HRSC 3D Image products of the North Polar Layered Terrain of Mars

The NASA Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Digital Terrain Model (DTM) has the greatest coverage available for Mars with an average resolution of 463 m/pixel (128pixel/ degree) globally and 112 m/ pixel (512 pixels/degree) for the polar regions [1]. The ESA Mars Express High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) is currently orbiting Mars and continuously mapping the surface, 98% with resolutions finer than 100 m/pixel, and 100% at lower resolutions [2]. Previously, 50m/pixel DTMs were produced using a NASA-VICAR-based pipeline developed by the German Aerospace Centre, with modifications from Kim and Muller [3] for the south polar region, using an image matcher based on the Gruen-Otto-Chau (Gotcha) algorithm [4].

 

In this research, we demonstrate application of the same method to the North Polar [5] region. Forty single strip DTMs have been processed and corrected to produce a north polar HRSC DTM mosaic at 50m/pixel. The assessment of the dataset to MOLA will be discussed. Moreover, a large number (~50) of the North polar HRSC images are co-registered and orthorectified using the DTM mosaic. We also demonstrate observations of the seasonal ice cap growth and retreat using the orthorectified images for Martian Year (MY) 27-32. In addition, the results for MY28-31 are compared against the observations from the Mars Colour Imager (MARCI)[6].

 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Part of the research leading to these results has received partial funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under iMars grant agreement n ̊ 607379; The first author is supported by the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education. We would also like to express gratitude to the HRSC team and the MOLA team for the usage of HRSC and MOLA data, and Alexander Dumke for the exterior orientation processing results used within this research.

[1] Smith, David, et al. 2001. “Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter: Experiment summary after the first year of global mapping of Mars.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 106(E10):23689–23722

[2] Gwinner, et al. 2016. “The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) of Mars Express and Its Approach to Science Analysis and Mapping for Mars and Its Satellites.” Planetary and Space Science 126:93–138

[3] Kim and J-P. Muller, 2009. “Multi-resolution topographic data extraction from Martian stereo imagery.” Planetary and Space Science, 57(14-15):2095-2112.

[4] D. Shin and J-P. Muller, 2012. “Progressively weighted adaptive correlation matching for quasi-dense 3d reconstruction.” Pattern Recognition, 45(10):3795-3809.

[5] Putri, A.R.D., et al., 2019. “A New South Polar Digital Terrain Model of Mars from the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the ESA Mars Express.” Planetary and Space Science.

[6] Calvin, W.M., et al., 2015. “Interannual and seasonal changes in the north polar ice deposits of Mars: Observations from MY 29–31 using MARCI.” Icarus, 251, pp.181-190.