Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.u21a0011g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #U21A-0011
Other
5420 Impact Phenomena, Cratering (6022, 8136), 5464 Remote Sensing, 6235 Mercury, 6297 Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
Imaging data acquired during the MESSENGER flybys of Mercury are being used to construct preliminary models of the surface topography of the planet. These models will be improved when additional data become available from the orbital phase of the mission. For all three flybys the inbound and outbound views present a crescent and gibbous Mercury, respectively, each bounded by the terminator on one side and the limb on the other. Longitudes in the lit hemisphere between the two limbs will not be visible, and even less will be useful for topographic analysis due to the obliquity of the view. The first MESSENGER flyby on 14 January 2008 provided useful data for about 25 degrees in longitude from inbound imaging and about 80 degrees outbound; the latter became increasingly degraded as the sub-solar longitude was approached. Ideally, high-resolution topography is determined from stereophotoclinometry (SPC), by which images at different illuminations are used to solve for topography and albedo in small "maplets," the centers of which are control points for stereographic analysis and low-resolution topography. During a single flyby, the illumination does not change, and close to the sub-solar point it is difficult to distinguish brightness variations due to topography from those due to albedo variations. The second MESSENGER flyby of Mercury on 6 October 2008 will image longitudes from about 90 degrees W to 90 degrees E. From our experience with data from the first flyby, we will be able to solve for topography from the images in a latitude range from 90 to 10 degrees W (outbound images) and, at lower resolution, from 75 to 90 degrees E (inbound images). Overlap between the MESSENGER and Mariner 10 data sets will allow for a true SPC analysis in much of the former region. Of particular interest will be the topography of the many craters and scarps in this region as well as the hummocky region antipodal to the Caloris basin. During the first MESSENGER flyby, Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) observations were made along a path near the equator from 10 to 90 degrees E. Topography from the inbound images will be compared with the MLA data where the two overlap.
Gaskell Robert W.
Gillis-Davis Jeffery J.
Sprague Ann L.
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