• the interactive maps of Mars now expand to fill most of the available page size instead of using a fixed, small size
• there is an additional basemap option: Night-time Infrared. Also, the Day-time Infrared basemap is higher resolution. These maps are made from THEMIS data by NASA’s Ames Research Center and we appreciate the work done by those teams
• markers for CRISM data can now be drawn on the suggestion maps, and they link to the corresponding publicly available download
• you can stretch (or shrink) your suggestion’s rectangle to match the longest (or shortest) observation length that HiRISE typically takes. It still defaults to our average image length. After placing a suggestion, click on the marker and you’ll be able to resize it to match a particular feature’s length.
• there is now a “browse” map where you can just explore, without creating a suggestion
• global maps of HiRISE Digital Terrain Models and of HiWish observations to date

Thanks for using HiWish, and keep the suggestions coming!

Questions remain about how these dust avalanches are triggered, though it is believed to be related to the spring warming of CO₂. You can find out more in Patrick Russell’s caption for HiRISE observation PSP_007338_2640.

#1. A special issue of the journal Icarus was devoted entirely to HiRISE. It contains over twenty scientific papers produced using HiRISE as a primary data source, representing years of research by dozens of scientists. You can find out more by reading our press release.

A plot of HiRISE stereo observations in Tharsis and Valles Marinaris

#2. We observed the Phoenix Lander in springtime, as frost slowly melted around its landing site. There was some small hope that Phoenix would be attempting to awake from ‘Lazarus’ mode but evidently the Mars Odyssey orbiter has not heard its signal.

The Phoenix Mars Lander as of January 2010

#3. Our image that captured a dust avalanche on a dune was very popular around the web. Astronomer Phil Plait called it “another dose of Martian awesome” and provided a great analysis on his blog.

Active dust flow caught by HiRISE

#4. Our image of ancient viscous flows on the floor of Mars’s largest impact basin stood out (to me). “HiRISE images are revealing some very strange landforms on the floor of Hellas,” says HiRISE P.I. Alfred McEwen. You can read more in the caption for ‘Contortions on the Floor of Hellas Basin‘.

An section of a Hellas Basin flow in 3-D

#5. Our first DTM’s were released, the initial results of a very labor-intensive process. These precise 3-D maps provide a wealth of information for scientists. But in addition, they will make for very cool simulated fly-over movies. Doug Ellison of UMSF has published some on his youtube page. In a related effort, UMSF user Bernhard Braun produced 3-D HiRISE data using photoclinometry (”shape from shading”).

Doug Ellison’s fly-thru of Candor Chasma

#6. HiWish, our public suggestion page, was made available to great fanfare (thanks). We’ve received over 700 target suggestions in the ten days since launching it, and some of these are already being planned as upcoming observations.

Adding a new target in HiWish on the slopes of Olympus Mons

#7. Mars and Earth made their closest approach of the year, at a distance of about six light minutes. Thus, MRO is in the middle of a high data rate period. HiRISE has been making the most of this, taking 20-30 images per day lately.

Plot of observations received vs. time (includes calibration images)

What are some strategies to improve my suggestion’s chances?

First, make sure you justify the image in terms of small-scale features that might be seen, things like boulders or thin layers or dunes, not giant volcanoes or channels. We need to know how HiRISE’s meter-scale resolution is necessary, especially if there are existing MOC, CTX, HSRC or other images of the area.

Second, choose an appropriate science theme. There are one-sentence descriptions below the map, and detailed descriptions via clicking on the science theme name.

Third, choose a location on Mars that isn’t very popular—avoid regions with lots of other suggestions. Other suggestions are shown with white markers (when you are zoomed in on the map).

How long might it take for my image to be taken and released?

This is very difficult to predict. First, there’s the caveat that we can’t guarantee that we’ll get to it. It depends on how highly a Science Theme Lead prioritizes it. They look at suggestions on a monthly basis. Uplink, downlink and validation are a matter of weeks. And, our PDS releases occur on a monthly basis. So in the absolute best case, it is a matter of months. Remember that you are competing against other suggestions and for the STL’s prioritization.

My registration failed? What can I do?

We’ve streamlined the registration process, so please try again (with a new username). We do not know the reason why so many people have had trouble registering, but will continue to work on the problem.

Why can’t I save my suggestion? The button is grayed-out!

Please make sure you have provided four things: a title, a science rationale, a region of interest on the map (thick white rectangle with blue marker), and a science theme.

I filled out the suggestion, but can’t get to the next step. What’s wrong?

There should be an error message next to the field that needs to be changed. Typically, this is an invalid character in the title, or something of that nature.

Where Is the Face On Mars?

We have already looked at this in image PSP_003234_2210.

Cydonia

Over 9400 of these observations have been released to the Planetary Data System as JP2 files (over 9000 of these have color). As of today, 365 observations have been received after the end of the last PDS delivery, and are in the queue for the next one.

A handful of observations have data gaps in critical portions of the raw files (namely, science channel headers), or other severe problems that prevent processing from proceeding. We’re working on improved tools and procedures to alleviate the large amount of manual work to process those images; there’s a very good chance that the usable data can ultimately be recovered and released.

The rest (243 to be exact) are ‘CAL’ or calibration observations, used to verify settings on HiRISE, or obtain data that helps us remove noise and other imaging artifacts in our automated processing. They’re normally taken while on the night side of Mars with ’stim’ lamps on to provide a known, fixed light source.

Take a look at the plot below, which shows the cumulative number of observations received (in salmon) and the cumulative number released (as RDR’s, in mauve) as a function of time.

• The big steps are PDS data releases. The first was six months after beginning the primary operations in November 2006.
• There’s a missing step around December of 2007. That’s because we released a large number of color images, getting caught up with our color processing in lieu of a standard EDR/RDR release.
• The horizontal steps are not completely horizontal. The slope is our rate of weekly featured image releases.
• As noted earlier, just about everything is released, the totals are converging, the lag is 365 observations, or about a month at our current rate.
• The totals are a little less than 10,000; that’s the difference made by the CAL observations and the handful that currently can’t be easily recovered.
• There’s a ‘hump’ of received observations in late 2008, that’s the high data rate period (when Earth and Mars were closest).
• There are a few flat steps where no observations are received. One is the month-long solar conjunction period centered on Nov-Dec 2008, the safe modes of February 2007 and February 2008, etc.

We’re doing about ten observations per day at the moment. During the high data rate period it was nearly double that.

Finally, while we’re getting all nerdy with numbers, let’s look at the words too. Namely, the words used by our science theme leads to describe each observation. Here a word-frequency list, the top 100 words with the number of times it has been used.

3291 in
2777 crater
2502 of
1105 and
1050 polar
876 sample
874 layered
839 region
779 deposits
673 on
660 north
632 possible
572 terrain
552 gullies
547 with
539 chasma
534 south
418 site
404 the
388 planitia
369 vallis
360 dunes
357 terra
353 light
342 toned
331 fossae
326 near
323 impact
318 landing
314 mons
312 floor
299 small
296 central
289 exposure
287 northern
283 plains
280 planum
264 latitude
260 valles
250 fresh
238 image
238 ejecta
234 wall
229 at
215 layers
213 dark
211 flow
196 west
193 monitoring
193 hellas
190 for
190 basin
188 moc
183 layering
182 deposit
175 valley
174 rim
173 large
171 high
168 lander
167 phoenix
166 southern
164 peak
162 surface
159 well
152 between
150 seen
144 ice
143 elysium
141 east
139 material
138 unnamed
138 msl
136 channel
135 pit
134 scarp
134 rover
134 a
128 olympus
128 meridiani
120 ridge
119 seasonal
119 olivine
119 cap
117 arabia
115 lava
115 features
114 landforms
109 residual
107 exposed
106 chaos
105 utopia
103 western
103 contact
102 looking
101 nili
100 area
99 kilometer
99 candor
97 slope

Now you can explore Mars with version 5 of Google’s 3D exploration software (still called Earth)! HiRISE team members worked with Google to make this possible. Previously, you had to perform a few tricks to get it going, but now it is all built in smoothly. To switch to Mars. select the planet drop-down at the top center.

You can enable footprints for HiRISE, CTX, CRISM, Mars Express’ HRSC and Global Surveyor’s MOC.

By clicking on a HiRISE footprint, you can get a window with a hi-res preview and a link to the observation page on our website.

A nice addition is text from (our fellow Tucsonan) William K. Hartmann’s A Traveler’s Guide To Mars, explaining the geologic provinces on Mars (click on the green ‘hiker’ icons).

You can see screenshots and get more info from the unofficial Google Earth blog and download Windows, Mac or Linux versions from Google’s Earth site.

It looks like there is some broad-scale elevation data. Shift+up or down tilts your view, shift + right or left spins, and page up / page down zooms.

Have fun exploring Mars!

On the New Images page, there’s a link to the latest wallpaper in a variety of common sizes. They’re packaged in zip files; opening the link will allow you to extract them in a folder on your computer. Next, find the settings for your desktop (usually by right-clicking on it). Within the settings, you can have it load an image from the folder and change to a new one, randomly, and periodically (5 minutes seems about right for me). Some people have multiple monitors, possibly in different pixel resolutions, so you could set up a folder for each one.

If you’re browsing our site and come across an image you’re particularly amazed by, many times there will be wallpaper drawn from that image (look on the right sidebar). Our weekly (captioned) releases all have this feature.

Finally, all of the wallpaper to date is available online, including not only the packaged zip files, but directories containing all of the images (to date), for each resolution.

So make a resolution (and determine your screen’s resolution!), grab a bunch of images, and be blown away by the beauty of Mars (at high resolution)!

One important feature enhancement is that the auto-stretch preference is now “sticky.” You can disable auto-stretch once and for all, as indicated in the screenshots below.

With this change, you can load our images and see them in the original stretch, while still having the ability to re-stretch within higher-resolution areas.

Kudos to everyone who helped make this happen, from the navigation team at JPL delivering updated files, to our operations people who spent many long hours over the holiday weekend busily at work. And congratulations to the Phoenix team here in Tucson, who have embarked on what promises to be an exciting summer of science operations!