This long post is an attempt to answer the question: Which HiRISE image should I use as a base map for such-and-such a part of Curiosity's traverse? I originally published this article in 2014, and now we're on version 4.0. The previous major update was two years ago, so I had a lot to catch up on. Now that Curiosity is moving generally eastward rather than westward, it's recrossing images it passed through once before, making this list a little more complicated to write. It needs a table of contents:
Digital Terrain Models
Color coverage: Landing Site to the Kimberley (traversed almost monotonically east to west)
Color coverage: Central section (which Curiosity entered and exited east to west, and is now re-traversing west to east)
Color coverage: Murray Buttes and traverse to Vera Rubin Ridge (representing western reach of traverse)
Introduction
HiRISE is the high-resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that's charged with the task of scoping out the future path for our intrepid rover while also doing awesome geology research. HiRISE acquires images in long, skinny strips, like most Mars orbiting cameras. To get those strips, HiRISE's detector plane has 10 linear arrays, each of which normally covers a strip about half a kilometer wide, so full-width HiRISE images are 5 kilometers wide. Then HiRISE as two extra pairs of detectors on the two middle strips to get color data, so there's a central color swath about 1 kilometer wide. Curiosity will drive many, many kilometers before the mission is over, which means that they needed to grab a lot of HiRISE images to do reconnaissance. It has taken quite a lot of work for me to find, locate, and catalogue them. This post is a summary of what I've found. It's meant to serve as an index to HiRISE image coverage of the Curiosity landing site, so it's a bit on the technical and less on the "wow" side than my usual posts about HiRISE imagery.
The HiRISE focal plane
NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA / courtesy of Timothy Reed
THE HIRISE FOCAL PLANE
The HiRISE camera has 14 detectors, lined up on a large focal plane. Ten of the detectors see red wavelengths and form a staggered line that allow HiRISE to capture grayscale images 20,000 pixels across. At the middle of the focal plane are two more pairs of detectors that see blue-green and infrared light, allowing the HiRISE team to show the center 20% of any image swath in color.
At this point in the HiRISE assembly the detector elements are bare but are correctly aligned, set to the same height, and measured so that the locations of the pixels is known to an accuracy of a few microns. Later a metal cover was installed that had spectral filters, sharp-edged rectangular apertures, and stray light baffling.
Which image to use as the base for a map? It depends. Here are the rules of thumb that I'm using.
If your map is going to be for a fancy purpose (i.e. science or a published product), begin with an orthorectified image from a Digital Terrain Model. (For more information about what's involved in the creation of Digital Terrain Models, read this explanation on the HiRISE website.) There are not very many of those and there's not much overlap between them, so it's usually obvious which one you need. I list those first. Those are mostly grayscale and were all acquired before landing.
If your map is going to be in an online article, a color image is usually a nice way to go. Since color swaths are only 1 kilometer wide, your choice of image will depend on which part of the traverse you want to show. I list the color swaths below in the order that Curiosity crossed them, and tell you which sols Curiosity was in them.
If you're writing about something that happened a while ago, odds are good that there is a HiRISE image that contains Curiosity parked near the place you're writing about. If not, there will, at least, be a photo containing the tracks Curiosity made at the time, though not necessarily in color. I indicate the sol of each photo that contains Curiosity hardware, and comment about which hardware/tracks are in color and which are in the grayscale portions of the swath.
A few things to keep in mind about HiRISE:
The HiRISE camera has 14 detectors, lined up on a large focal plane. Ten of the detectors see red wavelengths and form a staggered line that allow HiRISE to capture grayscale images 20,000 pixels across. At the middle of the focal plane are two more pairs of detectors that see blue-green and infrared light, allowing the HiRISE team to show the center 20% of any image swath in color.
If HiRISE is looking straight down or nearly so (emission angle near zero), it can achieve resolutions close to 25 centimeters per pixel. So a full swath is roughly 5 kilometers wide, and the color strip roughly 1 kilometer wide.
However, targeted images often require slews to one side or the other of the ground track, which decreases the resolution, but increases the swath width. When the emission angle isn't zero and there there is topography, there will be distortion caused by the oblique view. Map-projected image products correct for large-scale topography (like Gale crater's central mound) but not small-scale topography (like individual buttes and canyons). The only image products that are corrected for small-scale topography are the orthorectified images from digital terrain models.
No two images have quite the same lighting geometry. HiRISE operates on a nearly sun-synchronous orbit, so it always passes over spots on Mars in the afternoon. But if it slews to the east, it sees the ground at an earlier time of day, and if it slews to the west, it sees the ground at a later time of day. And Mars has seasons, so the directions and lengths of shadows are different on different days, even if taken at the same local time of day.
Digital Terrain Models over the Curiosity Field Site
Understanding the local topography and slopes at potential landing sites was crucially important to establishing the safety of a proposed landing site, so imaging necessary to create good-quality digital terrain models (DTMs) over potential landing sites was a high priority for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's prime mission long before Curiosity landed. DTMs are the preferred products to use for mapping the rover traverse because they have been orthorectified -- that is, the images have been corrected for geometric distortion caused by the shape of the landscape and HiRISE's oblique perspective onto it. Orthophotos from DTMs are as close to maps as photos get. However, it's true that images taken after landing that actually feature rover tracks (see below) make it much easier to map the rover's course; anybody who produces a map product relating to the Curiosity mission should use orthophotos as a base map but post-landing images to establish the precise location of the rover with respect to surface features.
First, a location map. The base image is a 10-meter-per-pixel Context Camera photo, colorized with a Mars Express HRSC image. The light yellow part of the path shows Curiosity's completed drive. The orange path should not be taken overly seriously -- it's a notional traverse developed in 2011 by Ryan Anderson, Dawn Sumner, and Jim Bell as they were trying to characterize what Curiosity might find in the field. It could represent where Curiosity will go, but it's not a "plan" as such and the future rover path will likely deviate from it at least a little and probably a lot. Also please note that the lat/lon lines drawn on here are intended as a guide but may not be perfectly precise -- I extrapolated them from a map covering a smaller area.
HiRISE Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) covering the Curiosity field site
NASA / JPL / UA / Emily Lakdawalla
HIRISE DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS (DTMS) COVERING THE CURIOSITY FIELD SITE
Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) are high-resolution topographic data computed from stereo pairs of HiRISE images.
The DTMs are listed in the order in which Curiosity crossed/will cross them.
DTM Left image
Right image
Anaglyph Notes MSL presence
Possible MSL Landing Site in Gale Crater PSP_010573_1755
PSP_010639_1755
Anaglyph Contains landing site. Covers mostly northern Gale crater plains, barely reaches into the dune field at southern end. Entered sol 0.
Exited sol 511.
Possible MSL Landing Site in Gale Crater ESP_018854_1755
ESP_018920_1755
Anaglyph Misses the landing site to the west, but crosses the entire dune field and laps onto the interesting layered rocks encircling the base of Mount Sharp. The notional traverse up the mound drawn early in the mission does not cross back into this DTM after Curiosity exits it on its western side, for what that's worth. Entered sol 345.
Crater Floor and Central Mound in Gale Crater (MSL) PSP_009650_1755
PSP_009716_1755
Anaglyph Contains Murray Buttes and crosses the light-toned ridge before lapping up on to the yardangs at the base of Mount Sharp. --
Inverted Riverbed in Gale Crater PSP_009149_1750
PSP_009294_1750
Anaglyph Although Curiosity has entered this DTM, its coverage is redundant with one that covers most of the mission to date. This one will become relevant if Curiosity moves significantly southward toward Mount Sharp. Entered sol 751.
Lower Northwest Portion of Mound in Gale Crater ESP_019698_1750
ESP_019988_1750
Anaglyph Substantial overlap with previous two DTMs but extends to south and west. --
Color coverage of the traverse path
The DTMs are nice products but only contain color information at their centers. HiRISE has wallpapered most of the future traverse path with skinny (1-kilometer-wide) color swaths. These are generally not orthorectified. It is not straightforward to mosaic these together because lighting conditions and geometry vary from image to image. But there is enough overlap that an appropriate color image can usually be found to provide a color base for a context map of any particular section of the rover traverse. Note that "merged" map-projected color image products on the HiRISE website are generally provided at 50 centimeters per pixel, in contrast to the 25-centimeter-per-pixel resolution of the simple grayscale or color image products. When I make color views like the ones at the top of this post, I use the color data but overlay it on the higher-resolution grayscale data to increase the sharpness. Here's a map to show you how thoroughly HiRISE has blanketed the Curiosity landing site with color coverage. This is really, really unusual for its density; HiRISE technical staff like to joke that "MRO" stands for "Mars Rover Observer" instead of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Color HiRISE swaths covering the Curiosity field site
NASA / JPL / MSSS / UA / Emily Lakdawalla
COLOR HIRISE SWATHS COVERING THE CURIOSITY FIELD SITE
In the table below I list three different angles relevant to each image. The first is the emission angle -- this is the angle of the observation with respect to the surface normal. If HiRISE is looking straight down, the emission angle is zero and the image looks like a map. The higher the emission angle, the more oblique the view and also the lower-resolution the image. The second is the phase angle -- this is the angle from the Sun, to the surface, to HiRISE. The higher the phase angle, the longer the shadows appear. High-phase images are good for seeing shape from shading. Higher phase also brings out differences among surfaces with different textures, with rough or blocky surfaces appearing darker than smooth surfaces. Lower-phase images, lacking shadows, are best for seeing subtle color variations across the surface. Finally, there is the solar incidence angle, which is a measure of the time of day.
They are listed here in east-to-west order, because this is the order in which Curiosity crossed them. For post-landing images, I list the sol that they were taken on; for all images I list the Mars solar longitude (Ls), an indication of the season, as well as the Earth data (UTC). Another column tells you whether the swaths contain rover hardware, and whether the hardware is only in the grayscale or if it's covered in the color part of the swath. ("DS&BS" refers to descent stage and backshell/parchute; "LS" refers to landing site; and then there's the rover.) In the notes I point out which ones contain tracks, and the specific sols covered by each color swath.
Image Sol
Ls
Date Emis.
Phase
Inc. DS&BS
LS
rover Notes
ESP_030168_1755 Sol 145
Ls 237.0
2013-01-02 17.4
35.8
52 --
gray
gray Includes all tracks to date in gray, with rover at sol 145. Color strip is to the east of any region traversed to date by the rover; this image was probably taken for its coverage of clay-rich mineral terrain to the south of the dune field.
ESP_028190_1755 --
Ls 148.1
2012-08-01 8.1
62.1
55 N/A Taken just days before landing, contains Glenelg and Yellowknife Bay in black-and-white region, extends color coverage to east of traverse route.
ESP_040269_1755 Sol 911
Ls 299.5
2015-02-28 2.6
37.4
40 gray
gray
-- Includes tracks from sols 48-337 in color and through 419 in gray (faded, but visible).
ESP_028269_1755 Sol 1
Ls 151.2
2012-08-07 44.9
93.1
51 gray
gray
gray Was taken from a very high emission angle (45 degrees), so is lower-resolution than normal and has severe geometric distortion.
ESP_028335_1755 Sol 6
Ls 153.9
2012-08-12 29.5
80.4
53 gray
color
color Was taken from a relatively high emission angle (30 degrees), so is lower-resolution than normal and has severe geometric distortion.
ESP_028401_1755 Sol 11
Ls 156.6
2012-08-17 9.6
63.4
54 gray
color
color Color covers traverse from sol 0 to 351, with rover at sol 11.
ESP_032436_1755 Sol 316
Ls 342.7
2013-06-27 29.9
5.5
35 gray
color
color Includes all tracks to date in color. Color covers traverse from sol 0 to 354, with rover at sol 316. Targeted specifically to have very low phase angle (5.5 degrees). Not a great mapping product because of low phase angle and high emission angle, but interesting for subtle color.
ESP_030313_1755 Sol 157
Ls 244.1
2012-01-13 4.3
46.3
50 gray
color
color Includes all tracks to date in color. Color covers traverse from sol 0 to 369, with rover at sol 157. A shorter-than-usual strip captured along with CRISM data of blast zone.
ESP_028612_1755 Sol 27
Ls 165.3
2012-09-02 9.0
62.9
54 color
color
color Includes all tracks to date in color. Color covers traverse from sol 0 to 38 and 343 to 403, with rover at sol 27.
ESP_029957_1755 Sol 129
Ls 226.7 2012-12-16 1.8
50.7
53 color
gray
gray Color covers traverse from sol 345 to 406.
Includes all tracks to date in gray, with rover at sol 129.
ESP_028678_1755 Sol 32
Ls 168.1
2012-09-08 16.9
40.1
56 gray
gray
gray Includes all tracks to date in gray. Color covers traverse from sol 371 to 454. Color strip contains some bits of backshell debris.
ESP_034572_1755 Sol 479
Ls 61.2
2013-12-11 9.9
59.9
52 gray
gray
gray Includes all tracks to date in gray. Tracks cross entire width of color swath. Includes tracks in color from sol 371 to 453.
ESP_035350_1755 Sol 538
Ls 87.7
2014-02-10 7.7
51.5
57 gray
gray
gray Includes tracks in color from sol 371 to 439.
Includes all tracks to date in gray, with rover at sol 538.
ESP_029746_1755 Sol 113
Ls 216.4
2012-11-30 2.9
56.0
53 gray
--
-- Color covers traverse from sol 403 to 518. Contains no tracks.
PSP_010573_1755 --
Ls 148.7
2008-10-28 22.9
77.2
56 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 417 to 548. Part of a DTM with next. This image just barely crosses the traverse, containing little terrain to the south of the path.
PSP_010639_1755 --
Ls 151.3
2008-11-02 2.5
55.6
58 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 419 to 472. SW corner of color swath just barely nicks traverse. Part of a DTM with previous.
ESP_027834_1755 --
Ls 134.3
2012-07-04 15.4
44.1
57 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 436 to 637. Cooperstown / Dingo Gap / Kimberley.
ESP_036128_1755 Sol 597
Ls 115.0
2014-04-11 2.7
59.7
57 gray
gray
color Includes tracks from sols 0 to 120 and 313 to 597; tracks in color from sol 438 to 597. Color covers traverse from sol 438 to 636.
PSP_003453_1750 --
Ls 223.9
2007-04-22 4.2
57.6
53 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 438 to 637. Cooperstown / Dingo Gap / Kimberley. Best color product in this area because of coverage / low emission angle.
ESP_037117_1755 Sol 672
Ls 152.5
2014-06-27
14.1
45.5
58 gray
gray
color Includes tracks from sols 0 to 41 and 340 to 672; tracks in color from sol 504 to 657. Color covers traverse from sol 504 to 657. Color is low quality (posterized).
ESP_018920_1755 --
Ls 130.6
2010-08-09 19.7
42.2
58 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 515 to 658. Dingo Gap / Kimberley. Part of a DTM with next.
ESP_018854_1755 --
Ls 128.1
2010-08-04 5.9
61.1
56 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 524 to 657. Dingo Gap / Kimberley. Part of a DTM with previous.
Center section
Image Sol
Ls
Date Emis.
Phase
Inc. DS&BS
LS
rover Notes
ESP_022111_1755 --
Ls 274.4
2011-04-15 2.0
42.2
44 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 637 to 729. Color strip only. Robert Frost Pass / Zabriskie Plateau.
ESP_048774_1755 Sol 1556
Ls 284.8
2016-12-21 2.7
41.8
39 gray
--
-- Includes tracks from sol 363 to 1289; tracks in color from sol 641 to 665. Area immediately west of the Kimberley.
PSP_009294_1750 --
Ls 101.3
2008-07-20 2.3
59.8
58 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 643 to 665. Mostly to south of traverse. Windjana to Zabriskie Plateau.
ESP_029034_1750 Sol 59
Ls 183.5
2012-10-05 9.9
45.7
55 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 655 to 952. Mostly to south of traverse. Zabriskie Plateau / Hidden Valley / Pahrump Hills.
ESP_033649_1750 Sol 409
Ls 29.1
2013-09-30 2.6
41.5
44 --
--
gray Color covers traverse from sol 657 to 952. Includes tracks in gray from sol 404 to rover at sol 409. Robert Frost Pass / Zabriskie Plateau / Hidden Valley / Pahrump Hills. Taken for dune motion monitoring.
ESP_039280_1755 Sol 836
Ls 251.6
2014-12-13 5.9
56.1
51 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 665 to 1072. Includes tracks in gray from sol 424 to rover at sol 836. Robert Frost Pass / Zabriskie Plateau / Hidden Valley / Pahrump Hills.
ESP_040770_1755 Sol 949
Ls 322.2
2015-04-08 26.2
59.0
33 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 664 to 1158. Includes tracks from sol 385 to rover at sol 949. Rover is just beyond Pahrump Hills and Telegraph peak, color through Marias pass. High emission angle means lower resolution, more distortion than typical.
ESP_043539_1755 Sol 1159
Ls 66.3
2015-11-10 30.4
74.9
50 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 664 to 1162 and again from 1187 to 1249. Includes tracks from sol 377 to rover at sol 1159. Rover is at Brandberg crater, color includes Namib dune. High emission angle means lower resolution, more distortion than typical.
ESP_042682_1755 Sol 1094
Ls 36.8
2015-09-04 2.0
44.3
46 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 746 to 1283. Includes tracks in gray from sol 504 to rover at sol 1094. Telegraph Peak, Marias Pass, Brandberg crater, Namib and High Dunes. Particularly crisp and pretty.
ESP_021610_1755 --
Ls 249.7
2011-03-07 28.3
25.8
51 N/A Color covers traverse from sol 729 to 1296. Color strip only. Considerably lower phase than usual, so color is lovely. But high emission angle. Pahrump Hills, Marias pass, Namib and High Dunes.
ESP_044172_1755 Sol 1207
Ls 87.9
2015-12-29 24.3
71.8
53 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 957 to 1414, 1577 to 1596, and 1611 to... Includes tracks in gray from sol 589 to rover at sol 1207, south of Namib dune. Marias pass, Namib and High Dunes, eastern edge of Murray Buttes.
ESP_045293_1755 Sol 1292
Ls 127.7
2016-03-25 22.8
70.7
51 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 964 to 1435 and 1471 to... Includes tracks in gray from sol 518 to rover at sol 1292. Rover is on Naukluft Plateau, just before Lubango. Eastern half of Murray Buttes, not quite covering rover's westward extent.
ESP_035917_1755 Sol 581
Ls 107.4
2014-03-26 3.8
60.3
57 --
--
gray Color covers traverse from sol 967 to 976, 990 to 1414, 1574 to 1598, and 1604 to... Includes tracks in gray from sols 548 to rover at sol 581. Color from Marias pass to dunes, east edge of Murray Buttes, southern Bagnold and VRR traverse and climb. Low emission angle makes it good for colorizing.
Western section
Image Sol
Ls
Date Emis.
Phase
Inc. DS&BS
LS
rover Notes
ESP_046137_1755 Sol 1356
Ls 160.8
2016-05-30 13.1
40.9
53 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 1078 to 1093 and 1099 to 1901. Includes tracks in gray from sol 547 to rover at sol 1356. Rover is at Oudam. Stimson crossing and eastern half of Murray Buttes.
ESP_052176_1750 Sol 1815
Ls 60.2
2017-09-13 23.0
67.2
49 --
--
gray Color covers traverse from sol 1262 to 1787. Includes tracks in gray from sol 606 to rover at sol 1815. Rover is at Schoppee, atop VRR. Color includes part of High Dune and all of Murray Buttes, plus traverse to VRR.
ESP_035772_1755 Sol 925
Ls 102.3
2014-03-14 17.1
46.2
59 --
--
-- Color covers traverse from sol 1262 to 1752.
ESP_050897_1750 Sol 1717
Ls 15.1
2017-06-15 6.1
32.1
38 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 1264 to 1752. Includes tracks in gray from sol 644 to rover at sol 1717. Color includes part of High Dune and all of Murray Buttes, plus traverse to VRR.
ESP_047416_1755 Sol 1452
Ls 218.2
2016-09-07 0.7
49.9
51 --
--
color Color covers traverse from sol 1283 to 1732. Tracks in gray from sol 651 to rover at sol 1452. Color over all of Murray Buttes, nicely centered atop rover's path southward to second dune campaign, stops short of VRR.
ESP_049552_1750 Sol 1615
Ls 320.7
2017-02-20 7.7
39
32
--
--
color
Color covers traverse from sol 1283 to 1734. Includes tracks in gray from sol 646 to rover at sol 1615. Rover is at southern Bagnold dune campaign stop 2. Color over all of Murray Buttes, nicely centered atop rover's path southward to second dune campaign, stops short of VRR.
ESP_036194_1755 Sol 957
Ls 117.4
2014-04-16 18.3
45.0
59 -- Area in color is west of Murray Buttes.
There are color strips to the west and southwest (ESP_036194_1755, PSP_009650_1755, ESP_028823_1755, ESP_026924_1750, ESP_019988_1750) but if Curiosity follows the notional traverse, it will not ever enter these color strips.
There are some color strips that cover areas to the south of the ones I've listed already, which Curiosity will reach later in the mission, assuming that it follows the currently-planned route. These include: ESP_052387_1750 and ESP_025935_1750.
I hope this post is useful to people! I know it will be useful to me :)
Color view Curiosity on Mars from HiRISE, sol 157
NASA / JPL / UA / Emily Lakdawalla
COLOR VIEW CURIOSITY ON MARS FROM HIRISE, SOL 157
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this color photo of Curiosity on the rover's sol 157 (January 14, 2013). The rover was at the "Snake River" site within Yellowknife Bay. It is rotated to place north at left in order to show it larger on the website.
