Mars Express VMC - the Mars Webcam

Mars Express VMC - the Mars Webcam http://webservices.esa.int/blog/blog/6 The VMC: An ordinary camera in an extraordinary place! The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) - known around here affectionately and unofficially as the 'Mars Webcam' - is back in action. The VMC is mounted on Mars Express, ESA's deep-space probe now orbiting the Red Planet. It originally provided simple, low-tech images of Beagle lander separation, and is now back in action as the 'Mars Webcam'. It's not a scientific instrument, but it does provide fantastic views of Mars - including crescent views of the planet not obtainable from Earth. danielscuka 2012-02-11T19:27:52Z Support to the CO2 Cloud Observations by Mars Express with the VMC Visual Monitoring Camera http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1372 This paper discusses the possibilities for using the non-scientific Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) to contribute to this scientific objective of the Mars Express mission, complementing and supporting the data obtained from the scientific payload. The contribution of VMC is that it can image the planet with a large field of view, providing the context for the other experiments which operate at lower altitudes, close to the pericenter. The VMC data would also allow providing useful information such as cloud altitude (thanks to the shadow) morphology, relative reflectivity and dynamics. These are important parameters in the characterization of the CO2 cloud population.   <a href="http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2011/EPSC-DPS2011-706-1.pdf">Link to presentation at EPSC-DPS 2011, Nantes, France</a> General Science 2011-10-18T14:45:38Z danielscuka Mars Express flying through the blackout - Solar Conjunction 2011 http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1322 <center><iframe frameborder="0" height="321" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://webservices.esa.int/videostreaming/mex_vmc_video_4022011_4x3.php" width="460"> </iframe></center> You might have noticed that VMC - the Mars Webcam - has been quiet recently. Don't worry: it's all expected - it's just further proof of the challenges and excitement of planetary spaceflight! Today, Mars is at the worst point of a period known as 'solar conjunction', which means that Mars is on the exact opposite side of the Sun from Earth. Seen from the Earth at around 16:00 today, Mars appears only 0.7658 degrees from the Sun - less than the width of your finger held at arm's length! This results in major disturbances in our communications from Earth to Mars Express and back; as a result the spacecraft has been put into an autonomous operations mode, with all activities on hold until we come out the other side. The video above shows the Sun from the start of this year until today - with the streamer-like tendrils of its atmosphere, the corona. Coming in from the left of the video is a bright speck - Mars! Invisible here is the tiny dot of Mars Express orbiting the red planet. Our problem communicating with Mars Express comes from the fact that the radio beam from the spacecraft has to pass through this atmosphere, getting distorted on the way. On top of that, our dish antennas on Earth have problems picking out the weak signal from Mars Express from the 'noise' of the Sun. All of this makes this period, about a month long, especially challenging for communications with all Mars missions. To keep the spacecraft safe, we have to give it enough information for it to look after itself for the month when we are passing behind the Sun. There's simply not enough memory on the spacecraft to also include instructions on how to carry out its normal activities (including VMC imaging!) - all the space is used up with our commands on how to look after itself for a month alone, out of contact with Earth!  The video above was produced using the excellent <a href="http://jhelioviewer.org" target="_blank" title="JHelioViewer">JHelioViewer</a> tool, developed with funding from ESA and NASA. It shows in blue and red the view from the <a href="http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=content/about_lasco" target="_blank" title="LASCO">LASCO</a> instrument on the ESA/NASA <a href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="SOHO">SOHO solar observatory</a> mission. This instrument puts a disc in front of the Sun to block the direct light, and what can be seen is the corona, and in this case, Mars passing behind it. In the centre are images from the NASA <a href="http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" title="Solar Dynamics Observatory">Solar Dynamics Observatory</a> <a href="http://aia.lmsal.com/" target="_blank" title="AIA">AIA</a> instrument, showing the blazing Sun in the middle of our solar system. -- Thomas   General 2011-02-03T16:43:09Z tormston Update: Peter Wellmann creates three views of Mars! http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1315 We would like to make a correction on our last blog update from Wednesday; Peter Wellmann had in fact submitted three versions of Mars' North Polar Regions. The corrected versions are all below. To read more about how Peter did his processing, check out the footnotes at the bottom of the page (after the jump..). Enjoy! And thanks, Peter for these impressive results. -- Daniel <a id="res_20067" href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/pic27986.jpg"><img src="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/previews-med/pic27986.gif" border="0" /></a> The first picture shows almost all of the North Pole, surrounded in a dense cloudy haze. Craters Korolev and Alba Mons have been located easily . Peter wrote: <blockquote>  “This very interesting VMC-material shows the almost complete North Polar Region and its surrounding area covered with clouds and haze. Identifying the surface details is impossible. Only Korolev crater and Alba Mons could be found. The stunning details below Alba Mons could be high reaching and dense clouds with their shadows. These gigantic clouds extend roughly over 150km. Sometimes sand storms cover the whole planet with dust, but never before have I seen Mars with such a large cloudy and hazy area. The surface structure is clearly visible only in small areas around Alba Mons, even the North Polar Cap is not detected safely, even though the pole is situated right on the terminator. The clouds show an interesting spiral structure, probably induced by coriolis force acting on air streaming out of a high pressure area on the northern hemisphere of a left spinning planet. Although there is little sharp detail in the raw-material I decided to give it a try.” </blockquote> <a id="res_20066" href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/pic12594.jpg"><img src="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/previews-med/pic12594.gif" border="0" /></a> The second edit shows a similar situation as the first picture, the only difference being that they are on different sides of the hemisphere. This picture shows the complete polar region and the craters Acidalia Planitia, Lyot and Lomonosov could be clearly detected. The entire pole is covered with nicely structured clouds and haze. Peter wrote: <blockquote> “This very interesting VMC-picture should be seen as supplement to my previous submitted image 2010/11/13. It shows the part of the polar region not visible on the 2010/11/13 image. Almost the entire North Pole and surrounding area is covered with nicely structured clouds and haze. Identifying surface details is not easily accomplished. Only Acidalia Planitia is partly free of clouds, and Lomonosov crater can be easily detected. On a second look the large crater Lyot is seen full size inside a semicircle of clouds. Some other structures are easily detected by comparing with the Celestia image, but we do not know their names. Surface structure is clearly visible only in small areas, even the north polar cap is not detected safely, although the pole is situated right below the terminator. The clouds show an interesting spiral structure, in a large stripe to the left very fine structure is visible. Although there is little sharp detail in the raw-material I decided to give it a try.” </blockquote> <a id="res_20065" href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/pic10812.jpg"><img src="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/previews-med/pic10812.gif" border="0" /></a> The final image is of the complete North Pole covered in a nicely structured haze. The two pictures of Mars were taken about 4 days apart. Some landmarks were identified under the cloud haze. Peter wrote: <blockquote> “This picture combines two VMC-operations; the first took place on 2010/11/23, the second only four days later on 2010/11/27. Both operations meet a time with strong cloud and haze-activity on the northern part of Mars. By comparing these images, my idea was to show the rapid change in cloud-structure. Due to the hidden surface it is not easy to identify landmarks, but I was able to locate some prominent craters for better orientation comparing the two images.   Processing colour from the original raw-frames by using the supplied flat-field, the atmospheric structures come out gray/white and not yellow/brown, so I assume they mainly are clouds and haze, not sandstorms. It is amazing how different these structures look, in some areas they look rather smooth, and in other areas they show very fine details. There also seems to be a difference between dawn and dusk, just compare the left (dusk) and right (dawn) terminator in the region of the “horn”. Also it seems that surface conditions affect cloud structure above. Processing these pictures was not easy and time consuming, but looking at the result I think time was not wasted. I do like this picture.” </blockquote>       Tech details 1 Our pictures taken 2010/11/13 were used: 10-317_00.33.20_VMC_Img_No_19.raw 10-317_00.34.03_VMC_Img_No_20.raw 10-317_00.34.46_VMC_Img_No_21.raw 10-317_00.35.29_VMC_Img_No_22.raw   The supplied dark frame “vmc_flat.raw” was used to extract png-files form the raw-material. Then we sharpened and stacked Pictures No 19/21 and 20/22 in order to reduce noise. The remaining noise was reduced further by utilizing Neat Image software. After cutting out the overexposed part of the stack 19/21 it was combined with the stack 20/22. The colour saturation was adjusted and the background was cleaned. Finally for better viewing the result was resized to 125%. For detailed information on processing see our work done with the astronomy group of Gymnasium Vaterstetten. 2 our pictures taken 2010/11/27 were used:   10-331_00.15.34_VMC_Img_No_19.raw 10-331_00.16.17_VMC_Img_No_20.raw 10-331_00.17.00_VMC_Img_No_21.raw 10-331_00.17.43_VMC_Img_No_22.raw   The supplied dark frame “vmc_flat.raw” was used to extract png-files form the raw-material. Then we sharpened and stacked Pictures No 19/21 and 20/22 in order to reduce noise. The remaining noise was reduced further by utilizing Neat Image software. After cutting out the overexposed part of the stack 19/21 it was combined with the stack 20/22. The colour saturation was adjusted and the background was cleaned. Finally for better viewing the result was resized to 125%. For detailed information on processing see our work done with the astronomy group of Gymnasium Vaterstetten. 3 For picture 2010/11/23 these pictures were used:   10-327_19.19.47_VMC_Img_No_19.raw 10-327_19.20.29_VMC_Img_No_20.raw 10-327_19.21.13_VMC_Img_No_21.raw 10-327_19.21.56_VMC_Img_No_22.raw     For picture 2010/11/27 these pictures were used:   10-331_00.15.34_VMC_Img_No_19.raw 10-331_00.16.17_VMC_Img_No_20.raw 10-331_00.17.00_VMC_Img_No_21.raw 10-331_00.17.43_VMC_Img_No_22.raw     Processing is sometimes not easy, and quite a bit of practice is helpful. Everybody may use his favourite software and try out what he can do with it. We use Photoshop, Giotto “Mexican Hat” for sharpening and Neat Image for noise reduction. Information on processing is found in the Gymnasium Vaterstetten report and on their astronomy homepage. Here I want to show the single steps I used processing the actual picture:   <ul> <li>  Choose 2/2 high/low exposed frames, artefacts not same position </li> <li>  Extract files by ”vmc2rgb.exe” utilizing flat-field “vmc_flat.raw” </li> <li>  Sharpen all four pictures, a bit of noise is no problem </li> <li>  Clean out known artefacts, do not alter same region in all frames </li> <li>  Align carefully(!) and stack frames with same exposure time </li> <li>  Place terminator-region from high exposed stack into low exposed stack </li> <li>  Clean background using feathered selections </li> <li>  Resize 125% and reduce noise with professional filter </li> <li>  Adjust colour saturation carefully and moderately </li> <li>  Split to luminance and colour, and reduce noise in colour only </li> <li>  Make nice “fine tuning” but do not destroy original content</li> </ul>     Remarks: We do not use the library-png because we want to see the colour of the raw-material and adjust it so that for example white clouds stay something ear white. We sharpen every single picture, doing this a bit of noise is no roblem because later two frames are stacked, and a professional noise filter s applied. Artefacts must be cleaned from each picture before stacking; hoosing pictures with artefacts not in the same place will preserves some riginal information for all parts. We align two frames in order to reduce oise, for this usually one image must be rotated a bit. We stack separately for igh and low exposure. Fitting the high exposure section to the low exposure icture is done by feathered selection and must be tried out very carefully. Cleaning the background is done by a 2px feathered circle-selection very lose to the rim of Mars; then a 15-20px feathered oval selection is used at he terminator. This must be done carefully not to alter the original picture ore than necessary. If adjustment of colour saturation results in a bad colour oise, this may be reduced by applying a noise filter to the colour information nly (definitely not affecting the luminance). For this we separate luminance nd colour by Photoshop. At the end some 'fine-tuning' may be favourable for example feathered selection on a cloud patch to enhance white colour and o on). We do this carefully and moderately in order to preserve the original content of the picture.                   General Public Submissions 2011-01-21T11:41:20Z danielscuka Public Submission - Glowing North Pole by Mike Malaska http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1276 <a id="res_19236" href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/North-polar-cap-of-Mars-from-Mars-Express-VMC-camera-Sept-30-2010.jpg"></a> <div style="text-align: center"> <a id="res_19236" href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/North-polar-cap-of-Mars-from-Mars-Express-VMC-camera-Sept-30-2010.jpg"><img src="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/previews-med/North-polar-cap-of-Mars-from-Mars-Express-VMC-camera-Sept-30-2010.gif" border="0" alt="View of the North Polar cap of Mars taken by the Mars webcam (MEX-VMC) instrument from a distance of 10,000 km on September 30, 2010.This image was created by making an average of several images 2,4,6,8,10,12,14, and 16. Then Gaussian blurring this by 1 pixel to make a smooth color background. Next, Image No 12 was used as a luminosity layer. It was also used as a HiPass layer to enhance subtle details. Finally it was blended with some of the original Image No. 12. Contrast enhancement and rotation and cropping gave the final image.Image credits: ESA / Mike Malaska" /> </a> </div> <a id="res_19236" href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/North-polar-cap-of-Mars-from-Mars-Express-VMC-camera-Sept-30-2010.jpg"></a>   Regular VMC contributor <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/" target="_blank" title="Mike Malaska's Photostream on Flickr">Mike Malaska</a> has submitted another oustanding image edit for the Mars Webcam blog, shown above. His work is based on an image of the North Pole of Mars from a <a href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1271" target="_blank" title="VMC observation on the 30th September">VMC observation on the 30th September</a>. The polar cap of the planet can just be seen in the middle of this image, with low sunlight glinting off the patches of snow and ice surrounding it. As Earth heads into Northern hemisphere autumn, Mars is also in Northern autumn at the moment and this view captures beautifully the impression of low sunlight in the Northern parts of Mars, with ice and snow signalling the coming winter. Mike wrote the following to us about his work on this image: <blockquote> The main reason I initially got excited about this image was (1) North Pole of Mars and (2) taken at apoapsis (maximum height above Mars, about 10,000 km) of the Mars Express orbit. I was hoping for several pictures with very little change that could be used to make a 'super-resolution' image. Unfortunately, there was a 1-pixel-per-image rotation counter-clockwise (in this orientation) of the surface that messed up my plans. This image was created by making an average of several images: Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16, then Gaussian blurring this by 1 pixel to make a smooth color background. Next, Image No. 12 was used as a luminosity layer. It was also used as a HiPass layer to enhance subtle details. Finally it was blended with some of the original Image No. 12. Contrast enhancement and rotation (to put the North Pole at the top) and cropping gave the final image. </blockquote> As always, excellent work Mike — and thank you for the submission and for showing us the beauty of Mars. We'd love to see what other visitors can make of VMC images, too — just check out the <a href="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/487">Help us with VMC</a> link at right to get started! -- Thomas General Public Submissions 2010-10-19T11:38:08Z tormston Mars Webcam presentation at IAC Prague 2010 http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/6/1270 <img src="http://webservices.esa.int/blog/gallery/6/to_iac2010.png" align="left" />Our colleague Thomas Ormston, who leads VMC activities for the Mars Express team here at ESOC, recently presented a paper at the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Prague, Czech Republic. The paper, "An Ordinary Camera In An Extraordinary Location: Outreach With The Mars Webcam," covered the history of the VMC project and provided details on camera operations and our results to date in publishing results to this blog. It also described the outreach successes of the project, highlighted some of the contributions from the Mars Webcam community, explained opportunities to use and work with the Mars Webcam and plans for future camera activities. The paper was the product of a joint effort and made use of input from the entire Mars Express team (thanks guys!) - it's an excellent review of VMC activities to date. <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/esaops/an-ordinary-camera-in-an-extraordinary-location-outreach-with-the-mars-webcam" target="_blank">You can access a copy in SlideShare.net</a> or click on 'Full story' below. We'd like to thank everyone who attended Thomas' presentation at IAC and, in particular, we'd like to give a big shout out to <a href="http://bethbeck.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/prague-highlights" target="_blank">Beth Beck, who posted the following note in her blog</a>: <blockquote> "My fav presentation was European Space Agency's Mars WebCam project. You'll just have to check it out. The best example of 'participatory exploration' that I've seen. They turned an unused mission camera back on to take photos of Mars. They offer the data to the public to process. The Mars WebCam folks post the "processed" images back on their site. Quite wonderful. They've created an amazing, enthusiastic community of Mars-watchers, who participate in the mission voluntarily with hundreds of hours of processing time to their credit." </blockquote> Thanks, Beth, for your kind words! -- Daniel Our IAC 2010 paper:   <iframe align="middle" frameborder="0" height="560" scrolling="no" src="http://download.esa.int/esoc/9.html" width="100%"></iframe> General About us 2010-10-08T00:18:59Z danielscuka