Topographic map of Acheron Fossae
Topographic map of Acheron Fossae
DLR's HRSC on Mars Express uses its nine sensors to record the surface of Mars from various perspectives, at right angles to the direction of flight.
Teams of scientists at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research and the Freie Universität Berlin create digital terrain models, which assign height information to each pixel, from two stereo channels directed obliquely forwards and backwards on to the surface, together with the nadir channel directed vertically on Mars. The colour scale top-left shows altitude values in relation to the areoid – an imaginary surface on Mars with the same gravitational potential (from the Latin 'ares'). The rugged landscape of Acheron Fossae rises nearly 4000 metres above the surrounding plains like a high mountainous region.
