Steve Albers' Planetary Maps (Global Images)

This image processing outlined on this page is being done to provide "value-added" global planet & satellite images to NOAA's Science on a Sphere project. Other images available from various groups and individuals on the internet are being used "as-is". The images are generally centered on +/-180 degrees longitude and are 2K (2048x1024) pixels in size unless otherwise noted. Some of these are works in progress to be updated in the future.

Venus

I have some global Venus images, one of which is shown here. This is a combination of two images. The hue information comes from Calvin Hamilton's cylindrical map . The shaded-relief (intensity) information is used from A. Tayfun Oner's Venus topography map . Tayfun's black & white map was warped from a Mercator onto the Cylindrical projection shown here at a resolution of 1000x2000 pixels. Red and white colors are highest and the light source comes from the right (east) side.

JPEG (1.8MB), TIFF (6MB)- (images updated 5/12/2004)

Earth

We are making a population movie for the Earth based upon a DVD movie from the Population Connection as well as the "Blue Marble" image (updated 3/9/2005). Population growth is depicted (using every 10th DVD frame) from 17AD to 1949AD.

We are also making real-time weather satellite movies using stitched global IR images obtained from NRL's web site .

Moon

We are using this map (4096x8192) of the Moon created by Jens Meyer. He processed a map derived from Clementine spacecraft data that is available on the USGS PDS web site. The version linked here was darkened slightly from the original (updated 2/11/2005).

Jupiter

I am working to utilize a spectacular Jupiter movie from Cassini (2D Interpolated) for the Science on a Sphere. I applied some simple processing to produce this 28MB tar file (updated 7/7/2004) containing separate GIF images for the 197 frame color movie. The resolution of the image is 2 pixels per degree and the original animiated GIF was cropped to 360x720 pixels. The data void space near the poles (outside of +/-68 degrees latitude) was filled with a neutral color.

Io

This global color mosaic of Io contains Voyager and Galileo data. I combined five individual mosaics to produce this detailed global (2048x4096) map. About 40% of this image (mainly in the projovian hemisphere) comes from Laika's cylindrical color map . The color balance was modified slightly to make it look more "realistic" based on Galileo's colors. Intensities were also adjusted slightly over broad regions so it would blend better with the other images.

For the second image a near-hemispheric Galileo mosaic was used for about 40% of the map. This was reprojected from a vertical perspective projection (spacecraft view - similar to orthographic) onto the cylindrical lat/lon grid. For the third image a portion of this Galileo mosaic was reprojected to cover about 10% of the map. The color balance was adjusted and saturation was subdued to undo the "enhanced" color in the posted Galileo image. The fourth image comes from a portion of this Galileo mosaic, reprojected to cover the remaining 10% of the map. This fourth color image was augmented by higher resolution intensity information from a black and white USGS map.

Seams were blended gradually between the various images to reduce their prominence. Some further color adjustments are being made to compensate for the extended wavelength range of the Galileo filters.

JPEG (1MB), TIFF (25MB)- (images updated 7/20/2004)

Europa

I am working on a global color map of Europa using Voyager and Galileo data. The current 2048x4096 version is a blending of information from two other maps. The first is in color from Bjorn Jonsson and the second is a high-resolution B&W USGS map on a cylindrical projection. The hue and saturation comes from Bjorn's map. The intensities come from a blend of the USGS data and Bjorn's map. Bjorn's map was warped based on about 60 tiepoints so that it registers better with the USGS map.

JPEG (900K), TIFF (25MB)- (images updated 8/24/2004)

Ganymede

We are using a modified version of this map of Ganymede created by Bjorn Jonsson.

Callisto

We are using a modified version of this map of Callisto created by Bjorn Jonsson.

Saturn

Mimas

Below is a 1440x720 map of Mimas I constructed by reprojecting and overlaying a Cassini image on top of this map of Mimas created by the USGS from Voyager data (from David Seal's web site at JPL). The Cassini image is from NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

JPEG, TIFF- (image updated 3/7/2005)

Enceladus

Below is a 4K map of Enceladus I constructed by reprojecting, colorizing and overlaying Cassini images on top of a previous map using Voyager images from Philip J. Stooke and Jens Meyer. Two Cassini raw images from a mid-January 2005 flyby were used along with eight "raw preview" images, one raw wide-angle image and one mosaic from a mid-February 2005 flyby. Three raw preview images, a false color image, and a high-res mosaic were used from the March 2005 flyby. The Cassini images are from NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.