Virtual Reality (VR) and desktop users struggle to coordinate due to scale differences when analyzing geospatial data. This work explores multiscale workspace awareness techniques in geospatial analysis scenarios, such as scale-responsive cursors and vistas. A study (n = 16) compared Common Ground to current collaboration tools. The results reveal that 34% of users struggle to maintain awareness of their collaborator’s focus, which drops to 9% with Common Ground; and 32% of users struggle to know precisely what features their collaborator referenced, decreasing to 15% with Common Ground. A follow-up with 12 geospatial practitioners provided insights into real-world applications of our system.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Compact Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) covers the spectral range from 0.362 to 3.92 μm with a midafternoon local solar time data acquisition. For equatorial to midlatitudes, depending on the season and surface materials, wavelengths longer than ∼2.65 μm exhibit spectral radiances on sensor that include sunlight and thermal‐emission related terms. We developed a radiative transfer based neural network approach to model both solar and emitted terms in which surface kinetic temperatures are retrieved for each image pixel, together with single scattering albedo spectra, over the full CRISM wavelength range. We applied the method to along‐track oversampled scene FRT00021C92 over Glen Torridon within Gale Crater, where the Curiosity rover traversed and acquired remote sensing and in‐situ data. Synergistic analysis of orbital and rover‐based data, coupled with laboratory analyses of ferric‐rich smectites, provide a self‐consistent set of results for the presence of desiccated nontronite associated with Murray formation mudstones exposed as periodic bedrock ridges located just to the south of Vera Rubin ridge. The desiccated nature is consistent with Curiosity's CheMin data, which for Glen Torridon drill samples indicate an abundance of nontronite having a collapsed structure resulting from loss of interlayer H 2 O.

Perseverance's Mastcam-Z instrument provides high-resolution stereo and multispectral images with a unique combination of spatial resolution, spatial coverage, and wavelength coverage along the rover's traverse in Jezero crater, Mars. Images reveal rocks consistent with an igneous (including volcanic and/or volcaniclastic) and/or impactite origin and limited aqueous alteration, including polygonally fractured rocks with weathered coatings; massive boulder-forming bedrock consisting of mafic silicates, ferric oxides, and/or iron-bearing alteration minerals; and coarsely layered outcrops dominated by olivine. Pyroxene dominates the iron-bearing mineralogy in the finegrained regolith, while olivine dominates the coarse-grained regolith. Solar and atmospheric imaging observations show significant intra- and intersol variations in dust optical depth and water ice clouds, as well as unique examples of boundary layer vortex action from both natural (dust devil) and Ingenuity helicopter-induced dust lifting. High-resolution stereo imaging also provides geologic context for rover operations, other instrument observations, and sample selection, characterization, and confirmation.

The Emirates Mars Mission Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) will provide remote measurements of the martian surface and lower atmosphere in order to better characterize the geographic and diurnal variability of key constituents (water ice, water vapor, and dust) along with temperature profiles on sub-seasonal timescales. EMIRS is a FTIR spectrometer covering the range from 6.0-100+ μm (1666-100 cm−1) with a spectral sampling as high as 5 cm−1 and a 5.4-mrad IFOV and a 32.5×32.5 mrad FOV. The EMIRS optical path includes a flat 45° pointing mirror to enable one degree of freedom and has a +/- 60° clear aperture around the nadir position which is fed to a 17.78-cm diameter Cassegrain telescope. The collected light is then fed to a flat-plate based Michelson moving mirror mounted on a dual linear voice-coil motor assembly. An array of deuterated L-alanine doped triglycine sulfate (DLaTGS) pyroelectric detectors are used to sample the interferogram every 2 or 4 seconds (depending on the spectral sampling selected). A single 0.846 μm laser diode is used in a metrology interferometer to provide interferometer positional control, sampled at 40 kHz (controlled at 5 kHz) and infrared signal sampled at 625 Hz. The EMIRS beamsplitter is a 60-mm diameter, 1-mm thick 1-arcsecond wedged chemical vapor deposited diamond with an antireflection microstructure to minimize first surface reflection. EMIRS relies on an instrumented internal v-groove blackbody target for a full-aperture radiometric calibration. The radiometric precision of a single spectrum (in 5 cm−1 mode) is <3.0×10−8 W cm−2 sr−1/cm−1 between 300 and 1350 cm−1 over instrument operational temperatures (<∼0.5 K NE $\Delta $ T @ 250 K). The absolute integrated radiance error is < 2% for scene temperatures ranging from 200-340 K. The overall EMIRS envelope size is 52.9×37.5×34.6 cm and the mass is 14.72 kg including the interface adapter plate. The average operational power consumption is 22.2 W, and the standby power consumption is 18.6 W with a 5.7 W thermostatically limited, always-on operational heater. EMIRS was developed by Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University in collaboration with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre with Arizona Space Technologies developing the electronics. EMIRS was integrated, tested and radiometrically calibrated at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

Remote sensing is currently the primary method of obtaining knowledge about the composition and physical properties of the surface of other planets. In a commonly used technique, visible and near-infrared (VNIR) spectrometers onboard orbiting satellites capture reflectance data at different wavelengths, which in turn gives insight about the minerals present and the overall composition of the terrain. In select locations on Mars, rovers have also conducted up close in-situ investigation of the same terrains examined by orbiters, allowing direct comparisons at different spatial scales. In this work, we build Planetary Visor, a virtual reality tool to visualize orbital and ground data around NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover's ongoing traverse in Gale Crater. We have built a 3D terrain along Curiosity's traverse using rover images, and within it we visualize satellite data as polyhedrons, superimposed on that terrain. This system provides perspectives of VNIR spectroscopic data from a satellite aligned with ground images from the rover, allowing the user to explore both the physical aspects of the terrain and their relation to the mineral composition. The result is a system that provides seamless rendering of datasets at vastly different scales. We conduct a user study with subject matter experts to evaluate the success and potential of our tool. The results indicate that Visor assists with geometric understanding of spectral data, improved geological context, a better sense of scale while navigating terrain, and new insights into spectral data. The result is not only an immersive environment in a scientifically interesting area on Mars, but a robust tool for analysis and visualization of data that can yield improved scientific discovery. This technology is relevant to the ongoing operations of the Curiosity rover and will directly be able to represent the data collected in the upcoming Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission.

Introduction: Thermal inertia (TI) is a property used to describe heat transfer and retention on planetary surfaces, defined as Örkc, where r is the density of the material, k is the thermal conductivity and c is the specific heat. Temperature measurements can be modeled to obtain thermal inertia, measured in J m-2 K-1 s-1⁄2, or tiu, which can then be correlated to surface properties such as grain size. Thermal inertia modeling is commonly applied to thermal infrared datasets for Mars such as TES [1] and THEMIS [2]. These instruments have excellent response in the thermal infrared portion of the spectrum but have lower spatial resolution than visible and near-infrared (VNIR) spectroscopic datasets (~3km /pixel for TES and 100 m/pixel for THEMIS). In contrast, CRISM, a VNIR spectrometer, has ~1836 m/pixel spatial resolution, but a maximum wavelength of ~4 microns [3]. This portion of the spectrum contains mixed reflectance and emission from both the Martian surface and atmosphere, making temperature retrievals a fundamentally underdetermined problem. In previous work, [4,5] we used a neural network method to predict long wavelength reflectance values from shorter wavelength values not significantly affected by emission and retrieve single scattering albedo for the full CRISM wavelength range. This process also allowed retrieval of temperatures for each pixel in a CRISM scene. In this work, we use these temperature results to model thermal inertia at the highest spatial resolution ever for Mars, 18 m/pixel. The KRC model: The KRC thermal model [6] solves the heat equation for planetary surfaces and atmospheres, and has been widely used with THEMIS and TES temperature data for Mars. KRC produces diurnal temperature curves using as input 3D spatial location, Ls, thermal inertia, and various other physical parameters as desired. KRC can also be run in “one-point” mode, inputting an observed temperature and outputting the best fit thermal inertia. This method has been used on THEMIS nighttime data to produce TI maps for Mars [e.g., 7]. Challenges of using CRISM data: Using CRISM with the KRC model has several unique challenges. A relatively warm scene is required due to the method of temperature retrieval; at lower temperatures the thermal contribution is small and our ability to distinguish temperatures is correspondingly decreased. CRISM images by nature must be acquired during the day and the corresponding temperature retrieved is therefore much more dependent on albedo than nighttime images would be. However, surface albedo is also known for each pixel, allowing us to include these effects in our model at much finer resolution that is possible for other instruments, e.g. THEMIS. CRISM images are generally taken near 15:30 LST, a challenging time of day due to the proximity in time to thermal crossover. Method: We ran the KRC model in one point mode with the following inputs: latitude and longitude from the CRISM DDR, elevation, slope, and slope azimuth from the CRISM DDR or generated from georeferenced CTX or HiRISE DTMs, CRISM reflectance in the form of Lambert albedos (modeled with DISORT to remove contributions from atmospheric aerosols), atmospheric dust opacities (M. Wolff, personal communication), season and time of day from CRISM header records, and neural-network derived CRISM temperature maps. We also ran KRC using temperatures from THEMIS nighttime scenes over the same locations for comparison.

We propose a new algorithm, hypothesis-based estimation with regularization (HyBER), to reconstruct and denoise hyperspectral image data without extra statistical assumptions. The hypothesis test selects the best statistical model approximating measurements based on the data only. A regularized maximum log-likelihood estimation method is derived based on the selected model. A spatially dependent weighting on the regularization penalty is presented, substantially eliminating row artifacts that are due to nonuniform sampling. A new spectral weighting penalty is introduced to suppress varying detector-related noise. HyBER generates reconstructions with sharpened images and spectra in which the noise is suppressed, whereas fine-scale mineral absorptions are preserved. The performance is quantitatively analyzed for simulations with 0.002% relative error, which is better than the traditional nonstatistical methods (baselines) and statistical methods with improper assumptions. When applied to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars data, the spatial resolution and contrast are approximately two times better as compared to map projecting data without the use of HyBER.

High-resolution hyperspectral data from Chandrayaan-l's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M-3) allow detection of olivine on the lunar surface. Olivine exposed at the surface may originate as mantle material or igneous products (intrusive or extrusive). Potential transport mechanisms include excavation of the mantle or lower crustal material by impacts that form basins and complex craters, differentiation of impact melt sheets, or magmatic emplacement of lavas, cumulates, or xenoliths. A sample of the lunar mantle, which has not been conclusively identified in the lunar sample collection, would yield fundamental new insights into the composition, structure, and evolution of the lunar interior. Olivine identified in remote spectral data is generally accepted to originate from the primary mantle, because abundant olivine is expected to exist in the mantle and lower crust, yet have sparse occurrences in the upper crust. In this study, we identified 111 M-3 single-pixel spectra with characteristic absorption features consistent with olivine at Crisium, Nectaris, and Humorum basins and near the craters Roche and Tsiolkovsky. In an effort to determine the origins and transport mechanisms that led to these individual exposures, we estimated mineral abundances using radiative transfer modeling and examined crustal thickness estimates, topography and slope maps, and images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). At Crisium basin, where crustal thickness is near 0 km (Wieczorek et al., 2013), mantle olivine may have been exposed by basin forming impact and deposited on the rim. Picard crater, which is superposed on the floor of Crisium, also exhibits potential mantle olivine in its ejecta. Within Nectaris basin, olivine exposures are confined to the rims of small craters on the mare, which are inferred to excavate a layer of olivine-rich mare basalt. Olivine occurrences on the rim of Humorum basin, including those located on a graben, are likely to be cumulates of shallow intrusions that were transported magmatically to the surface. Near Roche crater, olivine may have originated in shallow dikes that reached the subsurface and were exposed by impacts. In addition to verifying both known and previously unidentified olivine exposures, our combined geophysical, spectral, and radiative transfer modeling investigation has allowed identification of both igneous and mantle-derived olivine. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Iazu is a 6.8km diameter crater located similar to 25km south of Endeavour Crater in Meridiani Planum, Mars. The asymmetrical ejecta deposit and crater shape demonstrate that Iazu was formed by the impact of a projectile moving from west to east at 20 to 30 degrees above the horizontal. The crater rim and walls expose an similar to 115m thick section of intact banded bright and dark Burns formation polyhydrated sulfate deposits that overlie a lower section of basaltic crust of unknown thickness that has been slightly altered to Fe3+Mg2+ smectites. The lower section also exhibits several basaltic outcrops that are overlain by banded bright and dark layers similar in appearance to the bright and dark bands evident in the overlying Burns formation. We interpret the lower section as indicative of a transition from regional-scale fluvial activity to accumulation of sulfate-rich deposits, culminating in a thick overlying section of Burns formation strata. Banding in the Burns formation and underlying strata is inferred to be a consequence of periodic variations in sulfate-forming depositional environments.

AbstractThe ~100 m wide Marathon Valley crosscuts the Cape Tribulation rim segment of the 22 km diameter, Noachian‐age Endeavour impact crater on Mars. Single‐scattering albedo spectra retrieved from three Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) Full‐Resolution Targeted (FRT, regularized to 18 m/pixel) and two Along Track Oversampled (ATO, regularized to 12 m/pixel) observations indicate the presence of Fe3+‐Mg2+ smectite exposures located in Marathon Valley with combination vibration metal‐OH absorption strength comparable to smectite spectral signatures in Mawrth Vallis. The Opportunity rover was directed to the exposures and documented the presence of Shoemaker formation impact breccias that have been isochemically altered, likely by fracture‐controlled aqueous fluids.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus offers a unique opportunity in the search for life and habitable environments beyond Earth, a key theme of the National Research Council’s 2013–2022 Decadal Survey. A plume of water vapor and ice spews from Enceladus’s south polar region. Cassini data suggest that this plume, sourced by a liquid reservoir beneath the moon’s icy crust, contain organics, salts, and water–rock interaction derivatives. Thus, the ingredients for life as we know it – liquid water, chemistry, and energy sources – are available in Enceladus’s subsurface ocean. We have only to sample the plumes to investigate this hidden ocean environment. We present a New Frontiers class, solar-powered Enceladus orbiter that would take advantage of this opportunity, Testing the Habitability of Enceladus’s Ocean (THEO). Developed by the 2015 Jet Propulsion Laboratory Planetary Science Summer School student participants under the guidance of TeamX, this mission concept includes remote sensing and in situ analyses with a mass spectrometer, a sub-mm radiometer–spectrometer, a camera, and two magnetometers. These instruments were selected to address four key questions for ascertaining the habitability of Enceladus’s ocean within the context of the moon’s geological activity: (1) how are the plumes and ocean connected? (2) are the abiotic conditions of the ocean suitable for habitability? (3) how stable is the ocean environment? (4) is there evidence of biological processes? By taking advantage of the opportunity Enceladus’s plumes offer, THEO represents a viable, solar-powered option for exploring a potentially habitable ocean world of the outer solar system.

Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars hyperspectral (1.0–2.65 µm) along‐track oversampled observations covering Victoria, Santa Maria, Endeavour, and Ada craters were processed to 6 m/pixel and used in combination with Opportunity observations to detect and map hydrated Mg and Ca sulfate minerals in the Burns formation. The strongest spectral absorption features were found to be associated with outcrops that are relatively young and fresh (Ada) or preferentially scoured of dust, soil, and coatings by prevailing winds. At Victoria and Santa Maria, the scoured areas are on the southeastern rims and walls, opposite to the sides where wind‐blown sands extend out of the craters. At Endeavour, the deepest absorptions are in Botany Bay, a subdued and buried rim segment that exhibits high thermal inertias, extensive outcrops, and is interpreted to be a region of enhanced wind scour extending up and out of the crater. Ada, Victoria, and Santa Maria outcrops expose the upper portion of the preserved Burns formation and show spectral evidence for the presence of kieserite. In contrast, gypsum is pervasive spectrally in the Botany Bay exposures. Gypsum, a relatively insoluble evaporative mineral, is interpreted to have formed close to the contact with the Noachian crust as rising groundwaters brought brines close to and onto the surface, either as a direct precipitate or during later diagenesis. The presence of kieserite at the top of the section is hypothesized to reflect precipitation from evaporatively concentrated brines or dehydration of polyhydrated sulfates, in both scenarios as the aqueous environment evolved to very arid conditions.