Something I've been playing with for a few months - using channel and valley relationships in different terrain units to infer relative elevation.
Low order --> high order = upstream --> downstream = higher elevation --> lower elevation.

While many of the terrain units could be placed on a relative scale, others are speculative. So this is partly artistic speculation rather than hard science. Still, most of the observed relationships seem to fit the model. I also creatively blurred things to soften the transitions. Pixel values are relative, not absolute.

Relative Elevation Model of Sikun Labyrinthus, Titan:
Click to view attachment

Overlay of PIA10219 (crop of T39 SAR RADAR Swath) and the derived Relative Elevation Model of Sikun Labyrinthus, Titan:
Click to view attachment

-Mike

That is a beautiful image Mike. (you're well on your way to creating a Google map of Titan!)

Looks wonderful to me Mike!

Yes, a very nice image and an interesting idea.

Phil

Very pretty indeed, and with the potential to link to the inevitably incomplete absolute elevation control that Cassini will leave us with, this could become an extremely useful resource.

Interesting idea... Perhaps the elevation could be computed from the drainage network analysis (length, parent/children number, density etc).
Well, very similar the classic geography exercise were you mark drainage basins .
Probably GIS software might be able to extrapolate something from the network contours and "water" divides.

Test render by Bjorn Jonsson:

Click to view attachment

Now that is dangerously believable (or would be with the vertical scale significantly reduced).

You (and Bjorn) are definitely onto something here, Mike. Understanding topographical relationships seems fundamental to understanding Titanian surface processes, perhaps even constraining surface properties & composition. Really interesting work!

Now with color added. (My attempt at recolorizing from Bjorn's rendering - not everything matches yet...):

Click to view attachment

wow! If nothing else, it's very very pretty

Mãezinha!!!
I love the path you guys are following here!
And then Doug arrives with a flyover of the whole scene...

A little something like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZdpxCY7ugI

1280x720 version with fog etc, rendering over the next few days (my render queue is fairly full thanks to the HiRISE DEM's )

In awe I rest my case...

Totally WOW!!!!

[Co-worker just came into my office after I first saw this. "What's wrong with your eyes??" she asked. "Tears of joy", I said. "Check this out" and played the video clip.]

All... and in this case Mike and Bjorn and Doug... bravo!!!!

The professional quality products you folks produce makes this forum the gold standard for space threads.

AWESOME!!!!

Craig

I feel like I'm seeing Titan for the first time. I'm almost speechless. My metaphorical hat is off to you all, not to mention flung in the air and then danced on in the street.

Really amazing work Mike, Björn and Doug!
I hope, that this is only beginning!
It's really pity, that Nirgal's algorithm isn't applicable on SAR images. Combination of both ways (large scale topography by Juramike and detailed by Nirgal) could be fantastic.

SWEET!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AohxBIDukc

Going to step away from DEM's for a few days - my workstation has begun crying

....damn!!!

MAG-NÍ-FI-CO
Now...when you guys have a little spare time...can we do this to the whole moon?...

Here is an artisitic study to get the actual colors of the Sikun Labyrinth. A crop from ISS image in PIA11147 was coordinated with the RADAR image PIA10219. The dark region in SW Mezzoramia, as well as the dark double-headed channel, and the W margin of the Corrosion Plain in the south were used to make the alignment between the ISS and RADAR images.

Colorization of the ISS image was based on a color table created by using the colorized DISR mosaic of the Huygens landing site region.

Click to view attachment

A higher resolution version is on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/4321418176/

Based on the coordinated ISS colorization, here is an artistic impression of the actual appearance the Sikun Labyrinth to human eyes.

Click to view attachment

-Mike

AMAZING !!! I can't wait to see this work done for the whole moon. You must take many undergraduate students to do this job ! Maybe we will see this at the next LPSC.

Nope. 1 man. 1 computer. No sleep.

Even when undergrad students are involved, that "1 person. 1 computer. No sleep" rule still applies, it just transfers it. I still remember Cassini's first flyby of Titan. I didn't get to sleep until noon...

Bravo for the analytical map of Sikun Labyrinthus!

I notice that Sikun Labyrinthus is not so far away from Mezzoramia, the area that may be a dried-up ( or partially dried-up) sea (as VolcanoPele once suggested on this forum). That's another argument in favour of a "Karstic Sikun Labyrinthus".

It's very exciting to imagine the implications of a "Karstic Sikun Labyrinthus", speleologically speaking, if you see what I mean.

Can anybody point out the mechanisms (chemical reactions...) by which the suspected liquids (methane, ethane...) can penetrate into the particular terrain of Sikun Labyrinthus to generate networks of caves?

Workin' on that...

At Titan's low temperatures, it's likely not a chemical equilibrium. (i.e. no chemical bonds getting broken or formed INSIDE a molecule).

More likely it is a dissolution or other phase change process, where the weaker interactions BETWEEN molecules in a solid are being broken.

My current favorite analogy is if you ever drip acetone or pain thinner on a styrofoam block. [Warning: flammable, contact hazard, breathing hazard, etc. Don't do this at home without proper personal protection, well-ventilated space, and proper disposal.]

Here is a website showing the dissolution of styrofoam (polystyrene] with acetone: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000046
[Note the complete lack of safety glasses, protective gloves, and lab coat in the video. Grrrrr! And I don't want to even think about what they did with the resulting waste.....]

And here is what happens if you ever drip acetone acetone on styrofoam (at -78 C) (image in notes section at bottom of page): http://www.cowboyway.com/What/FreezeBranding2.htm

I think you're spot on there in starting with an aerated material. You wouldn't need proper dissolution as such, or even removal by horizontal transport. Any process that broke the cell structure freeing trapped nitrogen could potentially allow foamy stuff to collapse down to a smaller volume.

Titan flyover movie sequence, the full length rendered by Doug, is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/4413738157/
Also includes travelogue for the 20 second video.

That's just freaky cool. Truly bizarre landforms, does indeed resemble parts of the US Southwest in some ways.

The Sikun Labyrinthus relative elevation model was used as a simulation site for developing an algorithm for navigating and controlling the flight path of an aerial vehicle.

See: Aboudan et al., Interplanetary probes workshop 7 (2010) Presentation 433. "Aerobot Autonomous Navigation and Mapping for Planetary Exploration." (link to freely available article here (pdf download): http://www.planetaryprobe.eu/IPPW7/proceed...sion2/pr433.pdf )