25
Berry
wood,
PLANIMETRIC MAPPING OF THE PLANETS WITH
SPACECRAFT TELEVISION PICTURES
NASA
ornia
Pub-
R. M. Batson
U.S. Geological Survey
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
York:
A graduate of the University of Colorado, Batson has been
employed by the U. S. Geological Survey since 1957. He has
s and
Tam-
emote
participated as a member of, or consultant to, the science
teams for manned and unmanned Lunar landing missions (Sur
veyor and Apollo), Mars orbital missions (Mariner 9 and
Viking 1 and 2) , the Mariner 10 mission to Venus and Mer-
ation
P lot—
amme-
cury, and the Voyager 1 and 2 spaceflights to the Jovian
and Saturnian systems. He is currently the Chief of the
Planetary Cartography Section of the Branch of Astrogeo-
logic Studies in Flagstaff, Arizona.
ABSTRACT
ncil-
hoto-
) .
The surfaces of 14 planets and satellites have been mapped
with spacecraft data. Of these bodies, 11 were mapped with
pictures that have negligible potential for measuring topo
graphic elevations; only the data sets for the Moon, Mars,
earch
Topo-
and Venus support extensive contour mapping.
iages.
Wash-
Most of the maps are compiled in two phases from digital
spacecraft television pictures. In the first phase, uncon
trolled photomosaics, semicrontrol1ed "pictorial" maps
drawn with the airbrush, and special purpose uncontrolled
mosaics and airbrush maps are prepared. These products,
made immediately after data arrive from the spacecraft,
ipling
Engi-
support preliminary mission science reports and mission
planning. In the second phase, controlled maps are pre
pared for formal publication; these include photomosaics,
:rate-
icul-
e Ex-
airbrush shaded-relief and albedo maps, and special maps
that support topical studies or future mission planning.
Scales of map products are determined by the resolution of
available data. The primary scale for maps of all extra
terrestrial objects is 1:5,000,000; reconnaissance or
orma-
;nt of
Cali-
planetwide maps are made at smaller scales. Larger scale
maps are also made, as required for scientific investiga
tions, where data resolution and areal coverage are ade
quate. Conformal projections, which preserve the shapes of
landforms, have proved to be the most useful for geologic
investigations. Some maps that were originally compiled on
;e In-
>1 itan
lemor-
conformal projections have been digitally transformed to
equal-area projections, to support studies based on areal
distributions.
Compilation processes include digital processing for image
cosmetics, and radiometric correction, photometric and geo
metric correction, and transformation to appropriate map
projections. The resulting images are used in mosaics, as
sembled either manually or digitally, that are published as
photomaps or used to support airbrush compilation.
