1005 
FOUR YEARS OF PLANETARY CARTOGRAPHY 
WITH THE HRSC 
J.Albertz 1 , S. Gehrke 1 ' 2 , H. Lehmann 1 , M. Wahlisch 3 
'institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science, Technical University Berlin, Str. des 17. Juni 135 
D-10623 Berlin, Germany - albertz@igg.tu-berlin.de 
2 North West Geomatics, Pixelgrammetry Group, Suite 212, 5438 11 St. NE, Calgary, AB T2E 7E9, Canada - 
stephan.gehrke@pixelgrammetry.com 
’Institute for Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Rutherfordstr. 2, D-12489 Berlin, Germany - 
marita.waehlisch@dlr.de 
Commission IV, WG IV/7 
KEY WORDS: Cartography, Extra-terrestrial, Planetary, Mars, High Resolution, DEM/DTM, Camera, Mapping 
ABSTRACT: 
The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the European Mars Express mission began operation in January 2004. With this 
camera system new standards were set for the acquisition, processing and cartographic application of planetary data, in other words 
a new era of planetary cartography began. A new cartographic concept for the planet Mars has been designed. The cartographic 
standard product is the Topographic Image Map Mars 1:200,000 series. The layout scheme of this map series is flexible also for the 
generation of maps in other scales, special target maps, thematic maps, and related products.For cartographic processing a new 
software system has been developed at the Technical University Berlin. The main purpose of the software package Planetary> Image 
Mapper (PIMap) is to automate the map generation process. The software is controlled by an initialization file, which provides all 
parameters that are necessary to define map properties, contents, and layout. Until the end of 2007, about 70 map sheets in 15 
different regions of the planet Mars have been derived from HRSC data. This comprises sheets of the Topographic Image Map Mars 
1:200,000 series and special target maps in different scales for selected regions. Also maps as subdivision sheets in larger scales, i.e. 
1:100,000 and 1:50,000, have been generated. The experiment clearly demonstrated the high quality of the HRSC image data and 
the flexibility of PIMap as well. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the European 
Mars Express mission is a pushbroom scanning instrument with 
9 CCD line detectors mounted in parallel on the focal plane. Its 
unique feature is the ability to obtain image data of high 
resolution, with along-track triple stereo, in four colors, and 
under five different phase angles. The spatial resolution at the 
nominal periapsis altitudes is up to 12 m/pixel. The data 
acquired form a unique data set for systematic derivation of 
Digital Terrain Models (DTM), color orthoimages, and, based 
on that, high quality cartographic products, which are mainly 
based on the cartographic concepts of the Topographic Image 
Map Mars 1:200,000 series (Albertz et al., 2004; Kirk, 2005; 
Lehmann et al., 1997). The series’ layout scheme is flexible to 
the generation of special target maps, thematic maps, and 
related products. 
In order to automate the map generation process, the 
cartographic software package Planetary Image Mapper 
(PIMap) has been developed at Technische Universität Berlin 
(TUB) by Gehrke et al. (2006b). Using this software, map 
production was carried out at TUB in cooperation with the 
German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is responsible for 
photogrammetric processing of HRSC data (Gwinner et al., 
2005; Schölten et al., 2005). Other HRSC team members are 
involved, especially with regard to thematic mapping. 
A standard sheet of the Topographic Image Map Mars 
1:200,000 displays approximately 120x120 km. Considering an 
HRSC image width of 60 km in highest resolution of 12 m/pixel, 
it is evident that mosaics of adjacent orbits are necessary to 
cover the mapped area. Therefore, especially in the early stage, 
map sheets needed to be adapted to individual orbits by location 
and/or scale. The first maps within the regular sheet lines could 
be generated in summer 2004. Until the end of 2007, a variety 
of topographic and also thematic maps of different Martian 
regions has been produced. Furthermore, it has been shown that 
HRSC data of highest resolution is suitable for mapping even in 
scales up to 1:50,000. 
2. THE TOPOGRAPHIC IMAGE MAP MARS 1:200,000 
The large-scale Topographic Image Map Mars 1:200,000 map 
series was developed to allow for optimum cartographic 
representation of HRSC data (Lehmann et al., 1997). It is based 
on HRSC orthoimages and features contour lines, topographic 
names as well as map titles, designations, and several legend 
entries (Albertz et al., 2004; Albertz et al., 2005b; Gehrke et al., 
2006b).