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Posted by: jumpjack Oct 2 2008, 07:20 AM

What about collecting into a single thread all cool animated GIFs about Phoenix activities?
A possible list of cool images is:
- soil digging
- ice scraping
- TEGA filling
- ice melting
- dust devils
- sunset/sunrise
- snowing

Thanks for your contribution!

Direct links to images, or even attachments, would be better than just links to pages which link to images.

Standalone page with inline animations:
http://www.planetmobile.it/jumpjack/immagini/phoenix/animazioni-phoenix.html

Posted by: djellison Oct 2 2008, 07:52 AM

I don't want attachments doubled up purely to be put into an animation thread. If they're already on the forum, link to the post they're in.

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 2 2008, 08:28 AM

...possibly to the single post rather than the whole thread, being some threads several pages long!

Posted by: djellison Oct 2 2008, 08:30 AM

As I said - link to the post they're in.

Posted by: CosmicRocker Oct 4 2008, 05:45 AM

Off site animations are even better. There is a nice, off site gif animation of frost accumulating on the telltale mirror http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/video/phoenix_givre.gif.

Here is an off site http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/phoenix_news.gif from the same Canadian site.


It still blows my mind to realize I am seeing dust devils on the northern arctic plains of Mars as winter approaches. This is indeed a strange planet.

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 4 2008, 08:18 AM

Full inline quote removed - ADMIN
DD even at pole?!?
really a weird planet. I thought DD where caused by warm/hot air...

Posted by: djellison Oct 4 2008, 09:08 AM

Yes - they've been observed from orbit, and now from the ground. They're caused by relative heat - not just heat per-se.

Posted by: climber Oct 4 2008, 10:18 AM

Sorry if it has already been said here, but I wonder if they use the same kind of software as MER's to image DD?

Posted by: djellison Oct 4 2008, 10:47 AM

No - the PHX and MER avionics are quite different.

Posted by: dvandorn Oct 4 2008, 04:33 PM

What amazes me is not that we're seeing dust devils -- as Doug said, it's all a matter of relative temps, as long as the differential is of the right magnitude, it doesn't really matter what the overall temperature state is.

No, what amazes me is that there doesn't seem to be any albedo impact from these DDs. In other regions, DD tracks are quite obvious and even prominent. Here, there was no trace of such DD "leavings" in any of the HiRISE images of the area.

It's not because the soil is of uniform albedo -- we can see very clearly that the soil disturbed by Phoenix's landing thrusters is much darker than the undisturbed soil. Also, soil disturbed by impact from the heatshield and backshell shows a distinct darkening.

Why, then, if DDs roam these plains, are there no DD tracks?

That's the really fascinating question here, to me.

-the other Doug

Posted by: climber Oct 4 2008, 08:34 PM

No enough dust?

Posted by: Deimos Oct 5 2008, 02:07 AM

Maybe they just need to take another Hirise image? MOC images of the Phoenix latitude band show lots of dust devil tracks, even if the hirise of Phoenix did not. So, maybe they fade quickly, but are there now. Or, maybe these are just too small. Only one or two of the Phoenix dust devils favorably compare to the typical Spirit dust devils. The rest are smaller and pick up much less dust.

Posted by: djellison Oct 5 2008, 07:51 AM

Or - maybe there are streaks being created by these DD's - but - in the same way we couldn't see the heat-shield at first - the lumpy bumpy nature of the terrain hides them?

Posted by: Tman Oct 5 2008, 09:00 AM

DDs on sol 127

Posted by: Stu Oct 5 2008, 12:23 PM

Clouds are thickening (Sol 128)..

Posted by: ustrax Oct 5 2008, 01:09 PM

W-O-W!!!

Posted by: dvandorn Oct 5 2008, 06:01 PM

Well, we've known for a century that the "north polar hood" of clouds and haze forms every Martian spring and fall. But I'll tell you, I'm *really* pumped to see it floating overhead like the leaden lid of an overcast day. That really makes Mars a familiar-looking place, to me.

I just worry a bit about how much energy-delivering sunlight those clouds are blocking.

-the other Doug

Posted by: ugordan Oct 5 2008, 06:29 PM

Probably not that much, in fact they could mostly be forward-scattering light in essence making the illumination more diffuse only.

Posted by: fredk Oct 5 2008, 07:18 PM

See http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5420&view=findpost&p=127063

Posted by: mars loon Oct 5 2008, 07:41 PM

Tman and Stu : Fabulous, thank you

I just added these (with credits) to my upcoming lectures
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=1972&view=findpost&p=127287

this thread is an excellent idea

ken

Posted by: antipode Oct 6 2008, 01:51 AM

It may just be an artifact of the animation, but it sure looks like there's a fallout streak visible under one of those clouds - look at each frame separately. Please someone convince me I am mistaken.

P

Posted by: djellison Oct 6 2008, 07:28 AM

One could certainly infer fallout under these clouds. It's what LIDAR is telling us.

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 6 2008, 08:58 AM

really cool animation!
It's a pity it's no available in color.

I think it should also be possible to obtain a stereo anaglyph of clouds from a couple of this frame.

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 6 2008, 09:04 AM

Another cool animation:
http://\"http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=15844\"

I guess it\'s due to the wind?

It\'s by ElkGroveDan (Post: http://\"http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5420&view=findpost&p=126143)\"

How can I attach to this message same attachment of another message without saving it to my hard disk?

EDIT:

More clouds:
http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/080902-mars-clouds-m-02.gif
(http://\"http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=080902-mars-clouds-m-02.gif∩=Clouds+scoot+across+the+Martian+sky+in+a+movie+clip+consisting+of+10+frames+taken+by+the+Surface+Stereo+Imager+on+NASA%27s+Phoenix+Mars+Lander.+This+clip+a\")


Melting ice:
http://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/dodo_020_024.gif
(LINK:http://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/events/nasa_phoenix_landing/)

In this thread there are a lot of good animations!
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5420&st=315
I'll ask them to post them here.

http://phoenixpics.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/sol101sunrise.gif

Telltale: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=15600

Tega filling and solar panels "flapping"!!! http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=15624

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 10 2008, 07:16 AM

Ever seen stars on Mars?
Look at them... through the clouds!

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/phoenix/collection_16/16006.gif

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 10 2008, 09:34 AM

I collected all animations found in this thread, and many others, into a single, HEAVY web page:
http://www.planetmobile.it/jumpjack/immagini/phoenix/animazioni-phoenix.html

(link is also in first post)

Posted by: Deimos Oct 10 2008, 03:08 PM

Those are hot pixels in the detector. The sky is too bright at all times for SSI to see stars. But, stars have been seen from Mars' surface, as has Earth. Some examples are at http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/projects_2.html.

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 10 2008, 04:00 PM

why only in those images those pixels are visible?!?

Posted by: djellison Oct 10 2008, 04:04 PM

There are actually hot pixels visible in lots of images, but when there is more details to them, they get lost within the detail.

Posted by: Astro0 Oct 19 2008, 01:21 PM

Sol141 clouds with dust devils. I've contrast stretched the sky and ground separately to bring out the details.
The DDs are quite tall contrasted against the clouds.
 Sol141_Clouds_DDs.wmv ( 366.5K ) : 741

Posted by: jumpjack Oct 19 2008, 02:01 PM

Stormy.

But I don't see the DDs....

Any chance to see such an animation in color?

Posted by: Astro0 Oct 19 2008, 02:18 PM

The DDs come right at the end - last 3-4 frames. Tall columns against the sky. Not to be confused with the clouds.

I'm sure that some UMSF'er could colourise the scene, but I think it would never look quite right.

Posted by: Shaka Oct 19 2008, 07:54 PM

I can't see nuttin'!
Wish I knew why so many of these .wmv things knock up a QT page and then show a blank screen.
I suppose it's my Zone Alarm wall, but I just wish it would give me the option to be protected or not.
...sigh

Posted by: TheChemist Oct 19 2008, 08:41 PM

Seems to me you need to associate .wmv and .avi files with your Windows Media Player (assuming you do run some sort of Windows ?), and stop blaming the poor firewall.

The QT player cannot read .avi files such as this one, unless there is some extra codec which you can download for it (if such codec exists, I have no idea), maybe the Mac people here can help.

Posted by: mhoward Oct 19 2008, 09:12 PM

Right-click the file and download it. Then change its extension from .wmv.avi to just .wmv. Then load it in QuickTime player. I don't know why... that's just what works here.

And you must have http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=915D874D-D747-4180-A400-5F06B1B5E559&displaylang=en installed.

Posted by: Shaka Oct 20 2008, 12:16 AM

I just wanna thank all you wunnerful people around the world for helpin' me out here.

My favorite Chemist hit it first try, and, after roaming around looking for preference menus, I found the one that matters in Firefox!
Why all those video file types were assigned to the Quicktime player I have no idea - (I certainly didn't tell it to do that.) - but now they're assigned to the Windows player, and -JOY! - I get to watch Astro0's great movie. Color me happy.

Posted by: CosmicRocker Nov 2 2008, 06:25 AM

It has been my experience that when you install various media players, certain ones hijack file extensions promiscuously. You need to be cautious when accepting their installation defaults.

edited to repair grammar