Footprints of the HiRISE observations

I’ve been learning to use JMARS  (Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing) to plot the coverage of the CTX images for Planet Four: Terrains. JMARS is a really nice tool for overlaying observation footprints and different maps and datasets on top of each other for Mars and other planets.

I decided to take a look at what the HiRISE Season 2 and Season 3 observations, that the science team is currently working on writing up, look like on a map of the South Pole when you plot their physical coverage on the pole . You can really see the overlap and what a small area that HiRISE covers compared to CTX.

Here’s the footprint  HiRISE observations for Seasons 2 and 3 outlined in red on the elevation and topography map of the Martian south pole (latitude and longitude lines are in 10 degree intervals).

Here’s a zoom in on one of our favorite regions, Inca City. You can really see the repeat coverage outlined in white in this case.

Here’s another zoom in of a different area, where you can see multiple seasonal targets outlined in red:

For comparison here’s the footprints of the first set CTX images  (latitude and longitude lines are in 10 degree intervals). The colors represent geologic units, but for this comparison we’re focusing on spatial distribution and coverage.