High Resolution Stereo Camera

High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) is a camera experiment on Mars Express.[http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/kamera/kameraeng.shtml DLR – HRSC on Mars Express] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117135618/http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/kamera/kameraeng.shtml |date=2012-01-17 }} A version for Earth called HRSC-AX was also developed, as was a version for Mars 96. It has four main parts: camera head, super resolution channel, instrument frame, and digital unit. At an altitude of 250 km from Mars, SRC can produce images with a resolution of 2.3 meters/pixel of 2.35 km square Mars terrain. It has 9 channels and can produce digital terrain models. A typical image from HRSC of Mars has a resolution ranging from 12.5 for nadir (directly down) to 25 m/pixel for the farthest off-nadir shots, which can be up to 18.9 degrees.{{Cite web | url=http://phys.org/news/2015-12-high-resolution-imaging-dynamic-surface-mars.html | title=High-resolution repeat imaging allows detecting dynamic surface processes on Mars}}

By 2012, about 61.5% of the surface of Mars was mapped at a resolution of at least 20 meters per pixel by the Mars Express mission using this camera.[http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/02/Mapping_Mars ESA -Mapping Mars] Another area of study is repeat imaging, to allow the study of dynamic processes on Mars.{{cite journal| doi=10.1016/j.pss.2015.06.017 | volume=117 | title=On the status of orbital high-resolution repeat imaging of Mars for the observation of dynamic surface processes | year=2015 | journal=Planetary and Space Science | pages=207–222 | last1 = Sidiropoulos | first1 = P. | last2 = Muller | first2 = J.-P.| bibcode=2015P&SS..117..207S | url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1472609/1/1-s2.0-S0032063315001956-main.pdf | doi-access=free }} Another trick is to make short videos of the Mars surface by taking advantage of the pushbroom nature of the detector, each section is slightly offset for a different color, but when combined each view be used to make a short animation.[http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2016/1104-capturing-martian-weather-in-motion.html TPS – Capturing Martian Weather in Motion – November 4, 2016]

By the start of 2015, about 70% of Mars had been imaged by Mars at resolutions greater than 20 m per pixel, and 97% at resolutions of least 60 m per pixel.[https://elib.dlr.de/100711/1/1057.pdf THE HIGH RESOLUTION STEREO CAMERA (HRSC): STATUS AND FACTS (2015) ]

Example observation

Orcus Patera, imaged by the HRSC:

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|image1 = Orcus Patera by HRSC.jpg

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|caption1 = Mars Express HRSC view of Orcus Patera (Courtesy of the ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))

|image2 = Elevation of Orcus Patera and surroundings.jpg

|caption2 = Mars Express HRSC view of Orcus Patera with colors for elevation (Courtesy of the ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))

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See also

References

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