LOLA PDS release #5 Options

[zeBeamer]

Hi All,

Some LOLA products for the PDS release (#5), which will be officially out on March 15, 2011, are now available on the LOLA PDS node !
Label files and documentation are still being worked out, but I thought it'd be good to post (and some of you know we usually put those products online a bit early)

The data released are from July 13, 2009 to January 31, 2011.
There are EDRs/RDRs (individual profiles) for the courageous ones. But most of you will prefer the map products ( http://imbrium.mit.edu/DATA/LOLA_GDR/ ).
In addition to IMG products (int16), there are JP2 files (GeoJPEG2000) which are compressed (lossless) and contain projection information. If you use a GIS programs, that should be helpful. The attached XML files contain the statistics already, which could save you 10+ minutes for the bigger grids upon loading. (Due to PDS filenaming conventions, you need to rename them to file.JP2.aux.xml for that to work properly; tested on ArcGIS).
And keep in mind that in both those formats, the data were digitized at a 0.5m granularity, so you will need to divide the values by 2 to get the actual heights (in meters).

Also of interest for visualization are the updated LOLA texture packages for Celestia.
ZIP files here: http://imbrium.mit.edu/EXTRAS/CELESTIA/
and a few screenshots:







It'd be great also to know how this community is using the LOLA data, so please reply if you do:
1- Experimental Data Records (EDR) [raw telemetry]
2 - Reduced Data Records (RDR) [altimetric profiles]
3 - IMG Gridded Data Records (GDR) [maps]
4 - JP2 Gridded Data Records (GDR) [maps]
5 - Celestia Virtual Textures


Enjoy !!

Erwan

EDIT 2011.02.25 08:30pm EST
I realized there was a mistake in the level 0 normal map. (The files were the same as the topography texture...)
The ZIP files have been updated. In case you downloaded the "old" version, you can download the two level 0 files here instead of re-downloading the ZIP.

[charborob]

Great animation! Keep them coming.
Did you notice the pinnacle-like feature in the lower right corner at the beginning of the animation? (see image capture below) Is that real or a processing artifact?

[Mars3D]

Its almost certainly bad data. I automatically filter some of the bad data out but it doesn't catch everything.

[joertexas]

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How are you creating the 3D flybys?

JR

[Mars3D]

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I 'm using the same rendering software I wrote for visualising the Mars HiRISE data.

[joertexas]

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I've been looking for a 3D map of the lunar north pole, specifically, a 30km radius centered at 89.55N 30W. I've downloaded the LOLA files and viewed them with LTVT, but that's as far as I've gotten with it.

Is your software an adaptation of something that's available online, or is it a custom program?

JR

[Mars3D]

I've been looking for a 3D map of the lunar north pole, specifically, a 30km radius centered at 89.55N 30W. I've downloaded the LOLA files and viewed them with LTVT, but that's as far as I've gotten with it.

Is your software an adaptation of something that's available online, or is it a custom program?

JR

It's a custom program.

Here's a map of the area you mentioned.

Here's another map of the north pole showing a larger area (with exagerated lighting)

[joertexas]

It's a custom program.

Here's a map of the area you mentioned.

Here's another map of the north pole showing a larger area (with exagerated lighting)

Those are fantastic! Much better than what I've seen - even the LROC images don't do the terrain justice.

JR

[Mars3D]

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JOE & 3D *** YOU DON"T NEED TO QUOTE THE COMMENT IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING YOURS ****

Thanks, I should point out that for the second image the terrain was scaled vertically by a factor of two.

[joertexas]

I thought that second image looked a little lumpy compared to the other one. Now I know why

Again, great pics. If you decide to produce any low angle 3D images, that'd be wonderful, too

JR

[Jim Mosher]

JR,

You indicated earlier that you had already studied the LOLA DEM data with the Lunar Terminator Visualization Tool, so this is probably redundant with views you have already seen, but I am attaching some screenshots anyway. You can reproduce any of them using the input data recorded at the top and bottom of each.

Your point of interest seems to be centered on the rim of Hinshelwood. These are perspective views looking north along the 30°W meridian from an Earth-like distance (since that is what LTVT is hardwired to do), and with the sun angle artificially elevated to one higher than is ever actually achieved (by setting the solar latitude to 5°N).

The first view (on the left) was constructed at 240 m resolution with LOLA LDEM_75N_240M.IMG, and indicates what is apparently your 30 km diameter region of interest. The second view was made using the latest 20 m DEM (LDEM_875N_20M.IMG), but with a 100 m step size. Note that what looks like the lunar limb at top is actually not the limb, but rather the edge of the data set. The final view zooms in 5X to the full 20m resolution, but exhibits numerous rows of artifacts where I assume the data was interpolated between ground paths.

With a little patience you should be able to manipulate the sub-observer and sub-solar points to generate views from different directions or with different lighting. It is also possible to use the scripting capability to generate a sequence of views which can be assembled into an animation or fly-over (either in lighting or position, or both).

Hope this helps.

Jim

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[joertexas]

With a little patience you should be able to manipulate the sub-observer and sub-solar points to generate views from different directions or with different lighting. It is also possible to use the scripting capability to generate a sequence of views which can be assembled into an animation or fly-over (either in lighting or position, or both).

Hope this helps.

I had no idea LTVT could display the DEM images. Thanks so much for pointing this out to me

JR