Mapping Planets and Moons In 3D With Stereophotoclinometry 23
subcomdtaco writes with this snippet from a story in the NYTimes:
"Dr. [Robert] Gaskell, with software he developed over a quarter-century of trial and error, can process hundreds of images in a few hours, slap them atop one another electronically like coats of paint and produce a topographical map so detailed that you often need a pair of 3-D glasses to appreciate what he has done. At 63, Dr. Gaskell has become the Captain Cook of space. Dr. Gaskell calls what he does 'stereophotoclinometry.' [PDF] Ideally he needs at least three images of the target landscape, usually taken by an orbiting spacecraft or a probe on a flyby to another destination. Only in rare cases can telescope images provide enough detail. The sun angle must be different for each exposure so each image shows different shadows. By comparing the shadows, the software calculates slopes, which yield the altitudes of target features. The computer solves the equation in three dimensions, producing a patchlike topographical maplet."
Re:This is new? (Score:4, Insightful)
The advantage of this method over Gaskell's is that there is no dependency on sunlight-based data. I fail to see what is new here...
You stated one of the things that are new. He used shadows.
It need not be new, or first, or best, to be interesting. People have been making accurate measurements from distances for thousands of years. That doesn't make this any less cool.
If you're feeling left out, maybe you should have published a paper.
Fill in voids in SRTM data (Score:3, Insightful)
If his code (or even the compiled software) is available, it might be useful for creating a digital elevation model which could be used to fill in the voids in the SRTM elevation data.