First public release of Kaguya data Options

[elakdawalla]

I just received the following from Shin-ichi Sobue at JAXA:

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released data from the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE) (L2 products) during the nominal operation phase (from December 21, 2007 to October 31, 2008) to the public through the Internet.
L2 products are calibrated/validated processed data from KAGUYA science mission instruments. By using the L2 products, researchers all over the world are expected to advance the scientific analysis and applicability investigation of the Moon.

"KAGUYA 3D Moon NAVI" services, which can show KAGUYA data using a three-dimension geographic information system (WebGIS) through the Internet, have also commenced. The developed software is based on NASA "World Wind" and the KAGUYA's images and data can be displayed using the 3D map projection function. It is necessary to download and install the free software. Please refer to the following homepage for details.

L2 products during the extended operational phase (until June 2009) are scheduled to be released after processing and calibration/validation are finished.

【KAGUYA(SELENE) Data Archive】
http://www.soac.selene.isas.jaxa.jp/

【KAGUYA 3D Moon NAVI】
http://wms.selene.jaxa.jp/3dmoon/index.html

I wish I could post some images but I'm having a bit of trouble with the Data Archive website -- got registered OK, but my searches seem to return database errors. And I couldn't seem to find my way to Terrain Camera data. Perhaps it's because my brain is somewhat mushy from a day of football and beer But I give up for the night and give you guys the link in the hopes you can figure out how to get pretty pictures out of this website!

I've attached the whole doc that Shin-ichi sent me, which contains a little more info about the data sets in the release.

--Emily

Attached File(s)

 SELENE_data__archives_k_1.doc ( 578K ) Number of downloads: 110442

 

[djellison]

First thing I wanted was TOPO data - and managed to get through registration, data search - all worked. Got my email with an FTP link for the 400 meg data file.

Download 4kb/sec.

I'll try again later - I wonder if it'll be mirrored by the PDS themselves.

(100 - 150kb/sec now)

[akuo]

Are they going to release the actual HD camera data?

[djellison]

That's copyrighted by the broadcast company that built the camera I believe - so no. The release specifically states

The position and time of movie images (only catalog information. HDTV movies can be seen on the JAXA digital archives and YouTube site

I managed to buy an import of the blu-ray disk they did and it's worth it for the 15 or so minutes that's included, but they've taken hours and hours of footage since then.

The question for me is - what to do with a .sl2 file.

[Phil Stooke]

I'm registered but I haven't figured it out yet - trying to get TC images or orthomaps in a given area, I search successfully but get 'no data'.

Terrain Camera data as far as I understand it comes in the LISM dataset.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

OK, getting somewhere... if you run the 3D Moon Java app you can view datasets on a globe, and rotate it to view any region. Works great for the altimetry, GRS, magnetometer etc. Then I display TC on that - just a few spots. Tycho is one, Mare Moscoviense another. So back to the database search. Select LISM datasets, search on Tycho coordinates, then choose TC orthomap, and bingo, lots of datasets.

Presumably the database will be populated with other TC scenes later.

Phil

EDIT: I've ordered a TC map scene (2 degrees by 2 degrees, on N rim of TYcho, Surveyor 7 area... I'll be able to FTP it soon. We'll see what we get.

Phil

[mhoward]

I'm downloading the elevation data (at least I hope it's the right file - LALT_GGT_NUM.sl2). Should be interesting...

[Phil Stooke]

--- still struggling with the format. My image appears to be a 8192 x 8192 pixel 32 bit image. So far nothing is opening it. Any suggestions (I mean from somebody who has successfully opened one!)

Edit: Oh poop! I didn't see this before. Should have done my homework first:

About ".sl2"file format
The form of the file compresses tar. Please uncompresses and use.
(example) tar xvf dddd.sl2
dddd.sl2 : Acquisition file name


Phil

[elakdawalla]

I'm glad you're slogging through this and not me!

Via Twitter it seems Mike Howard's been having some success with the topographic data.

[djellison]

Well - I managed to look at the resulting file - after a header it's lat, long, alt

I don't have anything I know of that can turn that into something usefull for me, such as a high bit png/tiff/tga etc etc.

[mhoward]

I don't have anything I know of that can turn that into something usefull for me, such as a high bit png/tiff/tga etc etc.

I'm on it. If my cats will leave me alone for awhile.

It's 5760x2880 floating point values. What format would you ideally like?

[mhoward]

P.S. For the images - I haven't looked at those, but the elevation data has PDS headers, I wonder if the images do too. Maybe IMG2PNG could be adapted? I'd volunteer, but I don't do Windows, or scripting languages. (Actually I think IMG2PNG is an .exe, IIRC.)

[JohnVV]

finally i can get ride of my "artists concept " topo map . that will be wroth while .

[mhoward]

I'm going to have to go out to dinner pretty soon, but I should be able to produce a 5760x2880 bump map PNG, normal map PNG, and binary stream of floats within the next 24 hours, assuming the data is good. Unless somebody else can do it faster.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

P.S. For the images - I haven't looked at those, but the elevation data has PDS headers, I wonder if the images do too. Maybe IMG2PNG could be adapted? I'd volunteer, but I don't do Windows, or scripting languages. (Actually I think IMG2PNG is an .exe, IIRC.)

If these files have PDS headers followed by floating point data IMG2PNG might already be able to read them. If not, modifying it to do so is trivial for me - the most complex step is probably getting the data so I can test it ;-). Can't do it until about 20 hours from now though.

I have been waiting more than 10 years (!) for a nice, global DEM of the Moon so this is something that really interests me.

[Phil Stooke]

IMG2PNG can't do it as it is. The problem might be the header, but I'm not sure. A solution along these lines would be great. Any unzip-type app will extract the IMG file from the downloaded file, but I can't get anything else to open the IMG.

Phil

[djellison]

The best analogy I can come up with is the values in HRSC Dems - which a guy on HRSC kindly wrote an IDL routine to churn into something usefull

hrsc2tif
A tool to convert HRSC PDS- or VICAR-format files to TIFF format.
For DTMs, the 16-bit signed integers are converted to 16-bit unsigned integers by adding 32768.
Limitation: only converts files small enough to be read into RAM.
The software requires installation of the free IDL virtual machine, and runs on all common platforms.

This data set is in km if i remember, so it would need to be multiplied by 1000 first - than then have the negative value of the lowest negative altitude added (i.e. if the lowest is -1580 metres, add 1580 to make them all positive values starting at 0)

To be honest, just a raw array of values normally can be convinced to work with ImageJ or Photoshop.

[JohnVV]

i just looked at LALT_GGT_NUM.TAB in ghex edit
see screen shot
[attachment=19510:Screenshot.png]

on the right -- the 3 columns
top one

CODE

89.96875    0.040   0.09375

is looking like excel is going to get puled out
i will need to pull the middle value
first is lat.
second is the gray value
and the third is the long.

[djellison]

As text loaded straight into ImageJ - it's lat long alt - there's a header that describes it once unzipped (I used 7zip) - you may have it muddled somewhere.

[djellison]

Thanks to mhoward's processing and my running it through ImageJ - we have a 16bit Tif for those that like such things. It looks like the attached 1/4 size JPG and is found HERE - About 26 meg

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[mhoward]

Also, something we've been waiting for for a long time: a proper surface normal map for the Moon.

LALT surface normal map (22MB PNG)

enhanced LALT surface normal map (26MB PNG)

The first version is technically accurate AFAIK; the second is "enhanced" a bit (the normal vector x and y are magnified somewhat). Use whichever one works best. Attached is a quarter-sized version of the enhanced model.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[volcanopele]

These Celestia screenshots use mhoward's regular normal map:

[mhoward]

My cellphone probably can't compete with stuff rendered on a full-blown computer, but an experimental version of my Moon Globe app looks better using this data, too.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[JohnVV]

for celestia you might want to run the 16bit tiff through nms to make a spherical corrected normal map

[mhoward]

for celestia you might want to run the 16bit tiff through nms to make a spherical corrected normal map

If somebody does that, I'd be curious to know if the result is different from mine. I'm glad to know about those tools, but I don't have time to look into them further now.

[mhoward]

P.S. If anybody prefers raw 16-bit binary integer data over the 16-bit TIFF file, I've got that - just PM me let me know download it from here, while my bandwidth lasts. 5760x2880 16-bit signed integer values, values converted from km to m to retain precision.

[claurel]

If somebody does that, I'd be curious to know if the result is different from mine. I'm glad to know about those tools, but I don't have time to look into them further now.

nms (Normal Map Spherical) just applies a correction for the spherical geometry of a planet. The slope in x is increased by a factor of (1/cos(latitude)) to account for the fact that the map is horizontally compressed near the poles. If you wrote a tool especially to make normal maps for planets, it may already be doing this. If not, it's an easy correction to include.

--Chris

[claurel]

Thanks to mhoward's processing and my running it through ImageJ - we have a 16bit Tif for those that like such things.

Thanks for producing this! What heights to the minimum and maximum pixel values represent in this tiff?

EDIT: Probably a dumb question. After opening the zip, I see that the pixel units are apparently meters.

--Chris

[mhoward]

Thanks, Chris. I've got the sine of the latitude in my math, so I think I'm doing the same thing, maybe in a slightly different way. Still would be curious to know if the result comes out exactly the same.

[volcanopele]

Here are a few more screenshots:




And rotation movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arMmSCQiuic

[mhoward]

Awesome movie.

Now that I'm working with the normal map, I notice it's pretty rough around the poles. I'm working on smoothing it out.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Having this DEM is awesome, for the first time I'm able to get lunar renders I'm happy with. Here is a test render. The data is rendered as a DEM (not a normal or bump map) meaning it is possible to spot some slight irregularities (mountains etc.) on the limb, especially in the south. It is rendered using data from the 16 bit integer file created by mhoward and shows the Moon as it might look as seen from the Earth:


And here's another one showing the Moon from a distance of 4000 km from the Moon's center. The field of view is 35 degrees:


At this close range it would be nice to have a slightly higher resolution DEM although this is not a major issue.

Another one, this time 6100 km from the Moon's center, FOV 35 degrees. The "subspacecraft" point is lat=-10, lon=270 degrees west. This is probably my best one so far:


Yet another one, this time from an altitude of 300 km and with a FOV of 45 degrees. This one is intended to show the limitations of the DEM, i.e. insufficient resolution for closeups like this one. It will be fun to do again in the future once the higher resolution LRO data arrives.


This is a lovely dataset to play with.

[Phil Stooke]

Outstanding! The DEM is indeed a wonderful product. I'm a bit concerned right now with what seems to be a very limited release of TC data. As far as I can see it is indeed limited to the small areas visible in the 3DMoon global viewer, but I assume more will be added soon.

One wee problem in 3DMoon - check out the RSAT gravity data - you can plot the Clementine or topography data first, then overlay an RSAT dataset, and flick it on and off to see how it lines up with topography... but it doesn't! They have accidentally flipped it 180 degrees in longitude. I expect it will be fixed soon.


Phil

[claurel]

Now that I'm working with the normal map, I notice it's pretty rough around the poles. I'm working on smoothing it out.

I processed with the 16-bit height data with the nms tool, and I get a normal map that's rougher around the poles. You must be capping the spherical correction factor to some maximum value? My normal map is almost identical to yours except within a couple degrees of the poles. It sure does seems like the polar regions need some filtering--artifacts are apparent near the poles even when slopes aren't amplified by the spherical correction factor.

--Chris

[JohnVV]

i just made a normal with my hacked copy of nms ( mine uses unsigned 16 bit)
the zip is a png image
using my default settings and the default 16 bit tiff from above
5670x2880.png
http://www.zshare.net/download/6793328103b3d90b/

a 1024x512.png image
[attachment=19509:1k.png]

[JohnVV]

two screen shots
the first one is the NEW one at default settings
and the second is my OLD hand drawn height map
[attachment=19511:moon_new.jpg]
[attachment=19512:moon_old.jpg]

[Phil Stooke]

"probably my best so far" - yes, I'd say that deserves to be a Lunar Picture of the Day...

Phil

[Stu]

Bjorn - absolutely stunning pics, thank you!

Do you take requests? I could really do with a couple of nice pics of the crater "Eddington", for obvious reasons...

[SandiBandi]

Bjor (and JohnVV!) amazing work! Seeing oblique Mare Crisium on the west as seen from Earth on the east! Amazing! Langrenus and Humboldt as round craters! Something you can't see from down here

[ugordan]

Outstanding work, Bjorn!

This may be the first time a computer render I've seen be so realistic - in fact with a bit of fiddling around in Photoshop (I assume you didn't do the 2.2 gamma correction judging by contrast?) you could pass it along as a photograph to unsuspecting folks.

[4th rock from th...]

It does look quite photographic ! Congratulations for all the nice renders on this thread.

[mhoward]

You must be capping the spherical correction factor to some maximum value?

Yes - you are right. I think I was doing that for some reason when processing the MOLA data. (In my case it's a minimum value - apparently I've done mine differently somehow, but it's equivalent.)

It sure does seem like the polar regions need some filtering--artifacts are apparent near the poles even when slopes aren't amplified by the spherical correction factor.

Indeed. I've got a somewhat smoothed out version now that I'll post for people to use if they want to: LALT_normalmapV2.png (21.5MB PNG)

Others may be able to do a better job filtering it; this is sufficient for my purposes.

[mhoward]

After adding the LALT normal map, I've been tweaking the lighting parameters in Moon Globe to try to make it look more realistic (something I've already spent a lot of time doing - it's not easy to get this to work on a first-generation iPhone). Here's a quick comparison:

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Outstanding work, Bjorn!

This may be the first time a computer render I've seen be so realistic - in fact with a bit of fiddling around in Photoshop (I assume you didn't do the 2.2 gamma correction judging by contrast?) you could pass it along as a photograph to unsuspecting folks.

Yes, these are probably the most realistic renders I have ever done. And as you suspected there's no 2.2 gamma correction - your versions are even more realistic.

Bjorn - absolutely stunning pics, thank you!

Do you take requests? I could really do with a couple of nice pics of the crater "Eddington", for obvious reasons...

Normally not but here's a quick and dirty render with Eddington visible. The "subspacecraft" point is 22°N, 95°W, the distance from the Moon's center is 6100 km and the FOV is 35°. The subsolar longitude is 15°W.



I should probably make a rotation movie of this thing...

[nprev]

Quick, oh yes, but dirty....? Stunning.

[mhoward]

That's extraordinary, Bjorn.

Earlier today I updated the second version of my normal map (link above), to smooth over a few spots where there are glitches in the source data.

[djellison]

Finally figured out self shadowing terrain that I've been struggling with for a while... a couple of what I THINK are realistic renders, plus one with UBER-EXAGER-TERRAIN and a final one that's exagerated, but only to look a bit more realistic. It seems I have to turn up above and beyond what I'd expect the numbers to require for realistic terrain - perhaps because of the comparatively low level of detail in the terrain models.

And because the resolution isn't that good - a bit of foreshortening to get a look at Eddington for Stu

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Stu]

These Kaguya-derived images are absolutely stunning, great work everyone. This actually feels like a planetary encounter, with new images of a new world for us all to drool over...

And thanks for the Eddington pic Doug, much appreciated. I've some big talks coming up before Christmas and really want to be able to show off that crater, for obvious reasons :-)

[ElkGroveDan]

I like the exaggerated one. Somehow on a globe it doesn't seem to be terribly out of place. I think it's useful for understanding the terrain and relative elevations and crater depths.

[S_Walker]

I wonder when we'll see the first program that accurately renders this topographical data so we can really plan our lunar observations...

Excellent renders, everyone!

[mhoward]

For those of you wondering, as I was, which one is Eddington Crater...

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

I had to look it up as well And S_Walker - the answer is about 2hrs, 40 minutes. The post following yours qualifies I think.

Just rendering a near-side 300 frame animation of dawn to dusk with very exaggerated terrain

[S_Walker]

I had to look it up as well And S_Walker - the answer is about 2hrs, 40 minutes. The post following yours qualifies I think.

Thanks. What about those who don't own an iPhone?

[djellison]

There's Google Earth/Moon/Mars

[mhoward]

There's Google Earth/Moon/Mars

Nah... Google Moon is nice but it doesn't use a topographic map for lighting as far as I remember? And I'm not sure if you can set it to show the view from your backyard.

Can Celestia be set to view the Moon from a position on Earth? At least two of us have already produced normal maps; it's a small step from that to the amazing screenshots that volcanopele was posting.

I imagine what S_Walker really wants is something that does Bjorn- or Doug- type rendering to show the Moon from a location and time on Earth. Don't know about that. But Celestia or Moon Globe would probably be good enough for a lot of purposes.

[S_Walker]

I imagine what S_Walker really wants is something that does Bjorn- or Doug- type rendering to show the Moon from a location and time on Earth. Don't know about that. But Celestia or Moon Globe would probably be good enough for a lot of purposes.

Similar; I'd like something like Virtual Moon Atlas or RITI Lunar Map Pro so that I can better plot interesting features to observe under favorable librations each month in Chuck Wood's Explore the Moon column in S&T (I edit it each month).

[mhoward]

I see. Well as Doug points out, Moon Globe may well be first out the door with those features, for anyone who has an iPhone or iPod Touch. And it's free. I'll be submitting the update using LALT data quite soon. (End promotion.)

I don't own it, but RITI Lunar Map Pro looks like they definitely *should* upgrade to the LALT data for lighting. (Adding: Ironically, the LALT data is actually less sharp than the airbrushed topographic map they seem to be using - I know that because I was using it too. So they may have a problem with that. But even though it's low resolution, the global LALT map we've seen is vastly more accurate.)

Virtual Moon Atlas looks like it doesn't do topopgraphic lighting, so that would be more of a reach.

[claurel]

Nah... Google Moon is nice but it doesn't use a topographic map for lighting as far as I remember? And I'm not sure if you can set it to show the view from your backyard.

Can Celestia be set to view the Moon from a position on Earth? At least two of us have already produced normal maps; it's a small step from that to the amazing screenshots that volcanopele was posting.

Celestia can do this, but the UI for doing so isn't as convenient as one would like. The Celestia UI was designed around moving through space, and features for viewing from the Earth's surface have never gotten the attention that they deserve. But, see question #5 here:

http://shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=118149#p118149

We're in the process of making the Kaguya map the default in Celestia, and a UI overall is coming in the not-too-distant future.

--Chris

(I've got an iPhone and love the Moon and Mars globe apps, btw. Great work!)

[mhoward]

Thanks. I'm also a Celestia fan.

[JohnVV]

mhoward
there will be a hires add on for celestia soon .As soon as i replace my hand made map on the motherload

[djellison]

Exagerated rendering : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3MxCvjQDzk and once processed by vimeo http://vimeo.com/7479346

Also uploading to http://www.dougellison.com/dougstuff/kaguy...render_1080.mov - About 10 meg.

[ugordan]

Oooh, exaggerated is right! Looks great. And kind of creepy, too.

[Rick Sternbach]

My thanks to everyone who made the 16-bit grayscale map possible. I don't have the time right now to play with applying the map to a sphere as I would in Maya or Lightwave, but I have been able to trim out pieces of the map to drop into Terragen, and am very encouraged by the results for use in future artwork. As Bjorn has shown, the data does become somewhat blob-like close up, but Terragen's textures help a bit. This also gets me very excited over the possibilities for using the LOLA data when it becomes available in the coming months.

Rick

[claurel]

Joining in the spinning Moon video party... Here's the Moon rendered with a specular highlight to emphasize topography:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agMcK77p3Hc

The overall effect is of looking at a plastic globe.

EDIT: Uploaded the wrong video the first time. As pointed out by FordPrefect, there was a 180 degree offset between the normal and albedo maps.

--Chris

[JohnVV]

For the past 1 1/2 days i have been trying to get yout???? to except my moon vid ( like the deimos and phobos ) but youtub keeps mangling and f'ing up the ogg file .

http://www.zshare.net/download/68108952dcb3c6a7/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqxLrig6tQc

[FordPrefect]

Fantastic Work everyone! I've been hoping for such a DEM since 2003. Spectacular, this global Moon DEM rocks!

Joining in the spinning Moon video party... Here's the Moon rendered with a specular highlight to emphasize topography:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZCcYIYq5Ok

Chris, it seems your DEM map is shifted by 180 degrees in relation to your albedo texture there.

[pch]

Virtual Moon Atlas looks like it doesn't do topopgraphic lighting, so that would be more of a reach.

This must change!
A new version is in progress and I have added normal map lightning last summer even I was not very happy with the map I can build before this data release.
I have downloaded the Kaguya data and I just start to play with them, it look great!
This must be released before the end of the year.

Patrick

[mhoward]

Not just a movie party - a lunar software convention!

Here's a comparison that may be interesting. The first screenshot is Moon Globe with its original, lame pre-Kayuga normal map, and the second is Moon Globe 1.1 with the same view, using my version of the LALT normal map. I've just submitted Moon Globe 1.1 to the App Store, so with any luck it should be showing up in two weeks or so.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[claurel]

Has anyone else noticed a slight misalignment between the Kaguya LALT map and existing albedo maps, specifically those from Clementine?

--Chris

[Phil Stooke]

Map control from altimeters is much better than the old control - MOLA is the standard for Mars, for instance. In this case the Kaguya control will be far superior to the old Unified Lunar Control Network, which is a mix of control points from Clementine and older missions, basically tens of thousands of points measured on overlapping images. Ultimately we can expect to see older datasets like the Clementine and Lunar Orbiter mosaics, plus the LRO wide angle mosaic, all converted to the altimetry control. LOLA will be the ultimate standard just because of its its high density.

Phil

[claurel]

Map control from altimeters is much better than the old control...

Thanks for your answer, Phil. It sounds like there's nothing to be done about the misalignment for now, but it's good to understand the source of it.

--Chris

[djellison]

So back to the database search. Select LISM datasets, search on Tycho coordinates, then choose TC orthomap, and bingo, lots of datasets.

I've had no luck with this yet - how are you using the four coordinates, are you ignoring the time fields, and which instrument sets, specifically are you using.

[mhoward]

Has anyone else noticed a slight misalignment between the Kaguya LALT map and existing albedo maps, specifically those from Clementine?

I may be mis-remembering here, but if memory serves, there have been two different versions of the Clementine albedo map. I think I'm using the later one - it had some new holes in it that I had to patch up. Whatever I'm using, it seems to me to agree quite well with the LALT data.

Again I may be way off here, but the later-model Clementine albedo map might have been re-projected after the Clementine laser altimeter results?

[Phil Stooke]

Clem laser altimetry was such low resolution that it doesn't help very much here. It's absorbed into the Unified Lunar Control Network. The point really is that, if the Kaguya team did their work properly, which they presumably did, their result will be better than anything older. If there's a mismatch it's more likely to be with the older dataset.

Doug:

"I've had no luck with this yet - how are you using the four coordinates, are you ignoring the time fields, and which instrument sets, specifically are you using."

First, from the data search page, click product selection - it opens a new window. In it I choose LISM and click 'add all'. The datasets appear in the righthand window.

Second, choose (for example) LISM/MAP/TC-Morning-Map, then click 'determination'.

Back to the first window - now I select data from that dataset. I ignore time, I use coordinates that bracket an area I'm interested in. For instance, Tycho, lat range -40 to -50, long range 340 to 359. Then click 'search execution'.

That takes me to a new page, 'list of search result'. It shows nothing until I again choose the TC morning map line from the product box. But then it lists lots of products, 28 tiles of the big mosaic map. Choose one - click on the file name to see metadata and a thumbnail. Click the order box to order it, and it's put on an FTP server for you. An email tells you how to get it.

I have one - it has to be unzipped. I'm still trying to open it, but too busy to do much yet.

Phil

[mhoward]

Clem laser altimetry was such low resolution that it doesn't help very much here. It's absorbed into the Unified Lunar Control Network. The point really is that, if the Kaguya team did their work properly, which they presumably did, their result will be better than anything older. If there's a mismatch it's more likely to be with the older dataset.

Thanks for the correction. Still, I believe there was a version 1 of the Clementine albedo map that was pre-Lunar Control Network, even. If you happen to be using that, I imagine it doesn't match up with the LALT data very well at all.

[Michael Zeiler]

I downloaded the Kaguya LALT_GGT_NUM data set from JAXA and built a digital terrain model with ArcGIS software. I then applied some hypsometric rendering techniques and made these maps. Here's the first map, a global view of the moon built from the surface model and no albedo data.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Michael Zeiler]

Another lunar hypsometric map, the near side of the moon

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Michael Zeiler]

The far side of the moon.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Michael Zeiler]

Here's the north pole perspective

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Michael Zeiler]

And the perspective above the south pole of the moon.

If you are curious about my mapping method, I applied the cartographic tools described at http://blogs.esri.com/Support/blogs/mappin...de-toolbox.aspx

This is a modern implementation of the cartographic relief methods developed by the Swiss cartographer Eduard Imhof in the 1930's. Originally designed for maps of the Alps, this mapping method shows a new "perspective" of the moon.

It's a bit weird looking at the "naked" moon without it's ray systems and albedo differences between the mare and highlands, but it's still pretty recognizable. In term of hypsometric relief, the far side is much more interesting then the near side.

regards, Michael Zeiler, ESRI

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[claurel]

Thanks for the correction. Still, I believe there was a version 1 of the Clementine albedo map that was pre-Lunar Control Network, even. If you happen to be using that, I imagine it doesn't match up with the LALT data very well at all.

I can confirm that newer (or perhaps just 'other') versions of the Clementine albedo map do match up better with the LALT data. Unfortunately, the Clementine map that does align well also suffers from the gaps that you mentioned.

--Chris

[JohnVV]

i used the "Clem_NIR_V0.1 " 5 band pds data for my map and there is a misalignment
ftp://pdsimage2.wr.usgs.gov/cdroms/clementine/Clem_NIR_V0.1/
texture with the normal
[attachment=19612:moon1.jpg]
without the normal
[attachment=19613:moon2.jpg]

some of this might be from the new topo has 0.0 long in the middle on the pixel and the texture is at the left edge of the pixel
the normal was bumped up to 8192x4096 image
from the LALT_GGT_MAP.IMG header
" and from +0.03125 to +359.96875 degrees in longitude."

[Bjorn Jonsson]

A decided to do a rotation movie. The "subspacecraft" latitude is 10°S, the phase angle ~70°, the field of view 25° and the distance from the Moon's center 12000 km. In a way this feels like looking at a new planet/satellite. I have not been interested in doing Moon renders until now because no DEM that I considered good enough was available.

 lunar_rotation_movie.avi ( 6.29MB ) Number of downloads: 3595

[djellison]

Bit of fun turning the elevation map into a coloured gradient, followed by a lighting effect (using the elevation map) - and then polar projecting the whole thing around the south pole. the result is fairly profound!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Guest_mcgyver_*]

An italian guy here is looking for somebody able to make a 3d animation of the apollo landing sites:
http://moonscape-project.blogspot.com/2009...-moonscape.html

Is anyone of you able?

---------

I would like to see Kahuya data in WorldWind, but it does not run as a webstart application on my internet-connected PC, so I'd like to download it and install it on another PC: any tips about where to download an offline version?

[stevesliva]

Bit of fun turning the elevation map into a coloured gradient, followed by a lighting effect (using the elevation map) - and then polar projecting the whole thing around the south pole. the result is fairly profound!

Beautiful image!

[Jzmiller1]

I just received the following from Shin-ichi Sobue at JAXA:I wish I could post some images but I'm having a bit of trouble with the Data Archive website -- got registered OK, but my searches seem to return database errors. And I couldn't seem to find my way to Terrain Camera data. Perhaps it's because my brain is somewhat mushy from a day of football and beer But I give up for the night and give you guys the link in the hopes you can figure out how to get pretty pictures out of this website!

I've attached the whole doc that Shin-ichi sent me, which contains a little more info about the data sets in the release.

--Emily

I've downloaded some data from the SELENE website for the MI instrument, I'm trying to open the IMG file but not having much luck. I've tried importing it with ERDAS, opening it with multispec, and also ImageJ. Can anyone give some pointers on getting the PDS3 IMG files to open in some software? I'm still abit new to the non earth data thing. Thanks.

[djellison]

Things I try (usually in this order)

NASAView
ImageJ with PDS Plugin
img2png
a very very large drink followed by ISIS3

[JohnVV]

I've downloaded some data from the SELENE website

i was able to open them using isis3 and the " raw2isis"
once i opened then in ghex to find out how big the header was
pds2isis and vicar2isis failed

a very very large drink followed by ISIS3

funny , ha ha

[mhoward]

Just to join the rotation movie party: Moon Globe rotation movie on YouTube.

[Jzmiller1]

I finally got my copy of ENVI running. Opening the MI data was easiest with ENVI. Thanks for the tips tho!

[kwan3217]

I don't know if this is well known or not, but I am a bit surprised to not see this discussed here. The highest point on the Kaguya data, and therefore their idea of "Mt Everest" is on the wall of a crater, which itself is on the wall of a 500km unnamed crater just north of crater Korolev on the far side

alt: 10715
image x,y: 342 1526 (from bottom right of image)
lon,lat: 158.625W 5.375N

The lowest point ("Challenger Deep") is on the floor of 140km diameter Antoniadi crater, also on the far side in the South Polar basin.

alt: -9138
image x,y: 120 314
lon,lat: 172.5W 70.375S

Both of these points are unique, in that there are no other points with the same elevation in the data.



This map has all the craters I could find a list for, the highest point marked in black in the red area near the top, and the lowest point is marked in red in the deep purple area near the bottom. If the crater has a name, it's not in my list and I would love to know it.

Edit: Emily already mentioned this in the middle of her blog entry, so no discoveries here. I didn't find any of this until I looked up "Antoniadi" on Google. That "unnamed" crater apparently is provisionally named Dirichlet-Jackson.

[mhoward]

Here's a better Moon Globe rotation movie at an oblique angle.

[JohnVV]

as to the high and low points i have been finding "noise" in the 5760x2880.img
the low point looks like a single pix ( 16bit unsigned "0" in a crater that avg about 300 to 500 ) .I would need to find it again to double check .

i just checked and there is noise but not these two points

nip2 tells me the min is at ( 120x2565 )
max is at ( 342x1353)

min
[attachment=19712:Screenshot_min.png]
max
[attachment=19713:Screenshot_max.png]

[Jim Mosher]

This map has all the craters I could find a list for, the highest point marked in black in the red area near the top, and the lowest point is marked in red in the deep purple area near the bottom. If the crater has a name, it's not in my list and I would love to know it.

Kwan,

The definitive source of lunar names is the IAU Planetary Gazetteer, the most useful version of which, for the present purpose, is Jennifer Blue's Digital Nomenclature Atlas. The high point you located is on the rim of a 43-km diameter crater called Engel'gardt in LAC 69 -- actually on the shared rim of Engel'gardt and the larger ("136 km") Engel'gardt B.

You can see a grayscale version of the Kaguya global DEM for this area, with all the current IAU names superimposed using a software called LTVT, here. The misregistration of some of the features relative to where they appear in the Kaguya data is due to inaccuracies in the IAU data, which were originally intended only to be accurate enough to unambiguously identify what feature was meant by each name. I understand the IAU coordinates and diameters may be redone next year using newer and better controlled images.

-- Jim

[Carsten]

I downloaded the Kaguya LALT_GGT_NUM data set from JAXA and built a digital terrain model with ArcGIS software.

Really nice work Michael. Could you give a short tutorial on how to import the data and convert it into a DEM? What projections are to be used?

[Jim Mosher]

I wonder when we'll see the first program that accurately renders this topographical data so we can really plan our lunar observations...

Sean,

You may wish to check today's LPOD.

-- Jim

[Michael Zeiler]

Really nice work Michael. Could you give a short tutorial on how to import the data and convert it into a DEM? What projections are to be used?

Carsten,

I'm glad you like the maps. My method applies the following steps with ArcGIS software (www.esri.com):

After downloading the large LALT_GGT_NUM dataset from the JAXA, I used an ArcGIS tool called "ASCII 3D to Feature Class". This tool is designed to import an ASCII file with x,y,z values to create a multipoint feature class, a point data structure designed to scale up to billions of elevation points, such as you encounter with lidar data.

From the multipoint feature class, I created a terrain dataset. A terrain dataset is a generic GIS data structure which is essentially a multi-resolution triangulated irregular network. See http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/...ataset_concepts

From the terrain dataset, I exported a raster dataset.

From the raster dataset, I applied a geoprocessing model that applies two cartographic effects: hillshaded-relief plus hypsometric tints using a color ramp. This model is described at http://blogs.esri.com/Support/blogs/mappin...de-toolbox.aspx

This technique is a modern implementation of shaded relief pioneered by the Swiss cartographer, Eduard Imhof, in his classic book, Cartographic Relief Presentation, first published in 1965.

In those maps, I use two map projections, Mollweide for the full global view of the Moon, and Orthographic for the four hemispheric views.

Through my work, I have access to the ArcGIS software suite. This is professional grade GIS software that most space enthusiasts could not casually purchase, so I know that my method is not easily adapted by most on this forum. But this was a quick and fun project for me because I am presently writing a textbook on geographic data modeling and this was a good application of terrain visualization methods.

Also, when I examined the DEM built from the LALT_GGT_NUM dataset, I found a large fictitious lunar mountain at selenographic coordinates 16d 11m N, 87d 33m E

I made a slope map from the Kaguya DEM and categorized the peaks with the greatest slopes on the Moon. Some suspicious lunar peaks are at

48 19 S, 141 22 E, 63 degree slope
16 11 N, 87 33 E, 60 degree slope
20 56 N, 60 32 E, 58 degree slope
48 11 S, 8 48 W, 56 degree slope
32 26 S, 58 57 E, 55 degree slope
22 15 N, 81 53 E, 52 degree slope
59 11 S, 46 16 E, 50 degree slope
61 38 N, 8 16 W, 47 degree slope
66 29 N, 70 10 W, 46 degree slope

I don't necessarily assert each one of the peaks are false, but they are suspicious because of their high slope values.

regards, Michael Zeiler ESRI

[Phil Stooke]

Your maps are very nice indeed, Michael.

Apparent peaks caused by bad pixels in the original data are found in many raw DEMs and can be edited out if necessary. A good example can be seen in Google Earth's Moon map at 10.8114 N, 54.3234 E on the southern edge of Mare Crisium - pointed out by Joel Raupe. This is in the high resolution DEM on the Apollo 15 Metric camera strip in that map.

Phil

[Jim Mosher]

Carsten,

Also, when I examined the DEM built from the LALT_GGT_NUM dataset, I found a large fictitious lunar mountain at selenographic coordinates 16d 11m N, 87d 33m E ...

Michael,

Your 3D renderings (as featured on today's LPOD) are indeed very lovely, but are you sure your coordinate readouts are correct?

The Kaguya DEM definitely has some small-scale glitches -- including bad cells, completely missing some craters of ~10 km diameter and representing others as hills -- but I can find nothing particularly strange at the locations you mention. For example, if I am not mistaken, 16d 11m N, 87d 33m E should be sample 1401 in line 1342 of the global DEM. The elevation listed there (at least in the machine-readable, floating point LALT_GGT_MAP.IMG) is -1.490 km (relative to the 1737.4 km reference). None of the 8 nearest neighbor cells differ by more than 100 m (most by much less), which over 1/16th degree (~1.9 km) gives slopes of 3 deg or less.

The "large fictitious lunar mountain" you report should be at the exact center of the two attachments (produced with LTVT), which compare the area (with Neper in the upper left) as viewed by Lunar Orbiter IV (1967 May 11 17:30:07 UT) and as predicted for the same circumstances using the Kaguya DEM. I am unable to see anything particularly anomalous at that the center of these images.

-- Jim

Attached thumbnail(s)