In the bordered area below is a copy of part of NASA's Atlas of Mars showing the links used in the exercise. These links lead to the actual locations you will use on the NASA site. Follow the instructions below that, then return to the exercise with your data.
Atlas of Mars
and Viking Orbiter Image Finder
A WWW-browsable,zoomable and scrollable atlas of Mars, showing the locations (footprints) ofthousands of high-resolutionViking Orbiterimages.
This tool is designed for systems with a color screen (8 or 24 bit) and a fast networkconnection, with a graphic browser and optionally an external viewer that displaysPDS images.See details.
See one level up for image finders for other planets.
Is this atlas what you're looking for?
This atlas has complete coverage of Mars as grayscale maps at 1/16 degree/pixel,and may let you download 1/256 degree/pixel mapsand some raw Viking Orbiter images. It also points to color maps of all of Mars.Keep in mind that raw Viking Orbiter images areunprocessed.If you don't have a particular site in mind and are interested in seeing just a few goodpictures of Mars in general, you might the excellent collections of interesting color images listed below.
Educational version of the Mars Atlas:A "virtual spacecraft"to view the globe of Mars from almost any position,with six to eight levels of zoom.
If you want to extract a map, not locate raw images, and you don't need to lookup features by name, and the area is between 47.4°N and 47.4°S latitude,then you'll probably find the Mars Multi-Scale Map at Los Alamos to be better suitedfor the task than the current version of this Mars Atlas.
If you're looking for surface images instead of orbital images, see theViking Lander image finderat JPL.
To get started:
Click on the method you prefer to use for locating the area you want:
Find the desired spot on a map of all of Mars and click on it.
Warning: The NASA site containing the required image is currently not working. Skip looking for the image on-line and obtain it here. Use mg10s067.img for the correct filename.
This will take you to an image map of Mars' surface. Click on Valles Marineris, located left of center. It looks like this:
Now, using the navigation arrows below the small thumbnail image, find your way to the image at latitude / longitude range 2.5 deg S - 17.5 deg S / 75 deg W - 60 deg W.
It shows this portion of the canyon:
When you find the correct location attempt to download the smaller 64 pixels/degree image located below the navigation arrows.
You will get an error message, because the CD-ROM database containing the image is no longer working.
But you can still obtain the correct filename of the desired image. This is the last item in the long URL of that (non-working) link: mg----67.img (fill in the missing characters).
It will appear in the browser's taskbar below the browser window when the cursor is placed over the link or in the browser's Location field above when the browser attempts to link to the non-existent location. You will be unable to complete the exercise without the correct filename.
Then return and click this button: to obtain a re-named copy of the image from an alternate site. Rename, do not expand, to: vallesm.img. You will be using its embedded data.
This image, along with its embedded data, are essential to the exercise. It's original filename (mg----67.img), must be correctly typed into the applet used to measure the cliff height.
The image, as indicated by the .img extension, is in a special NASA format called PDS (Planetary Data System). It requires a viewer called pdswin.zip. Click on the link, save to Desktop, and Rename, do not expand, to: pdswin.exe. Then double click to open. Open the PDS image of the cliff in this viewer.
Fill in the On-line Report, located at the bottom of the exercise, as you proceed. Submit when finished.
Educational version of the Mars Atlas:A "virtual spacecraft"to view the globe of Mars from almost any position,with six to eight levels of zoom.
