Mars 2024 Rover |
Global CTX Mosaic of Mars |
Time-lapse Imaging |
坚果加速器安卓下载 |
GCM/GIS Integration |
3D Drone Mapping |
High-Resolution Gravity |
4K 3D Visualization |
Research Highlights |
| The Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization is a new facility within the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. The goal of the lab is to develop and implement state-of-the-art image processing, visualization and data integration techniques. The Murray Lab is actively engaged in terrestrial data visualization projects, including production and rendering of ultra-high-resolution gravity models, topographic models, and cm-scale drone imaging and topographic modeling of field sites. We also provide a gateway to existing facilities like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). Students have access to all resources in the Murray Lab, including a 60-core Linux server with 384 GB of memory and ~110 TB of storage, an 84” 4K resolution LED display, and high-powered workstations for drone image processing, high-resolution morphometric analysis of field samples, and geospatial analysis.
Bruce Murray was a pioneer of planetary science who was a member of the Caltech GPS faculty from 1963 until his retirement in 2002. He was also the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1976 until 1982. For more information, please visit here. For more information about the Murray Lab or to schedule a tour, please contact Jay Dickson at jdickson@caltech.edu. |
Mars 2024 Rover
The Murray Lab participated in the second Landing Site Working Group (LSWG) for the Mars 2024 Rover project. This included preparation of hundreds of GB of seamless mosaics and high-resolution DEMs from HiRISE imagery. These data were helpful for specialists and non-specialists alike on the LSWG as the final sites were evaluated, with all mosaics streamable in Google Mars. This included dynamic 3D visualizations that were presented to NASA administrators who ultimately chose Jezero crater as the site for Mars 2024's primary mission. These data are all publicly available here and will be used extensively for primary mission planning in Jezero and potential extended mission planning in Northeast Syrtis/Midway. More information about the Mars 2024 project can be found here. |
Global CTX Mosaic of Mars
The Murray Lab is currently undertaking construction of the largest image ever made, a 5 m/px global mosaic of Mars using imagery acquired by the Context Camera (CTX) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). CTX has achieved nearly global coverage with broadly consistent illumination conditions, such that a global mosaic of > 100,000 CTX images is now possible. We are constructing it using cutting-edge techniques of non-destructive image processing that allow for full traceability of the final mosaic, allowing users to know where their data come from. This is critical for proper interpretation, instant access to the original data that comprise the mosaic, and efficiency while quality controlling the mosaic. Non-destructive processing is also considerably more efficient than traditional destructive processing, allowing us to create the mosaic entirely within the Murray Lab without reliance on high-performance computing. The first beta release of the entire mosaic can be found here. More information about our mosaicking process can be found here, while more information about CTX itself can be found here. |
Time-lapse Imaging
| Time-lapse imaging is a powerful way of documenting modification of planetary surfaces, particularly visualizing processes that act at rates too slow for observation through traditional field methods. In the Murray Lab, we are capable of deploying weather-proof imaging systems that can operate without human intervention for over a year in extreme climates, like Antarctica (above). Our cameras typically image at a frequency of once every five minutes for months at a time, providing high spatial and temporal resolution. Further, we have software that synchronizes time-lapse imagery with meteorological data to determine which environmental forces directly lead to surface modification. For published examples of this technique, see here and here. |
Planetary GIS
| The Murray Lab maintains a 100TB geospatial database of remote sensing data sets from Mercury, Venus, the Moon, the Earth, Mars and Ceres. All data are immediately accessible for visualization, analysis and additional processing within a variety of GIS software packages. We specialize in high-volume quantitative integration of diverse data sets including visible/NIR imagery, topography, gravity and radar sounding. These products are integrated with in-situ data acquired during fieldwork and with rovers/landers on other planetary bodies. Above, a sequence of Low-Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO) imagery of Ceres from the DAWN spacecraft's Framing Camera are added to a GIS project, and draped with a digital elevation model (DEM) derived from stereo imagery of the surface. |
Global Climate Model (GCM) / Geographic Information System (GIS) Integration
| Global Climate Models (GCMs) are an essential tool for quantitatively characterizing past climates while also making predictions for the climatic evolution of the Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan and Pluto. Historically, output from GCMs have been challenging to visualize and integrate with other data sets. We have developed software to qualitatively (see video above) and quantitatively (see figure below) integrate GCM outputs with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that allow for direct hypothesis testing of climate-related features. The video above shows an edited rendition of one Mars year, plotting surface pressure in color with surface temperature (> 273K) in contours. Climate related features (gullies) are mapped in black in the southern hemisphere, and we can use this technique to see if their locations surpass triple point conditions for H2O. Each instance above the triple point is counted and this can be plotted, as shown in the figure below. For more information, click here. |
3D Drone Mapping
| The Murray Lab manages a fleet of drones that students, faculty and staff of GPS can use for field work. Cm-resolution Digital Elevation Models with orthorectified imagery can be generated using multi-GPU photometric processing of overlapping imagery, as well as 4k-resolution image and video analysis and annotation. Our fleet includes a DJI Matrice 600, capable of flying a payload up to 15 kg, including our 270-band hyperpsectral Headwall imaging system. Repeat drone surveys can be used to make cm-scale difference maps of field sites to quantify deformation and erosional/depositional activity. The Murray Lab provides end-to-end training, hardware and software for all GPS drone operations. |
High-Resolution Gravity
| The Murray Lab hosts a GIS-ready 200 m/px gravity model of the Earth's continental crust, produced by the Western Australia Geodesy Group at Curtin University. This model uses satellite data, primarily from the GRACE mission, to determine the distribution of mass within the crust. To facilitate the utilization of these data in geophysical models, we have created a web-interface where x/y/z data can be extracted as a comma-delimited file (.csv). Above is a rendering of the Ouachita gravity low within the Arkoma Basin, straddling the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas, USA, draped over 30 m/px shaded relief terrain derived from ASTER topography. |
4K 3D Visualization
| The centerpiece of the Murray Lab is an active-stereo 84" 4K-resolution LED display. This allows for immersive exploration of planetary landscapes in ultra-high-resolution 3D by groups as large as 15 people, facilitating collaborative engagement with high volumes of 3D data sets. Unlike traditional red/blue anaglyph stereo analysis, active stereo allows for the 3D visualization of color imagery, critical for assessing the mineralogic composition of planetary crusts. |
Research Highlights
坚果网络加速器Graduate student Leah Sabbeth 坚果nuts加速器官网 at the annual Geological Society of America meeting from her mapping of faults in Mexico using cm-scale DEMs generated with drones from the Murray Lab.
Sep. 12, 2018: Students and faculty from Caltech GPS have been using drones from the Murray Lab to map a small island in the Caribbean since the summer of 2016. In addition to the hardware to collect the data, the Murray Lab provides high-end computational resources to generate massive data products, both in terms of DEMs with orthorectified mosaics and hyper-spectral image products from our DJI Matrice 600 drone.
More information and drone footage from this project can be found through Nathan Stein's website.
May 5, 2018: Lulu Pan (Ph.D., 2017) and Prof. Bethany Ehlmann have a new paper about Lyot Crater on Mars that is the first peer-reviewed publication to make use of the global CTX mosaic of Mars.
November 6, 2017: Graduate student Nathan Stein has published 坚果加速器vip破解 about bright spots on Ceres. This paper made use of the full Dawn Framing Camera volumes hosted in GIS-ready format by the Murray Lab.
jdickson@caltech.edu