Planet Four Talk

Terrain movement detection - possible or not

  • PaulMetcalfe by PaulMetcalfe

    I was messing about, superimposing two time separated pictures of the same area when an idea struck me. I had first tried to carefully align the maps by what appeared to be a reasonably constant feature. I then faded one in and out over the other when I noticed apparent terrain movement (a slight twisting anticlockwise). However, this was probably because the alignment was slightly out or because the features on one picture were being refracted through ice, and so I did not jump for joy. This did give me the idea though, that if two or more time separated images are exactly aligned, terrain movement could show up. I expect you boffins out there already do something similar, but if you do not, why not give it a shot.

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  • Kitharode by Kitharode moderator in response to PaulMetcalfe's comment.

    Messing about on Mars - What a great way to spend the day. 😉

    I think your logic is sound and it's a great idea, but not being one of the boffins I can't help you with this. I'm pretty sure someone will be able to let you know whether your idea is feasable, using the images to hand, so I'll leave it to them. All I can say is that some features will be more likely to move than others (if they move at all) so they would be the ones to concentrate on.

    Apparently, growth of spiders has been looked at by the scientists and their conclusion might be paraphrased as 'there is some little evidence that maybe, perhaps, there might possibly be...' which I read as 'we don't know yet. 😉 Some of the dune-like, rippled, or stripey features might produce some results for you though.

    Are you looking at something specific or just 'thinking out loud'. Either way, it's a great idea. Good luck with it.

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  • PaulMetcalfe by PaulMetcalfe in response to Kitharode's comment.

    In all seriousness, it would be fantastic to actually mess about on Mars and I am sure that the lucky individuals who eventually do that, will be in the best position to unlock its secrets.
    Anyway, with regard to the last question of yours, I was just looking for clues in the Ithaca region for its texture, as I have now seen many pictures from that region with varying densities and colours of the same texture. I was not looking for movement and initially I thought 'Crikey' - if the surface is moving slightly, it might account for the texture, but then I put my 'thinking head' on again and realised many errors could cause that effect on my computer. I expect that many features such as mounds, cracks etc. will shrink, enlarge or mutate but a tectonic type movement (in my mind) could effect a whole area in strange ways.

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  • wassock by wassock moderator

    Paul, there are places where changes can be seen, just not all that many and away from the poles. Mostly slumping on steep slopes or tracks left by dust devils. Have a look at the Heart thread on the HiRise board for some recent examples where we have tried to compare and contrast

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  • CJ-DPI by CJ-DPI scientist

    Hi Paul,

    We do line up images to look for changes - that was how we realized that the dunes on Mars are actually migrating in today's climate - so your thought process is right on. The trouble with doing that with the cutouts that fans are getting marked on is that those images are not map-projected, so there are numerous reasons that they might not line up. But if you do see something like for example a spider channel that has clearly widened or gotten longer please do let us know. That would be a new finding!

    Sincerely,
    One of the boffins (-:

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