Topographic image map of the Mawrth Vallis region
Topographic image map of the Mawrth Vallis region
The DLR High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express orbiter uses its nine sensors to acquire images of the Martian surface from different angles. Teams of researchers at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research and Freie Universität Berlin compute digital terrain models from data acquired by two stereo channels pointing obliquely forwards and backwards onto the surface, and from the nadir channel pointing perpendicularly onto Mars, which assigns height information to each pixel. The colour scale at the top right of the image shows the altitude values in relation to an areoid, an imaginary surface on Mars with constant gravitational attraction. From the highest points in the southern Martian highlands (beige, on the left of the image) to the lowest regions in the northern lowlands, the difference in altitude is just over 3000 metres.
Credit:
DownloadESA/DLR/FU Berlin – CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
