Inter-planetry remote sensing
I have become increasingly interested in exploring some of the inter-planetry remote sensing data sets, partly a result of the BSc in Earth and Planetry Science which we offer here at Kingston University. This is a large area, however I would recommend anyone interested in exploring the topic to visit the Astrogeology group at the USGS. They probably have the best selection of resources currently available for teaching yourself further on the subject, whilst making available a good selection of prepared data and software. A very good starting point (showing my interest in DEMs) is the near-global DEM of Mars:
ftp://ftpflag.wr.usgs.gov/dist/pigpen/mars/mola/mola128_88Nto88S_Simp_clon0.zip
This is based upon MOLA (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, aboard Mars Global Surveyor) elevation readings that have been interpolated to a regular grid (i.e. a DEM).
Beware that this is a 1Gb download, but is GIS ready!! Simply unzip and go. The rest of the files on the Astrogeology FTP server are well worth browsing through:
ftp://ftpflag.wr.usgs.gov/dist/pigpen/
One area of particular interest is the availability of dynamic remote data sets. The USGS/NASA are quite pro-active in making data available. This would traditionally have been made through an ArcIMS server, however with the establishment of web mapping standards (specifically WMS and WFS) from the OGC we are seeing non-proprietary formats made available. At the moment it helps if you already have a copy of ArcGIS in order to use these, however this will change with the availability of a new version of ESRI’s ArcGIS Explorer sometime next year. For inter-planetry enthusiasts, the servers you want to point ArcGIS at are:
WMS: tomars.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?
ArcIMS: webgis.wr.usgs.gov