Leslie Charles

Tom, I did look at "MSL Coordinate Systems for Science Instruments" that is what my previous post pertained to. The "View Documents" was of no help as there were numerous documents and I did'nt know where to start. Is there a specific document that explains all the items in the PDS label? After re-reading "MSL Coordinate Systems for Science Instruments" the r vector in my previous post doesn't seem correct. However the computations for Θ and Φ seem appropriate. Of course I cannot be sure of that until I find out what Model_Component_3 = "Horizontal" x,y,z vector values actually represent. Any help from anyone most welcomed. Les

Tom, I looked at SCLK 399189865 Sol 19 Model_Component_3 = "Horizontal" so I started there x = 461 y = 366 z = 9.84 r = (x² + y² + z²)^½ → r = 589 meter? Θ = tan^-1 (z/(x² + y²)^½ → Θ = .0167169 Rad ↔ .958° ↔ 89° above horizon Φ = tan^-1 y/x → Φ = 38.4° or 51° East of Due North. I believe SCLK 399189865 is of Mount Sharp which was south of Curiosity on Sol 19, so my calculations don't make much sense. Les

Is the information about the direction of one of Curiosity's camera included in the PDS Label information? Could someone explain how to translate the data information so that the bearings of the camera when a picture was taken can be understood according to North-South-East-West on the martian planet? Thanks, Leslie Charles

Hello, I'm interested in the opinions of Mars researchers concerning following: If there is little dust in the Mars atmosphere, the near-horizon martian (northern hemisphere) sky during early spring seems to look jasmine (yellow with a little orange). The color appears to change to gridelin (dark violet grey) as the distance above the horizon increases, becoming darker as the view moves toward the zenith of the martian sky. As spring turns to summer some photographs give the impression that the jasmine color becomes less prevalent, now the jasmine to gridelin color change looks like it occurs much nearer the horizon. During the autumn season (northern hemisphere) the situation seems to reverse. Now, jasmine is the main color, and an observer would have to look much higher above the horizon to see where the sky changes to a gridelin color. When there is a lot of dust in the atmosphere. The jasmine color appears to be replaced (in the instances described above"”although this would be most common in northern hemisphere winter and spring) with a salmon color (pink with much orange). Darker salmon colors would probably imply more dust in martian atmosphere. Any comments about the previous will be very helpful, but there is something else I am very interested in: What would a person see around noon if she were standing on the martian equator looking upward toward the sun? In this respect would the high martian sky look something like the sky of the Earth's Moon but, perhaps, dark gridelin instead of black (with more diffusion of rays visible around the sun), and would this be the case for any season on Mars? I found several pictures from Curiosity that looked like they were of the sun in the high martian atmosphere, but I couldn't find any description of the pictures, and I don't think any of the photos had been "rendered" to "natural" color. See following links as examples: http://an.rsl.wustl.edu/msl/mslbrowser/sqlImageHandler.ashx?id=NLA_413025507EDR_M0060000NCAM00505M1 http://an.rsl.wustl.edu/msl/mslbrowser/sqlImageHandler.ashx?id=0169ML0009080030104676C00_DRCL The second image seems to indicate that stars are visible in the high martian sky during daylight (perhaps I should say "sol-light") hours"”is this the case? Cordially, Leslie Charles

Hello, I'm trying to find color pictures of the martian terrain with sky that show the natural colors for each Mars season. For southern hemisphere late winter I found a suitable picture that includes the date and time the picture was taken, along with the "natural" colors. See link bellow: http://an.rsl.wustl.edu/msl/mslbrowser/pia.aspx?pia=PIA16800 Unfortunately, I have not been able to find anything provided by Curiosity for the seasons (sol = time in martian "days" Curiosity has been on planet) : Spring (≈ sol 40 to 184); Summer (≈ sol 185 to 322); and Autumn (≈ sol > 322). I need the date and time a picture was taken in order to determine the sun angle, wind speed, dust loading of atmosphere, wind direction, temperature and atmospheric pressure (≈ 2 meter above surface) for the approximate same instant in time (to the nearest hour) the picture was taken. A time point is important. From this information I can use the following applications to determine the other data: Mars24 Sunclock: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/ JMARS Wind and THEMIS Stamps: http://jmars.mars.asu.edu/ Mars Climate Database: http://www-mars.lmd.jussieu.fr/mcd_python/ Any suggestions anyone has for finding the images (and attached time data) will be awesome! Please feel free to comment on anything else too. Cordially, Leslie Charles