http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im..._422_viking.jpg (281kb)

I think Voyager is just off frame to the right of this unfortunately

Doug

very nice made!
I can't wait to see the first pictures of etched terrain...

That is a good Viking panorama.

I'm starting to see some new lithologies in this area, there is a new dark-colored, layered unit visible in the crater, in addition to the usual light-colored evaporite unit. Has Oppy had the time/bandwidth to do a close Pancam or an MI image of these new rocks?

--Bill

Can someone explain why in the last Oppy pancam images there is so much "snow"? I do not know if they are hot pixels or cosmic rays, but for sure aren't real and weren't visible in previous Sol...
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...GP2398R1M1.HTML

Well - it's getting warmer (spring is coming ) so the CCD will get a little noisier. That, and using the fairly dark L7 filter, late in the afternoon means a long exposure.

A warm ccd, with long exposure = hot pixels

They can process them out using calib data on earth I believe

Doug

Here's a polar projection of the Viking crater panorama just released by JPL. "mini-Fram" is at the top, Voyager a bit to the left of the bottom.

Regarding 'snow' in recent pancam images, is that not just extra noise from the recent direct-to-Earth transmissions?

Phil

Click to view attachment

No - if there were missed bits in the transmission of images, we'd have missing sections of images. It's an artifact of temperature and exposure, not transmission


Doug

About the hot pixels...

I've looked carefully at old and new images. When a pixel goes bad, it stays bad. It has been getting worse with time. Seems to be accelerating. It has been causing me concern regarding the long term outlook for the mission. The pattern is different on the left versus right eye and between rovers. It is most likely random damage due to the high radiation environment.

Doug, from what I've seen, this is the best picture you've stitched, color calibration wise.

There's certainly some damage. But I think Doug is exactly right. It's just hot compared to the rovers' previous experience. The pattern is worst in the blue with the long exposures, so it sure looks like extra dark current. That can be calibrated, even if it is worse than at landing--they take occasional dark current images with L8 and R8. For the most part, the images will get better again when autumn sets in late this year.

CCDs have been through longer and more radiation exposure and continued to work quite nicely--see Cassini & Huygens, or even HST.