The Geography of Oxia Planum 03 CTX DEM Mosaic

This data is a mosaic of CTX DEM and ORI’s covering the ExoMars rover landing site in Oxia Planum. This data is a basemap for Oxia Planum and will act as a georeferencing base layer for future High resolution datasets of the rover landing site.

03_a Sets of elevation contours at 100 m and 25 m spacing made from the DEM and smoothed for use in map publications.

03_b Mosaic of orthorectified CTX images that accompany the DEM. These data are provided in an equirectangular projection centered at 335.45°E

03_c Hillshade model of the CTX DEM mosaic. These data are provided to help assess the variability and quality of the DEM. These data are provided in an equirectangular projection centered at 335.45°E

03_d CTX DEM mosaic. These data are provided in an equirectangular projection centered at 335.45°E

Naming convention: CTX_OXIA_DEM = data from which the contours where created, _cont = contour data, _m = vertical separation of the contours (25 or 100.)

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.cpg

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.dbf

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.prj Projection information

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.sbx

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.shp <- Shape file data Open this data in GiS with the other supporting files in the same directory

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.shp.xml Geoprocessing history

CTX_OXIA_DEM_cont_100m.shx

Naming convention: CTX = Instrument, OXIA = Location, ORI = Orthorectified image, 6m = pixel size

CTX_OXIA_ORI_6m.tfw World file <- Open this data in GiS with the other supporting files in the same directory

CTX_OXIA_ORI_6m.tif Image data

CTX_OXIA_ORI_6m.tif.aux.xml Auxiliary symbology statistics

CTX_OXIA_ORI_6m.tif.ovr Image overviews

CTX_OXIA_ORI_6m.tif.xml Geoprocessing history

These data are provided with the following projection: Equirectangular_Mars_Oxia_Planum, Projections = Equidistant_Cylindrical, Datum = D_Mars_2000 Spheroid, Central meridian = 335.45

Naming convention: CTX = Instrument, OXIA = Location, DEM = Digital Elevation Model, 20m = Pixel Size, _hs = hill shade model (sun potion 315°, azimuth 45°)

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m_hs.tfw World file <- Open this data in GiS with the other supporting files in the same directory

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m_hs.tif Image data

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m_hs.tif.aux.xml Auxiliary symbology statistics

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m_hs.ovr Image overviews

CTX_OXIA_ DEM_20m_hs.tif.xml Geoprocessing history

Naming convention: CTX = Instrument, OXIA = Location, DEM = Digital Elevation Model, 20m = Pixel Size

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m.tfw World file <- Open this data in GiS with the other supporting files in the same directory

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m.tif Image data

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m.tif.aux.xml Auxiliary symbology statistics

CTX_OXIA_DEM_20m.ovr Image overviews

These data are provided with the following projection: Equirectangular_Mars_Oxia_Planum, Projections = Equidistant_Cylindrical, Datum = D_Mars_2000 Spheroid, Central meridian = 335.45

Digital elevation models (DEMs) were produced from CTX stereo images using the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) software and the BAE photogrammetric package SOCET SET according to the method of Kirk et al. (2008). We selected 6 CTX image pairs to maximise coverage of the canyon. Tie points were automatically populated in SOCET SET between each image pair. In a departure from previous methods, we ran bundle adjustments on adjacent stereo pairs, removing erroneous tie points until the remaining points had an RMS pixel matching error of ≤ 0.6 pixels. This approach resulted in improved coregistration between stereo pairs, and minimal topographic artefacts across stereo pair boundaries. Each resultant DEM was tied vertically to Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA; Zuber et al., 1992) topography and exported with a horizontal post spacing of 20 m/pixel. We then exported orthorectified images from SOCET SET at a resolution of 6 m/pixel. The orthorectified images (ORI) and DEMs were then post-processed in ISIS, mosaicked in the software ENvironment for Visualising Images (ENVI), provided by Harris Geospatial, before manual georeferencing in ArcGIS. Finally, the georeferenced image mosaic was blended in Adobe Photoshop to remove seamlines using the Avenza Geographic Imager extension, which retains geospatial information in the blended product.

The output from SocetSet® are 18 – 20 m/pix DEM resolving topography of ~50 – 60 m features and 12 orthorectified CTX images at 6 m/pix. The Expected Vertical Precision (EVP) in each CTX DEM can be estimated based on viewing geometry and pixel scale (Randolph L. Kirk et al., 2003, 2008) e.g. EVP = Δp IFOV / (parallax/height). Where: Δp is the RMS stereo matching error in pixel units, assumed to be 0.2 pixels (Cook et al., 1996) and confirmed with matching software for several other planetary image data sets (Howington-Kraus et al., 2002; R. L. Kirk et al., 1999). The pixel matching error is influenced by signal-to-noise ratio, scene contrast and differences in illumination between the images. Pattern noise can also be introduced by the automatic terrain extraction algorithm, especially in areas of low correlation. These can be identified as patches of ‘triangles’ in the hillshade model (e.g., smooth, low contrast slopes and along shadows). IFOV is the instantaneous field of view of the image (pixel size in metres). If the paired images have different IFOV the RMS values is used e.g. IFOV = √(pixel scale image 1 + pixel scale image 2). The parallax/height ratio, calculated from the three-dimensional intersection geometry, reduces to tan(e) for an image with emission angle ‘e’ paired with a nadir image, e.g., parallax/height = tan(e) where e = |emission angle 1 − emission angle 2|.

Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC; Gwinner et al., 2016) MC11- mosaic (Kersten et al., 2018) has been used as the base control mosaic (tile HMC_11W24_co5ps.tif http://hrscteam.dlr.de/HMC30/).. This data is controlled to the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA; Smith et al., 2001) data the most accurate elevation data for Mars.

Registration of the CTX DEM mosaic to the HRSC mosaic used manual tie points between the CTX ORI and HRSC mosaic and applying these tie points to the DEM mosaic. Manual tie points were used because automatic methods gave unsatisfactory results. The CTX mosaic data was rectified using the spline transformation. which optimizes for local accuracy but not global accuracy (Esri, 2020). This method provided good results for images with a range of viewing angles and accounts well for local adjustments needed for abrupt elevation changes.

Topographic contours were created at 25 m intervals from a CTX DEM down sampled to 100 m/pix, and contours shorter than 1500 m were removed and the lines smoothed using the PAEK algorithm at a tolerance of 200 m (USGS & MRCTR GIS Lab, 2018).