New Amazing Mars Flyover Videos

By Nancy Atkinson - January 27, 2010 at 8:08 AM UTC | Planetary Science

Doug Ellison from

UnmannedSpaceflight.com

has done it again... and again... and again. Here are new Mars flyover videos Doug has created from data from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Using DEM (Digital Elevation Model)-- (also known as DTM Digital Terrain Model) files provided by the HiRISE team, Doug is able to render 3-D movies of a specific location on Mars. Since he is using actual high-resolution data from HiRISE, Doug says the terrain seen in the movies has accurate vertical scaling and is not exaggerated. These new views of the Red Planet are also stunningly beautiful! The video above is of the Mojave Crater wall on Mars, and below is Athabasca Valles. And Doug says more are on the way! If you recall, Doug created the

flyover video of the Spirit rover's location

that was on Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Doug says he is working on videos of Gale Crater, Bahram Vallis, Candor Chasma, Juventae Chasma, and more. "I'm drowning in data!" he said via

Twitter.

DEMs are a grid, or raster, file describing elevation values at regularly spaced points, or posts. HiRISE DEMs are made from two high-resolution images of the same area, taken from different look angles by the spacecraft. The HiRISE folks say that creating a DEM is complicated and involves sophisticated software and a lot of time, both computing time and man-hours.

However, DEMs aren't just for making amazing movies or stunning 3-D images. DEMs are very powerful research tools, used to take measurements and model geological processes. In fact, almost every HiRISE DEM produced results in a published paper.

Take a look at the

DEM image and files

from which the top video of Mojave Crater was made.

Read more about DEM files here from the HiRISE website.

And be sure to visit

UnmannedSpaceflight.com

to see all the wonderful images and videos created by Doug and many other very talented and avid fans of spaceflight.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com