of the surface as well as the atmosphere of Mars. Most of the results from
those experiments (UVS, IRR, IRIS, TV and S-band radio occultation) were used
in topographic mapping of Mars (Wu, 1978). Sixty thousand photographs from the
Viking mission make it possible to systematically map the planet Mars. The
Moon, the Earth's satellite, is mapped from topographic data derived from lunar
photographs and other remotely sensed data. The following sections describe
interpretations of those various data.
S-band Radio Occultation. The S-band radio occultation experiments were
included in both the Mariner 9 and Viking missions (Kliore, et al., 1973).
There were 256 usable occultation points scattered between latitudes from 486?
and -80? from Mariner 9 and about 155 points scattered over the entire Martian
surface from the Viking mission. At the instant of the spacecraft orbital
occultation at both entry and exit, the radii of Mars at those points were
determined by recording the time immediately before and immediately after an
occultation (Kliore, et al., 1972). The occultation data were received at the
deep space stations at Goldstone, California, Woomera, Australia, and Cebreros,
Spain.
The Mariner 9 occultation points have a wide distribution and have an
accuracy range of from 0.25km to 1.10km. Therefore, they were used as control
of the Mars global topographic map using Mariner 9 data (Wu, 1975). The
comparison of the Mars global map with the 69 occultation points observed from
the Viking extended mission (Lindal, et al., 1979), shows that the elevation
differences range from -5 to +2.4km, with an average absolute difference of
about 0.9km. The average arithmetic elevation difference is only -0.13 km, and
only 13% of the points compared have elevation differences larger than 2km (WU,
1979). As shown in Figure 1, elevation differences are almost zero in the
north and gradually increase to the south
because the map was originally compiled from data that were sparse and
unreliable in the south.
Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS). One of the objectives of the ultraviolet
spectrometer experiment of Mariner 9 was to measure the composition and
pressure of the martian atmosphere at the surface of Mars (Barth, et al.,
1972). The reflected ultraviolet intensity is a measure of the number of
atmospheric scatters. The local pressure can then be determined from these
intensity measurements, and the variations of local pressure can be interpreted
to measure the martian topography (Barth and Hord, 1971). There are almost
7,500 measurements of elevation provided by the UVS experiment along 39
revolutions (paths 140 to 216) of the Mariner 9 spacecraft; covering the planet
Mars, from 60? south latitude to 45? north (Wu, 1975). The resolution is about
30km.
Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS) and Infrared Radiometer (IRR). The
infrared interferometer spectrometer was experimented with to infer the martian
atmosphere and surface parameters which include the temperature for a vertical
temperature structure. It also provides topographic information through the
absorption of certain bands of CO0,. The local variations are
claimed to be reliable to 0.5km, But the absolute accuracy is about lkm (Herr
and Pimentel, 1969, Hanel, et al., 1970, Hanel, et al., 1972). The infrared
radiometer is used to infer the thermal properties of the martian surface
(Chase, et al. 1972). The data can also be used to compile a temperature map
which can be correlated with topographic variations (Cunningham and Schurmeier,
1969). There are about 4,600 elevation points provided from the infrared
experiment also observed along the paths of Mariner 9, covering the planet Mars
from 65? south latitude to 40? north (Wu, 1975).
Earth base Radar Data. From radar observations, altitudes on the martian
surface are calculated from signal time delay. In other words, variations in
radar travel time to and from Mars are associated with the topographic relief
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