PE&RS October 2005

Cover Image

This cover shows nested views of the Meridiani Planum landing site of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at resolutions from tens of meters to tens of micrometers, in approximately natural color. The large image, giving regional context at 12.5 m resolution, comes from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. The inset shows Opportunity’s landing point (Eagle crater, upper left) and its traverse path, superimposed on a 1.5 m/pixel image from the Mars Orbiter Camera onboard NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Tilting the image slightly reveals a closeup view of an outcrop in Eagle crater at the 30 micrometer resolution of Opportunity’s Microscopic Imager, with lower resolution color supplied by its Pancam stereo camera.

The presentation of these multiple stereo datasets is made possible by lenticular foil technology. The basis of this technology, its potential for the visualization of geospatial and cartographic information, and details of how the cover image was prepared are discussed in the Highlight article on p. 1105. Aspects of the stereogrammetric processing of the images are discussed in the peer-reviewed articles. Special thanks to the German Aerospace Center DLR for their support, and to BAE Systems, whose SOCET SET photogrammetric software was used in part to prepare the cover images.

Highlight Article
1105 Three in one: Multiscale Hardcopy Depiction of the Mars Surface in True-3D (Adobe PDF 309Kb)
Manfred F. Buchroithner, Thomas Gruendemann, Randolph L. Kirk, and Klaus Habermann

Columns & Updates
1111 Grids and Datums — Mars
1116 Headquarters News
1117 Industry News

Peer-Reviewed Articles (Click the linked titles to see the full abstract)

1129 Initial Results of Rover Localization and Topographic Mapping for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Rongxing Li, Steven W. Squyres, Raymond E. Arvidson, Brent A. Archinal, Jim Bell, Yang Cheng, Larry Crumpler, David J. Des Marais, Kaichang Di, Todd A. Ely, Matt Golombek, Eric Graat, John Grant, Joe Guinn, Andrew Johnson, Ron Greeley, Randolph L. Kirk, Mark Maimone, Larry H. Matthies, Mike Malin, Tim Parker, Mike Sims, Larry A. Soderblom, Shane Thompson, Jue Wang, Patrick Whelley, and Fengliang Xu

Photogrammetric analysis of images from the surface and from orbit is vital to operating to rovers and interpreting their scientific results.

1143 Mars Express HRSC Data Processing– Methods and Operational Aspects
F. Scholten, K. Gwinner, T. Roatsch, K.-D. Matz, M. Wählisch, B. Giese, J. Oberst, R. Jaumann, and G. Neukum

Automated multi-stereo processing techniques have been developed for the generation of high-resolution multi-spectral orthophoto imagery and digital terrain models within days after data acquisition.

1153 HRSC on Mars Express – Photogrammetric and Cartographic Research
Joerg Albertz, Maria Attwenger, Janet Barrett, Simon Casley, Peter Dorninger, Egon Dorrer, Heinrich Ebner, Stephan Gehrke, Bernd Giese, Klaus Gwinner, Christian Heipke, Elpitha Howington-Kraus, Randolph L.Kirk, Hartmut Lehmann, Helmut Mayer, Jan-Peter Muller, Juergen Oberst, Alexey Ostrovskiy, Joerg Renter, Sergiy Reznik, Ralph Schmidt, Frank Scholten, Michael Spiegel, Uwe Stilla, Marita Wählisch, Gerhard Neukum, and the HRSC Co-Investigator Team

A summary of the activities and results of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the European spacecraft Mars Express.

1167 Joint Analysis of Visible and Infrared Images: A “Magic Airbrush” for Qualitative and Quantitative Topography
Randolph L. Kirk, Laurence A. Soderblom, Glen Cushing, and Timothy A. Tituus

Simple algebraic processing of co-registered visible and day and night thermal IR images can be used to separate albedo and thermal inertia variations from topographic shading.

1179 Combined Adjustment of MOC Stereo Imagery and MOLA Altimetry Data
Jong-suk Yoon and Jie Shan

The combined adjustment refines the Mars Global Surveyor trajectory data and provides accurate registration of various mapping data.

1187 Utility of Viking Orbiter Images and Products for Mars Mapping
Mark R. Rosiek, Randolph L. Kirk, Brent A. Archinal, Eliptha Howington-Kraus, Trent Hare, Donna Galuszka, and Bonnie Redding

The usefulness of Viking Orbiter images for mapping Mars 30 years after the mission using a combination of public domain and commercial software.

1197 An Analysis of Spacecraft Localization from Descent Image Data for Pinpoint Landing on Mars and Other Cratered Bodies
Adnan Ansar and Yang Cheng

The feasibility of pinpoint landing on Mars using crater features extracted from decent imagery.

1205 Automated Crater Detection, A New Tool for Mars Cartography and Chronology
Jung Rack Kim, Jan-Peter Muller, Stephan van Gasselt, Jeremy G. Morley, Gerhard Neukum, and the HRSC CoI Team

An automated crater detection algorithm exploiting image data with potential for chronological research and geological analysis.

1219 ADVISER: Immersive Scientific Visualization Applied to Mars Research and Exploration
James W. Head, III, Andries van Dam, Samuel G. Fulcomer, Andrew Forsberg, Prabhat, Graham Rosser, and Sarah Milkovich

An advanced problem-solving environment bridging the gap between the cartography and geologic investigations of Mars with advanced visualization techniquesand an immersive virtual reality environment.

Announcements
1109 PE&RS Special Issue Call for Papers —“ Cloud-prone and Rainy areas Remote Sensing (CARRS)”

Departments
1115 New Member List
1115 Certification List
1123 Who’s Who in ASPRS
1124 Sustaining Member Listing
1126 Advertiser Index
1196 Instructions to Authors
1218 Forthcoming Articles
1226 Calendar
1227 Classifieds
1228 Bookstore
1232 Professional Directory
1235 Membership Application