Global terrain map of Mars at 7 m resolution

I recently completed an AI-driven interpolation of the 463 m resolution global MOLA altimetry dataset, using photoclinometry and the extraordinary 5 m resolution CTX collage by the Murray Lab at Caltech, down to a 7.2 m resolution global altimetry dataset.

An example zoom over Jezero Crater with CTX imagery for reference is given below. Starting with a field of view 1000 km wide and resolution of 1 km/pixel, and zooming in 2x every image.

The process of generating this data is recorded in this X thread. Some technical details are in this paper and this earlier blog. Credit to Balazs Zalanyi for improving the algorithm, and to Seamus Blackley for early encouragement.

The final dataset is about 17 TB. Planets are really big. The complete dataset is 1441792 x 2949120 pixels. 3000k resolution. 4.2 terapixels! If it were displayed at “retina display” resolution, the image would be 250 m wide – long enough for several football pitches.

The next image is only 32 x 32 pixels (16 km wide) at MOLA resolution, but the AI interpolation scheme, using CTX imagery for reference, has recovered the finer grain topographical data.

If you would like a copy, reach out to coordinate mailing a >17 TB hard drive (~$1000 as of 2024) to me and I’ll copy the data over. If you would like a specific area at high res, reach out via X or email and I’ll upload it to Google Drive. Data is provided in 2 degree square 32 bit floating point geotiff format.

Now the field of view is just 2 km wide, centered on the location of Ingenuity’s final flight.

Next on the to do list is to rerun the hydrology simulation, but I’ll have to develop a more efficient algorithm first or it would literally be faster to terraform Mars first.