Program,
Flagstaff AZ