How to create a quality digital terrain model
A digital terrain model (DTM) is a digital representation of the elevation of a planetary surface. Members of the Astrogeology team produce DTMs of different bodies in the solar system to address questions about how landscapes formed or changed over time, and to identify safe landing sites for robotic missions.
Astrogeology team member, David Mayer, presented a poster at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas on how to produce DTMs of Mars using the free Ames Stereo Pipeline software. The poster and accompanying abstract focus on creating high-quality DTMs for geologic research from images collected by the CTX camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
One method of producing DTMs involves using a pair of images collected by a satellite of the same area on the ground from two different angles to create a stereo view. Specialized software is then used to match identical features in each image and extract a three-dimensional location based on the geometric relationship between the images.
Learn how David and others at Astrogeology create DTMs. The poster and abstract are available here: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/absearch/?meeting=574&abstract_no=1604 : “An Improved Workflow for Producing Digital Terrain Models of Mars from CTX Stereo Data Using the NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline,” D. P. Mayer, 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2018), Abstract #1604.
Get Our News
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.