Ten
steps to suggesting a target
- If you want to suggest a target area on Mars for
HiRISE, but you want to let the scientists decide on the
"extras", like time of year that the image is taken, you can use
this tutorial to walk you through it. If you have more time and want
to use all of the advanced features of the Target Suggestion site, go here.
This takes you through the bare bones needed to suggest a target. Now
let's get started!
2. When you open up the HiRISE Image Suggestion Facility
Webpage (HiWeb), you will see a bright colorful map of Mars created with MOLA data. If you move your cursor around the
map, you will see a box. This is the area that will come up in the next
page. Move your cursor to the site you are interested in and click
it. A new window will pop up with an MDIM surface image of the area. Alternatively, at the top of the page
you can type in the latitude and longitude of the region you are interested in
and click ñLaunch Image Suggestion Facilityî.
3. You can either click on the + and – to zoom in
and out, or you can click on one of the options under "Map
Scale". If you use the plus and minus buttons, the percent zoom and
resolution is to the right of the box. You can move the image by either
clicking on the arrow buttons, clicking on the image and holding the mouse
button down as you drag it, or by dragging the red box in the map at the lower
left to the area you want to look at.
4. Once you have found the area you are interested in,
click on "Launch Image Suggestion Tool".
5. The next window you will see your zoomed-in image of
Mars and a series of buttons to the left. This image is the center of the image
you selected (before you clicked on suggest a HiRISE image) zoomed in at 200%.
Now you can select the area that you think should be imaged. Click
"Suggest HiRISE Target". If you are a new user, you will have
to create a user name and password. Do this by clicking the
"Register" button at the right of the window that pops up and filling
in the Registration Form. Once you are registered,
login with your user name and password.
6. Once you have logged in, a new window will appear.
Leave this window open, but return to the previous "Map
Display/Suggestion" page to select the area you wish to image. Under
the button "Suggest HiRISE Target" you can choose either "image
footprint" or "polygon". It is easiest to select
an image footprint which is the actual area of a HiRISE image footprint.
Do this by clicking the image footprint button (see arrow below). Image
footprint will give you a parallelogram by clicking on the image and
dragging the cursor or by simply clicking on the page. If it is not in
the correct place, you can drag this parallelogram to the area you wish to
image. The web image below shows a selected area with an image footprint
selected, outlined by the yellow and green box. To find out how to make a
polygon, go here.
7. The parameters will automatically be entered into the
orange HiRISE suggestion form window under General parameters based on the area
you selected. At the right side of the window is an area labeled
"Your Priority". If you are selecting a number of locations,
choose which ones are the highest priority for you. 1 is low priority,
and 5 is high. Remember that not all of the suggested locations can be
imaged, so choose your high priority locations carefully.
8. Next go to Science Justification, just below on the
same window, and select a "Primary Science Theme". This allows you
to chose the scientific area that best applies to the reason for your
selection. For example, if you think that the area you selected may be an
interesting ancient river bed, you would select "Fluvial Processes".
If you are looking at growth or recession of the polar caps, you may select
"Glacial Geology" as your primary theme and "Climate
Change" as your secondary theme. This then tells us where this
request should be sent. Each science theme has a different scientist that
will select the best suggestions to be imaged.
9. Next, under "Science Rationale," type in a
brief explanation of why you think this is an important place to collect an
image. For example, you may say, "this area is a potential lake bed, and
we are interested in seeing evidence of layering or platforms along the lake
margins."
(You can leave the
rest of the parameters at the defaults and a scientist will select the
appropriate parameters if the site is selected. If you want to learn more
about modifying the parameters, go to the Advanced Tutorial here)
10. Finally, when you have finished this, you can click
"Submit" at the bottom of the window. If any information is
missing, you will be alerted.
Thank you for
suggesting a target! When the image is taken you will be notified by email and
will be able to view the collected images at a link provided at: http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/hirise.
Return to HiRISE Learning Page