[meteorite-list] HiRISE Releases 1, 200 Images, Launches Viewer on Newly Designed Website

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 13:21:59 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200706042021.NAA28521_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

HiRISE RELEASES 1,200 IMAGES, LAUNCHES VIEWER ON NEWLY DESIGNED WEBSITE
(From Lori Stiles, University Communications, 520-626-4402)

- Monday, June 04, 2007

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Contact information, Web links listed at the end
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Anyone connected by Internet can now see planet Mars better than at any
time in history, through the eye of HiRISE, the most powerful camera ever to
orbit another planet.

A University of Arizona-based team that runs the High Resolution Imaging
Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just
released more than 1,200 Mars images to the Planetary Data System, the U.S.
space agency's mission data archive.

Not only has the team released 1.7 Terabytes of HiRISE data -- the largest
single dataset ever delivered to NASA's space mission data library -- but
also a user-friendly way for the public to easily see HiRISE images.

Thanks to tools available on HiRISE's new Webpage at
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu, any Internet user can quickly pull up and
explore the same remarkable images that both thrill and confound scientists.

"These images must contain hundreds of important discoveries about Mars,"
HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of UA's Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory said. "We just need time to realize what they are."

The HiRISE camera takes images of 3.5-mile-wide (6 km) swaths as the
orbiter flies at about 7,800 mph between 155 and 196 miles (250 to 316 km)
above Mars' surface. For at least the next 18 months, HiRISE will collect
thousands of color, black-and-white and stereo images of the Martian
surface, resolving features as small as 40 inches across, covering about one
percent of the planet.

The team based at UA's HiRISE Operations Center (HiROC) began releasing
selected images on the Internet when science operations began in November
2006. Team members began reprocessing all the images taken up to March 25,
2007, using improved calibration, or image correction techniques, in April.

HiRISE BECOMES PDS 'DATA NODE'

With the first 1,200 images, HiRISE becomes a Planetary Data System (PDS)
"data node."

The Planetary Data System (PDS) is used by scientists, students, textbook
writers and a growing number of others who follow the latest planetary
discoveries. NASA started the archive two decades ago when planetary
scientists requested a system to keep the expanding volume of data collected
from NASA missions in a form accessible at any time in the future, said
NASA's R. Stephen Saunders, the PDS program scientist. The PDS is online at
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov

"As computers evolve and change, we expect to always be able to access the
data, a national treasure," Saunders said.

"A PDS data node is designed to provide access to a particular data set
during an active mission, when the data are of greatest interest," Saunders
said. Also, "NASA wants to draw on the team's expertise to make sure the
data are validated, archived and useful for meeting the objectives of the
MRO mission," he said. "NASA has made a large investment in software and
hardware at Mars and at UA, and this is a way to capitalize further on that
investment."

IAS VIEWER FOR QUICK CLOSE-UPS

The newly designed HiRISE Web site at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu gives
general users, as well as scientists, a tool to quickly home in on any
location within a single huge HiRISE image, which often will be a gigabyte
image measuring 20,000 pixels by 50,000 pixels. The tool, which was
developed by ITT-Visual Information Solutions in Boulder, Co., is called the
IAS Viewer. Users can download it for free directly from the HiRISE Website.

Richard Cooke, president and CEO of ITT Visual Information Systems said,
"ITT is committed to supporting the space science community with technology
and services that advance the pursuit of discovery. Integrating our IAS
technologies with the HiRISE project is very exciting for us, as it helps
bring space science applications to a wider community of users, including
the general public."

The advantage to IAS-Viewer technology is that it transmits only the amount
of data needed to render that portion of the image displayed on the computer
screen. That is, each time a user zooms in on a image, he or she doesn't
download a completely new set of pixels. Instead, the user is downloading
only the higher resolution parts of the image data, which are added to the
image data already downloaded by the viewer. The IAS Viewer ultimately
renders the selected part of the image in high resolution by adding more and
more pixels.

The tool, which also has defense, intelligence and disaster management
applications, delivers high quality images regardless of slow or limited
network connections.

"I've run this at home, with my little cable modem," said HiROC Manager
Eric Eliason. "The tool allows you to zoom in on small pieces of the image
quickly, without having to download all of the information in the entire
image, which would take hours. IAS Viewer will make our images much more
accessible not only to our science team, but to the world."

NEW HiRISE WEBSITE FEATURES STUNNING IMAGES

 HiRISE communications team member Yisrael Espinoza said he designed the new
HiRISE Website to be image-driven. Visitors can take a quick look at an
image, or see a larger browse version, or the full-resolution version
according to how interested they are in a particular picture. The
full-resolution version will launch the IAS Viewer once users have
downloaded the free software onto their computers.

Tantalizing, recent results HiRISE include:

    o An image of a crater from an impact blast that triggered 100,000
dust avalanches.

    o New details on the fine-layered sedimentary rocks on plains next
to Juventae Chasma, which features intriguing repeating layers.

    o Buried sedimentary rocks exposed in ancient terrain in the
southern highlands.

    o A "black hole," a possible cavern on Mars. HiRISE saw no detail in
the shadow, which is consistent with a deep hole and overhanging walls.

    o South polar 'geysers' that possibly result from the explosive
release of carbon dioxide gas, trapped under pressure beneath translucent
carbon dioxide ice.

    o "Spiders" on Mars, channels near the South Pole that apparently
converge and flow uphill.

HiRISE is called "The People's Camera" because the HiRISE team provides
processed images to the world to stimulate learning, discussion and
investigation. HiRISE researchers encourage the scientific community and the
public to help target and analyze images.

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. The High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of
Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., built the
HiRISE instrument.
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Contact Information
 Alfred S. McEwen, UA, Principal Investigator, HiRISE
 520-621-4573 mcewen at lpl.arizona.edu

Eric Eliason 520-626-0764 eeliason at lpl.arizona.edu

 Yisrael Espinoza 520-626-7432 yisrael at email.lpl.arizona.edu

Related Web sites
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
http://www.nasa.gov/mro
Received on Mon 04 Jun 2007 04:21:59 PM PDT