Jules Verne Voyager: Information Sources

Information Sources Index:


For more information about our Voyager map tool, contact: Lou Estey
(louunavco.org)
Last modified: 17 Mar 2010

Overview     Since the Jules Verne Voyager is based on the functionality of GMT (Generic Mapping Tools, developed and maintained by Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith), data sets which are already in GMT format can be added very quickly. Some of the data sets listed here were already in a GMT format, others had to be massaged somewhat.

To date, planetary data or images mainly obtained from:

For more details and other data sources, see the specific world below.

Map sites     To compare our planetary Voyager interactive maps with other mapping sites (last checked on 9 Oct 2007), try :

basic resources:

  • basic command line GMT: GMT homepage
  • GUI wrapper for GMT: Harvard's iGMT Interactive Mapping of Geoscientific Datasets
  • USGS overview of map projections, (though there is the curious lack of mention of the Plate Carrée = simple cylindrical projection)

interactive map and map creation sites:

map, 3D visualization, and image resource sites:

Earth    

Moon    

Mercury    

  • Geophysics/Geology: Geophysical and geologic information obtained from:

Venus    

Mars    

Phobos    

  • Geophysics/Geology: Geophysical and geologic information obtained from:

Deimos    

  • Geophysics/Geology: Geophysical and geologic information obtained from:

Jupiter    

Amalthea    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Voyager and Galileo composite image of the surface was obtained from Wm. Robert Johnston's Planetary maps; based on a shaded relief map by Phil Stooke, colorized by Johnston to approximate those in the Voyager images.

Io    

Europa    

Ganymede    

  • Geophysics/Geology: Geophysical and geologic information obtained from:

Callisto    

Saturn    

  • Atmospheric: Image obtained from:
    • The Cassini and Voyager composite image of the atmosphere was obtained from Björn Jónsson's planetary rendering site, specifically: 1 MB JPEG.
    • The Voyager 1 and 2 composite image of the atmosphere was obtained from Jónsson's earlier 2002 texture map (no longer available on Jónsson's planetary rendering site).

Janus    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Voyager and Cassini composite image of the surface was obtained from Wm. Robert Johnston's Planetary maps; essentially the shaded relief map by A. Tayfun Oner, cleaned by Johnston.

Mimas    

Enceladus    

Tethys    

Dione    

Rhea    

Titan    

Iapetus    

Phoebe    

Uranus    

  • Atmospheric texture map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • Uranus's atmospheric composite was obtained from James Hastings-Trew's rendering site, specifically: 9 KB JPG — based on the Jan 1986 Voyager 2 flyby and later Hubble Space Telescope images, with contrast enhancement to show variation of color from equator to poles.

Ariel    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Voyager 2 composite image of the surface was obtained from Steve Albers's Planetary Maps (Global Images) (part of NOAA's Science on a Sphere project); original dataset from the USGS and JPL, reprocessed additions by Ted Stryk.

Umbriel    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:

Titania    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:

Oberon    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:

Miranda    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Voyager 2 composite image of the surface was obtained from Wm. Robert Johnston's Planetary maps; original dataset from the USGS, colorized by Johnston to approximate those in Voyager 2 images.

Neptune    

  • Atmospheric texture map: dataset(s) obtained from:

Triton    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Voyager 2 composite image of the surface was obtained from Steve Albers's Planetary Maps (Global Images) (part of NOAA's Science on a Sphere project); original dataset from JPL, reprocessed by Wm. Robert Johnston and A. Tayfun Oner, intensity adjusted by Albers.

Proteus    

  • Surface map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Voyager 2 composite image of the surface and the topographic map was obtained from Calvin J. Hamilton's Views of the Solar System; shaded relief map by Phil Stooke, and topographic map by A. Tayfun Oner based on a shape model by Phil Stooke.

Pluto    

  • Surface texture map: dataset(s) obtained from:
    • The Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys 2002-2003 composite image of the surface was obtained from BBC News and HubbleSite, release STScI-2010-06, image credit to Marc Buie (Lowell Observatory), NASA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
    • The Hubble Space Telescope/Faint Object Camera 1994 composite image of the surface was obtained from HubbleSite, release STScI-1996-09 and HubbleSite, release STScI-2010-06, image credit to Alan Stern (Southwest Research Institute), Marc Buie (Lowell Observatory), NASA and ESA.

Datasets we're specifically looking for...    

  • GPS/GNSS velocity solutions of monuments in ITRF96 (or later) global reference frame
  • global digital fault dataset for Earth
  • high resolution digital grid data or images of any planetary body; we can probably handle up to 256 to 300 pixels/°
  • digital lon/lat outlines of non-circular features on planetary bodies

Do you have data that you would like to see in Voyager?     If you know of a public-domain data set which may be of general interest, feel free to contact us. Likewise, if you have a data set (even if proprietary) and would like to see it included in Voyager, please let us know; for example, we can make special arrangements to keep your data set safe and only allow users access via the GIF images displayed on users' browsers via Voyager, or even restrict access to certain data sets to specific IP addresses.

The data formats which are the most easily included in Voyager are:

  • files already formatted for GMT
  • point or line data in ASCII or binary format
  • RGB/RAW, TIFF, PNG, GIF, or JPEG evenly-spaced lon/lat file showing some characteristic of all or some portion of a world (preference is RGB/RAW or TIFF format first, PNG or GIF second, JPEG last)
  • binary or ASCII grid data of some single-valued function of longitude and latitude (e.g. DEM, gravity, geoid, seismic velocities, etc.), evenly spaced in lon/lat is best
We are primarily interested in showing data with a geophysical/geologic flavor, but would be willing to entertain other possibilities of educational interest, for example:
  • paths of famous explorations (e.g. Magellan, Cook, etc.)
  • locations of hominid finds (with age of find, name of species/sub-species, etc.)
  • whatever

Eventually, we hope to be able to set an ftp procedure where users can ftp data files to our site, for inclusion on Voyager imaging of Earth or other worlds, but with access limited to specific IP addresses, basically allowing only you and your colleagues to look at your own data with Voyager without necessarily contacting us.

Comments, questions, problems about Jules Verne Voyager? Send mail to Lou Estey
(louunavco.org)

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  Jules Verne Voyager: Information Sources last modified on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:57:28 UTC
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