Google Mars 3d (With HiRISE!), Part of Google Earth 5 Options

[jekbradbury]

Download: Google Earth 5 w/Mars
An early overview is available here.

This is exactly what I've been waiting for ever since Google Earth came out five years ago. And HiRISE integration is amazing.

[Antdoghalo]

I hope Google includes the MOC,CTX and HIRISE images in the next release!
That way i can resume my search for volcanoes on the red planet !


Good thing theres a lot of user discoveries, overlays, databases, and info at Google Earth Community!

[Nirgal]

Does anyone know exactly how Googe Mars does obtain their Digital Terrain Models (DTM) used to render those views ?

It was my understanding that they use the MOLA base map (200-meter-ish post spacing) plus HRSC (Mars Express) DEMs (~50 m resolution) where available and only then draping CTX/HiRISE images etc. over them.

HOWEVER: The impression from views like that of the "half crater" and "landslide-alley" posted by Stu above is that the actual terrain models must be considerably more accurate than MOLA alone.
But yet there does not seem any other altimetry data of that region (i.e. HRSC or HiRISE DTMs) The only related data is CTX imagery but that is 2D-only, i.e. can be draped over the terrain)

So are we seeing still officially unreleased HRSC DTM data, or am I missing some other sources ?

A related question: is there a way to view/save the data in Google Mars as a height map, i.e. similar to what is displayed in the "google maps" like window at the bottom of each HiRISE observation page (i.e. http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_016354_1745 ?

[Nirgal]

Does anyone know exactly how Googe Mars does obtain their Digital Terrain Models (DTM) used to render those views ?
...
So are we seeing still officially unreleased HRSC DTM data, or am I missing some other sources ?

Now I can anser the first of my questions myself: I simply did not zoom out far enough to see the huge green stripes that indicate the MEX/HRSC coverage when enabled in the "Spacecraft Imagery" checkbox
Those HRSC stripes are so large that they are simply not visible at finer scales ... zooming out one can see that really about 50% of the surface must have been coverd by HRSC already ... very impressive !!

The following question remains. Anyone able to get the Google Mars view as height values rather than 3D shaded perspective ?

A related question: is there a way to view/save the data in Google Mars as a height map, i.e. similar to what is displayed in the "google maps" like window at the bottom of each HiRISE observation page (i.e. http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_016354_1745 ?

[ArMaP]

Anyone able to get the Google Mars view as height values rather than 3D shaded perspective ?

I don't understand what you mean, are you asking about something like this?

[Nirgal]

I don't understand what you mean, are you asking about something like this?

That's not quite what I'm looking for: this view does not only contain the color coded height values but there is an additional relief shading applied and mixed with the color coded height. While this is convenient for viewing it is hard to extract the original height data (i.e the DEM) from it. Plus, the color coded height view seems to be available at the coarsest (MOLA) resolution only. The much more detailed HRSC 3D data is not displayed or downloadable in this manner although it must be used by the Google Mars engine internally for the perspective view display.

However, as I have found out in the mean time, there is a direct link provided to the original PDS data record of the HRSC observations that can be used to download and process the original imagery and DTM data