Ahmedabad (India Science Wire)– Images shot from a mobile phone camera can be enhanced by using filters and some handy software. The task is not so simple when the camera in question is orbiting around the red planet, Mars, and objects being shot are different types of clouds in the Martian atmosphere.
Yet Indian scientists have figured this out by developing an algorithm that can overcome the problem of ?spectral overlap? which prohibit space scientists from making finer distinctions while studying the atmosphere around Mars. MARS Colour Camera (MCC) on-board India?s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is actually a medium resolution imager. The camera consists of three spectral bands (red, green and blue), but it is difficult to extract spectral information from images since there is considerable overlap between the three bands.
In order to address this problem, scientists at the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad have developed an algorithm that corrects the spectral overlap and derives the radiance approximately in three non-overlapping spectral bands. ?Through simulation studies, we show that this procedure improves the spectral information content of the images,? scientists have said in their study published in the latest issue of the journal Current Science.
?The image correction procedure developed has enabled us to distinguish between different cloud types in the Martian atmosphere,? explained Kurian Mathew, a scientist at SAC who led the research team. Other members of the team are A. S. Arya, Harish Seth, S. Manthira Moorthi and P. N. Babu.
MOM was inserted into the Mars orbit on 24 September 2014 and since then it has acquired about 700 images. These images are of good quality and have been used for mapping various morphological features of the planet as well as for monitoring Martian weather phenomena like dust storms, dust devils and clouds.
In arrangement with: �India Science Wire, Vigyan Prasar
Image courtesy:� India Science Wire
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