SPECIAL SOFTWARE FOR PLANETARY IMAGE PROCESSING AND RESEARCH

Abstract

The special modules of photogrammetric processing of remote sensing data that provide the opportunity to effectively organize and optimize the planetary studies were developed. As basic application the commercial software package PHOTOMOD™ is used. Special modules were created to perform various types of data processing: calculation of preliminary navigation parameters, calculation of shape parameters of celestial body, global view image orthorectification, estimation of Sun illumination and Earth visibilities from planetary surface. For photogrammetric processing the different types of data have been used, including images of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Phobos, Galilean satellites and Enceladus obtained by frame or push-broom cameras. We used modern planetary data and images that were taken over the years, shooting from orbit flight path with various illumination and resolution as well as obtained by planetary rovers from surface. Planetary data image processing is a complex task, and as usual it can take from few months to years. We present our efficient pipeline procedure that provides the possibilities to obtain different data products and supports a long way from planetary images to celestial body maps. The obtained data – new three-dimensional control point networks, elevation models, orthomosaics – provided accurate maps production: a new Phobos atlas (Karachevtseva et al., 2015) and various thematic maps that derived from studies of planetary surface (Karachevtseva et al., 2016a).