My TS page has moved

[Malenfant]

Just to let folks know, my Transhuman Space webpage (which has realistic Mars sea level maps, and a better version of the Europa map from Under Pressure) has moved - it's now at:

http://evildrganymede.net/rpgs/ths/

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

http://evildrganymede.net/rpgs/ths/

Aha!

I've run into a minor difficulty trying to re-plot these maps for my own purposes.

I have downloaded the 1/32 MOLA data (which have moved from the old URL;
they're currently at http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/mis...mgs/megdr.html) and successfully plotted a heightfield with the baseline water level. However, I do not have the detailed lat/long constraints to delineate the isolated Marineris water bodies, nor for the section of Noctis Labyrinthus that needs to be lowered; do you have these data in any convenient form?

[Malenfant]

I'm not even sure if the megdrs are the same data format that I used to make the map - I haven't looked at them in years, so I'm afraid I can't help anyone with that end of things.

If you're looking for locations, try going through the USGS Planetary Nomenclature site http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/MARS/target - they have some visual maps there so if you know the place names and have a map showing where they are you might be able to figure out the exact location? I've got a lat/lon grid on the Marineris map too if that helps at all.

Was that the sort of thing that you were looking for?

[Tzeentch]

Hmm, I'm going to take that megdr file and see how fast ArcGIS can do flooding simulations with it. Might be interesting :)

(Been working on SURGE inundation modelling for west-coast Florida using LiDAR heightmaps (5' cell size) and now I'm curious if you can run SURGE on a Mars dataset :)~ ). 10 is supposed to have better hydrological tools but I'm holding off on the "upgrade" until the 10.1 fixes.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

Was that the sort of thing that you were looking for?

Not exactly. I'm looking at statements like "The sea level in the Marineris between Eos and the locks (i.e. in Coprates/Melas) is set at 7.0 km above the lowest point on Mars." and wondering whether there's a bounding polygon defining "Marineris between Eos and the locks" within which I can tell my plotting routine "set the water level cutoff to this value rather than the standard".

Plotting the MEGDR data as a heightfield has presented no problem at all. Here's a first cut at a planetary map: http://tekeli.li/transhumanspace/marsmap.jpg

I was also hoping you might have a list of settlements with lat/long values which I could feed directly into the plotter...

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Not exactly. I'm looking at statements like "The sea level in the Marineris between Eos and the locks (i.e. in Coprates/Melas) is set at 7.0 km above the lowest point on Mars." and wondering whether there's a bounding polygon defining "Marineris between Eos and the locks" within which I can tell my plotting routine "set the water level cutoff to this value rather than the standard".

Well, you can see from the map that the locks are at 80°W/8°N and the Eos Dam is located at about 41°W/13°S. I didn't have a pinned down lat/lon in mind, IIRC those locations just seemed to make sense at the time given the topography.

I was also hoping you might have a list of settlements with lat/long values which I could feed directly into the plotter...

I don't, but again you can just eyeball them from the map. I'm sure not going to complain if they're in slightly different places on your own map ;).

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

Well, you can see from the map that the locks are at 80°W/8°N and the Eos Dam is located at about 41°W/13°S. I didn't have a pinned down lat/lon in mind, IIRC those locations just seemed to make sense at the time given the topography.

Fair does - I assumed you had a large and sinister program that had spat out the map more or less automatically. (Because that's what I'm writing...)

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Fair does - I assumed you had a large and sinister program that had spat out the map more or less automatically. (Because that's what I'm writing...)

Oh lawks, no :). I rendered the map in POVray, then I think I looked at Marineris in more detail because it wasn't filling up properly, and realised that I needed about three different height levels (provided by the dam and locks) to fill it all the way. I basically just rendered it three times at the different heights and copy/pasted them onto the final map.

[Crakkerjakk]

I just wanted to thank you for the effort you've put into TS. Some awesome resources.

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

I just wanted to thank you for the effort you've put into TS. Some awesome resources.

Thanks :). I'm not really adding anything more to it, but I figured that what I have done remains useful for people so it's worth maintaining :).