Planetary mapping
GIS Support
- GRASS lat/lon regions may be used as 0-360 longitude, not just 180 east+west.
- In GRASS 6 you can set and add custom ellipsoids, see the g.setproj module. Permanently adding custom ellipsoids can be done by hand, the config tables for that are plain self-documenting text files, so reasonably easy to edit. An ellipse table with planetary spheroids (to put as $GISBASE/etc/*.table files) is available here.
- GRASS 7 now includes the planetary ellipsoid tables and support is present in the wxGUI location wizard.
- GRASS 7 now includes the IAU2009 IAU2000 Key support in the wxGUI location wizard.
![](/w/images/Location_wizard_with_IAU_codes.png)
Getting Started with both ISIS3 & GRASS
- GRASS 7 now recognizes ISIS3.x installation and runs automatically the ISIS-GRASS bridge, CLI prompt is set to ISIS-GRASS. ISIS commands are available through the ISIS-GRASS command prompt, more details in GRASS Location Wizard.
Getting Started with using ISIS3 data in GRASS
- You can create a GRASS Location based on ISIS3 .cub raster directly
- r.external can read natively the .cub rasters inside ISIS3 data directory (no need import)
- If you want to import into GRASS any .cub from ISIS3 use r.in.gdal
Open Issues
- r.external complains about 'Mars' datum unknown
- r.out.gdal exports 'unknown' ellipsoids / datums, and also the reference meridian is named 'Greenwich'
Example of the use of GRASS GIS in Planetary Research
GRASS ps.map output as published in an article in the journal Science.
![](/w/images/Psmap_on_sciencemag.png)
Data
Data summary (1999):
http://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/mapsummy.txt
Modules
- r.in.gdal will handle HDF and netCDF and many many more formats
- r.in.bin will load raw binary data
- see also the GRASS and GMT wiki page for interfacing with GMT Mapping Tools
- r.crater is an addon module for GRASS 7 which estimates the size of a gravity dominated impact crater, or alternatively works backwards to estimate the size of the projectile that made it.
- d.anaglyph is an addon module for creating 3D stereo images. (see Stereoscopic analysis and Stereo anaglyphs wiki pages)
- Isis2grass is a set of tools to make Isis > 3.3.1 and GRASS work together.
- g.isis3mt: will output an ISIS3 Maptemplate according to the one currently used in the GRASS Location.
- isis-grass: a startup script that will setup a common command line interface from which both ISIS3 and GRASS commands may be called.
A script can generate on-the-fly an Isis Menu using the Toolboxes from wxGUI
![](/w/images/Chan1m32isis_Isis_GRASS_Menu.png)
Mars topography
![](/w/images/Olympus_mons-medium.jpg)
See tutorial in GRASSNews volume 1:
- Global dataset of bathymetry and topography. GRASS Newsletter, 1:8-11, August 2004. ISSN 1614-8746.
Screenshots
![](/w/images/Mars1ana_crop.jpg)
See also
- Frigeri, A, Hare, T, Neteler, M., Coradini, A, Federico, C, Orosei, R. (2011). A working environment for digital planetary data processing and mapping using ISIS and GRASS GIS. Planetary and Space Science, 59(11-12), pp.1265-1272 [ DOI | PDF ]
- these just define the simple reference ellipsoids, so dx=dy=dz=0.
- GRASS currently uses the IAU2000 definitions in the ellipse.table.solar.system file.
- iau2wkt: generates on the fly WKT descriptions from planetary bodies info
Further references
- Deuchlera, C., Wählischa, M., Gehrkeb, S., Haubera, E., Obersta, J., Jaumanna, R. (2004): Combining Mars Data in GRASS GIS for Geological Mapping. Conference: XXth Congress ISPRS, Istanbul, Turkey, 12-23 July 2004 [ PDF ]
- Fonte, S., Frigeri, A., De Sanctis, M. C., Ammannito, E., Palomba, E., Magni, G., Capria, M. T., Capaccioni, F., Carraro, F., Tosi, F., Zambon, F., Turrini, D., Federico, C., Farina, M. (2012): Using GRASS GIS as a planning tool for VIR instrument onboard Dawn mission. European Planetary Science Congress 2012, held 23-28 September, 2012 in Madrid, Spain. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012epsc.conf..810F/abstract, id. EPSC2012-810 [ PDF ]
- Frigeri, A., Federico, C., Pauselli, C. and Minelli, G., 2004. Identifying Wrinkle Ridges from Mars MGS and Viking Mission Data: Using GRASS GIS in Planetary Geology. Transactions in GIS, 8(2), pp.255-262. [ PDF ]