150°W 149°W 148°W 147°W 146°W 145°W

150°W 149°W 148°W 147°W

145°W 146°W

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210°E

–7.5°

211°E 212°E 213°E 214°E 215°E

210°E 211°E 212°E 213°E

215°E 214°E

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Arimanes Rupes

Arimanes Rupes

Topographic Map of the Arimanes Rupes Region of Mars

MTM 500k –10/212E OMKT

By

Mark R. Rosiek, Bonnie L. Redding, and Donna M. Galuszka

2005

CONTOUR GUIDE (meters)

10 20 30 40 50 60 80 90 70 100 KILOMETERS

SCALE 1:502 000 (1 mm = 502 m) AT 210° E (150° W) LONGITUDE

TRANSVERSE MERCATOR PROJECTION

CONTOUR INTERVAL 250 METERS

Planetocentric latitude and east longitude coordinate system shown in black.

Planetographic latitude and west longitude coordinate system shown in red.

10

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Prepared for the

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

SOUTH

6

5

7

3

4

2

1

MC–23

MC–6

MC–7 MC–2

MC–3

MC–14 MC–15 MC–8 MC–9

MC–1

MC–22 MC–16 MC–17

MC–28

MC–29 MC–24

MC–25

MC–30

QUADRANGLE LOCATION

Photomosaic showing location of map area. An outline of 

1:5,000,000-scale quadrangles is provided for reference.

120° 240°

0°

30°

65°

90° 135° 180° 225° 270°

–30°

–65°

0°

30°

65°

–30°

–65°

120° 240°

WEST

EAST

NORTH

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS MAP 2906

NOTES ON BASE

This map, compiled photogrammetrically from Viking Orbiter stereo image 

pairs, is part of a series of topographic maps of areas of special scientific 

interest on Mars.

MTM 500k –10/212E OMKT

The map code identifies the Mars topographic maps:

MTM 500k –10/212E OMKT: Mars transverse Mercator projection 

(MTM); 1:500,000 series; center of sheet lat 10° S., long 212.5° E. in 

planetocentric coordinate system (this corresponds to –10/147; lat 10° S., 

long 147.5° W. in planetographic coordinate system); orthophotomosaic 

(OM) with color-coded (K) topographic contours and nomenclature (T) 

(Greeley and Batson, 1990)

ADOPTED FIGURE

The figure of Mars used for the computation of the map projection is an oblate 

spheroid (flattening of 1/176.875) with an equatorial radius of 3,396.19 km 

and a polar radius of 3,376.2 km (Seidelmann and others, 2002). The datum 

(the 0-km contour line) for elevations is defined as the equipotential surface 

(gravitational plus rotational) whose average value at the equator is equal to 

the mean radius as determined by Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA; 

Smith and others, 2001).

PROJECTION

The projection is part of a Mars transverse Mercator (MTM) system with 

20°-wide zones. For the area covered by this map, the central meridian is at 

210° E. (150° W.). The scale factor at the central meridian of the zone containing this quadrangle is 0.9960 relative to a nominal scale of 1:500,000.

COORDINATE SYSTEM

Longitude increases to the east and latitude is planetocentric (black) as 

allowed by International Astronomical Union/International Association of 

Geodesy (IAU/IAG) standards (Seidelmann and others, 2002) and in accordance with current National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 

and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) standards (Duxbury and others, 2002). A 

secondary grid (red) has been added to the map as a reference to the west 

longitude/planetographic latitude system that is also allowed by IAU/IAG 

standards (Seidelmann and others, 2002) and has been used for previous Mars 

maps. Planetocentric latitude is defined as the angle between the equitorial 

plane and body to a given point. Planetographic latitude is defined as the 

angle between the equitorial plane and the normal to the oblate spheroid 

reference surface at the given point (Duxbury and others, 2002).

CONTROL

Horizontal and vertical control was established using the Mosaicked Digital 

Image Model 2.0 (MDIM 2.0; Kirk and others, 2000) and MOLA data. A 

portion of MDIM 2.0 covering the map area was extracted in simple cylindrical projection. This MDIM image was georeferenced to the MOLA data with 

an affine transformation. The MDIM image and georeferencing information 

were imported into a digital photogrammetric workstation (Miller and Walker, 

1993) and used as an orthophoto to provide horizontal control to stereopairs of 

Viking imagery. The horizontal information was used to extract vertical 

control from the MOLA data. Note that the distribution of Viking Orbiter 

images suitable for mapping at a scale of 1:500,000 is uneven. Areas mapped 

in this series are chosen, often in blocks of two or more adjacent quadrangles, 

based on scientific interest as well as on the availability of suitable data for 

accurate mapping.

CONTOURS

Contours were derived from a digital terrain model (DTM) compiled on a 

digital photogrammetric workstation using Viking Orbiter stereo image pairs 

with orientation parameters derived from an analytic aerotriangulation. 

Contours were drawn automatically using a commercial geographic information system (GIS) software package (Environmental Systems Research 

Institute, 1994). For stereomodels based on images from orbits 639 and 034, 

the local expected vertical precision based on image resolutions, parallax-toheight ratio (that is, convergence angle), and a matching accuracy of 0.2 pixel 

ranges from 81 m to 132 m with a mean of 99 m. Elevation (in meters) is 

given with respect to the adopted Mars topographic datum (see section named 

"Adopted Figure"). A comparison of the DTM with the MOLA grid shows 

that the DTM is on average 4.4 m lower than the MOLA points (n=362,879; 

μ=–1.2 m; σ=17.1 m). Contour lines were generated automatically using GIS 

software and were not edited. Because the contour lines were not edited, small 

closed contour lines, contour lines that intersect, and contour lines that do not 

match features are present. The post spacing for most of the DTM is 600 m; 

features that are less than 600 m in size will not be resolved, and features that 

are smaller than 1,800 m in size may only have four elevation measurements 

associated with them. This lack of elevation measurements may result in 

contour lines that do not adequately represent some features. The purpose of 

this mapping project is to produce the digital orthophoto and DTM. This map 

provides a graphical representation of the digital products that are available.

IMAGE BASE

The image base for this map employs Viking Orbiter images from orbit 639. 

An orthophotomosaic was created on the digital photogrammetric workstation 

using the DTM compiled from stereo models. Integrated Software for Imagers 

and Spectrometers (ISIS; Torson and Becker, 1997) provided the software to 

project the orthophotomosaic into the transverse Mercator projection.

NOMENCLATURE

Names on this map are approved by the IAU. For a complete list of IAUapproved names, see the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature at 

http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov.

REFERENCES

Duxbury, T.C., Kirk, R.L., Archinal, B.A., and Neumann, G.A., 2002, Mars 

Geodesy/Cartography Working Group Recommendations on Mars 

Cartographic Constants and Coordinate Systems, in Joint International 

Symposium on Geospatial Theory, Processing and Applications, 

Commission IV, Working Group 9—Extraterrestrial Mapping, Ottawa, 

Canada, 2002, Proceedings: Ottawa, Canada, International Society for 

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing [http://www.isprs.org/commission4 

/proceedings/paper.html].

Environmental Systems Research Institute, 1994, Arc commands: Redlands, 

Calif., Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.

Greeley, Ronald, and Batson, R.M., 1990, Planetary mapping: New York, 

Cambridge University Press, p. 261–276.

Kirk, R.L., Lee, E.M., Sucharski, R.M., Richie, J.O., Grecu, A.E., and Castro, 

S.K., 2000, MDIM 2.0—A revised global digital image mosaic of Mars in

Lunar and Planetary Science XXXI: Houston, Lunar and Planetary 

Institute, abstract 2011 [CD-ROM].

Miller, S.B., and Walker, A.S., 1993, Further developments of Leica Digital 

Photogrammetric Systems by Helava: ACSM/ASPRS Annual Convention 

and Exposition, Technical Papers, American Society for Photogrammetry 

and Remote Sensing, v. 3, p. 256–263.

Seidelmann, P.K. (chair), Abalakin, V.K., Bursa, M., Davies, M.E., De Bergh, 

C., Lieske, J.H., Oberst, J., Simon, J.L., Standish, E.M., Stooke, P., and 

Thomas, P.C., 2002, Report of the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements of the Planets and 

Satellites—2000: Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, v. 82, 

p. 83–110.

Smith, D.E., Zuber, M.T., Frey, H.V., Garvin, J.B., Head, J.W., Muhleman, 

D.O., Pettengill, G.H., Phillips, R.J., Solomon, S.C., Zwally, H.J., 

Banerdt, W.B., Duxbury, T.C., Golombek, M.P., Lemoine, F.G., 

Neumann, G.A., Rowlands, D.D., Aharonson, O., Ford, P.G., Ivanov, 

A.B., McGovern, P.J., Abshire, J.B., Afzal, R.S., and Sun, X., 2001, Mars 

Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)—Experiment summary after the first 

year of global mapping of Mars: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 106, 

p. 23,689–23,722.

Torson, J.M., and K.J., Becker, 1997, ISIS—A software architecture for 

processing planetary images [abs.], in Lunar and Planetary Science 

Conference XXVIII: Houston, Lunar and Planetary Institute, p. 1443.

Photogrammetry by M.R. Rosiek

Map compilation by M.R. Rosiek and B.L. Redding

Digital terrain model review by B.L. Redding and D.M. Galuszka

Nomenclature by J.S. Blue

Technical review by J. Zimbelmen and E. Howington-Kraus

Editing by J.L. Zigler

Cartography by D.A. Ryan

Manuscript approved for publication October 20, 2005

Prepared on behalf of the Planetary Geology and Geophysics 

Program, Solar System Exploration Division, Office of Space 

Science, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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750

500

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–500

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–1,250

Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive 

purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Available on World Wide Web at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2005/2906

Diagram of map area showing locations of stereo-image 

pairs used to produce the topographic information. Numbers 

on the diagram correspond to numbered stereo-image pairs 

listed below. Shaded area indicates MOLA data.

 No. IMAGE PAIR

 1 639A10/034A52

 2 639A10/034A56

 3 639A10/034A58

 4 639A12/034A52

 5 639A12/034A58

 6 639A31/608A82

 7 639A33/034A58

MTM –10/212E QUADRANGLE VIKING STEREOMODEL COVERAGE