Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufm.p22d..07s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #P22D-07
Physics
0343 Planetary Atmospheres (5405, 5407, 5409, 5704, 5705, 5707), 1227 Planetary Geodesy And Gravity (5420, 5714, 6019), 5499 General Or Miscellaneous, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
With the development of laser altimeters in the late eighties and their introduction as a tool for planetary exploration in the early nineties, the quality of planetary mapping in the vertical as well as the horizontal made a giant step forward. Laser altimeters, with their narrow beams and small footprints and range accuracies at the few decimeter level, became a real alternative to radar with some distinct advantages for certain tasks. However, the precision was limited by orbital knowledge, and precision orbit determination became an essential component that needed to be developed for planetary missions that we took for granted for radar altimeters in orbit around Earth. By the end of the last decade, laser altimeters had already shown their capabilities at the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid Eros. At Mars, where the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) acquired altimetry at 10 Hz almost continuously for over 2 Earth years, the data were used to re-define the large-scale shape, topography, and coordinate system for the planet that has enabled mapping scientists to position many features at the 100 meter level horizontally and about 1 meter radially and to incorporate some of the highest resolution imagery to the same level. Laser altimeters will depart in a few years for Mercury, Vesta, and Ceres as part of the mapping of these distant bodies.
Smith Douglas E.
Zuber Maria T.
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