Charon New Horizons LORRI MVIC Global DEM 300m v1
On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flight through the Pluto system. This detailed, high-quality global mosaic of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, was assembled from nearly all of the highest-resolution images obtained by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on New Horizons.
This digital elevation model (DEM) or topography data represents the hemisphere visible to New Horizons during the spacecraft’s closest approach. The topography is derived from digital stereo-image mapping tools that measure the parallax – or the difference in the apparent relative positions – of features on the surface obtained at different viewing angles during the encounter. Scientists use these parallax displacements of high and low terrain to estimate landform heights.
DEM is available in Equirectangular projection at an equatorial pixel scale of 300 meters per pixel (m). The DEM is also available in 32bit ISIS3 cube format.
This DEM was produced using radii of 606 kilometers for Charon.
References:
Moore, J. M., et al. (2016). The Geology of Pluto and Charon Through the Eyes of New Horizons. Science, 351(6279), 1284-1293. https://10.1126/science.aad7055
Schenk, P., et al. (2018a). Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Global Cartography and Topography of Charon from New Horizons. Icarus, 315, 124-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2018.06.010
- Publisher
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Publication Date
- 14 July 2017
- Author
- New Horizons Team
- Originator
- NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, Lunar and Planetary Institute
- Group
- PDS
- Added to Astropedia
- 14 July 2017
- Modified
- 23 August 2019
General
- Purpose
topographic DEM for Charon
- Geospatial Data Presentation Form
- Digital Elevation Model, Global Mosaic, Topographic Map, Raster Data
- Charon's Surface in Detail
- 2016-12-12T15:42:39
- Online Linkage
- https://planetarymaps.usgs.gov/mosaic/Charon_NewHorizons_Global_DEM_300m_Jul2017_16bit.tif
- Native Data Set Environment
- ISIS v3, GDAL
- Color
- Black and White
- Supplemental Information
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05702
Keywords
- System
- Pluto
- Target
- Charon
- Theme
- Topography, Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry
- Mission
- New Horizons
- Mission Specific
- LORRI, MVIC
- Search Terms
- LORRI, MVIC, Charon
Contact and Distribution
- Access Constraints
- None
- Use Constraints
- Please cite authors
Data Status and Quality
- Time Period of Content Begin
- 14 July 2015
- Time Period of Content End
- 25 October 2016
- Currentness Reference
- Ground condition
- Progress
- Complete
- Update Frequency
- As needed
- Process Date
- 14 July 2017
- Process Description
The original 32bit elevation model used kilometers for the heights. This file was converted to elevation in meters and truncated to 16bit signed values.
- Entity and Attribute Detailed Description
- Elevation values in meters
Lineage
- PDS Status
- PDS 3 Archived
- Source Originator
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Source Publication Date
- 14 July 2017
- Source Title
- Charon's Surface in Detail
- Source Online Linkage
- https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/holdings/nh-p_psa-lorri_mvic-5-geophys-v1.0/dataset.html , https://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/data_sb/missions/newhorizons/index.shtml
- Type of Source Media
- Online
Geospatial Information
- Minimum Latitude
- -90
- Maximum Latitude
- 90
- Minimum Longitude
- 0
- Maximum Longitude
- 360
- Direct Spatial Reference Method
- Raster
- Object Type
- Pixel
- Lines (pixels)
- 6347
- Samples (pixels)
- 12693
- Bit Type
- 16
- Quad Name
- Radius A
- 606000
- Radius C
- 606000
- Bands
- 1
- Pixel Resolution (meters/pixel)
- 300
- Scale (pixels/degree)
- 35.25565089
- Horizontal Coordinate System Units
- Meters
- Map Projection Name
- Simple Cylindrical
- Latitude Type
- Planetographic
- Longitude Direction
- Positive East
- Longitude Domain
- 0 to 360
