Lunar Orbiter Frame Mosaics
Lunar Orbiter Frame Mosaics
USGS
August 2009
Lunar Orbiter Frame Mosaics
Lunar Orbiter (LO) digital frame mosaics with cosmetic processing (mostly destriping) at high,
moderate and very high ground resolution [1-3] are available at
ftp://pdsimage2.wr.usgs.gov/pub/pigpen/moon/lunar_orbiter/Frames/ISIS2/. This online
data collection includes versions of the global medium (~200-1000 m) and high (~40-200 m)
resolution LO frames that were used to create the LO global mosaic (60 m/pixel; see Gaddis et
al., 2009). These mosaics are map-projected in ISIS2 cube format, and they have been ‘gzipped’
to reduce file size. See info below for using ISIS3 to work with these data.
The global mosaic is available at Map a Planet (see
http://www.mapaplanet.org/explorer/moon.html). Note that the global mosaic has not yet
been recreated using these newly released, destriped LO frame mosaics.
Background
Five Lunar Orbiter missions were launched by the U.S. in 1966 and 1967 to study the Moon.
Lunar Orbiter images were photographic products acquired on the spacecraft during those five
missions (LO-I through -V; Hansen, 1970; Bowker and Hughes, 1971). The first three missions
mapped potential Apollo lunar landing sites. Lunar Orbiter IV photographed most of the near
and far sides of the Moon medium and high resolutions. Lunar Orbiter V completed the
photography of the far side and collected additional images of 36 sites of scientific interest.
The Lunar Orbiter (LO) global mosaic of the Moon was constructed using photographs acquired
by LO III, IV and V. Work towards constructing the global mosaic spanned over seven years.
Earlier work involved scanning (at 25 microns) and processing (at 50 microns) more than 30,000
35-mm film strips from the LO high- and medium-resolution cameras (HR and MR,
respectively). Digital film strips were cartographically processed to construct more than 200
individual frames and then geodetically corrected using the most recent lunar control network
and topographic model (the Unified Lunar Control Network 2005 or ULCN 2005; Archinal et
al., 2006, USGS Open-File Report 2006-1367, available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1367/).
The result of this work is a moderate resolution (60 m/pixel), near-global, cartographically
controlled digital mosaic of the Moon (Gaddis et al., 2001, 2003, 2009; Becker et al., 2004,
2005; Weller et al., 2006, 2007).
Unprojected LO frame mosaics (at 100 micron resolution) in jpeg and raw formats without the
destriping can be found at http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/LunarOrbiterDigitization/.
Data at this site include a number of LO frames that were not used in the global mosaic because
of redundant coverage or poor quality. All frames were included in the global photogrammetric
solution with updated spacecraft orbits and camera angles tied to the ULCN 2005 control
network.
Data Coverage
Coverage maps for the ‘global’ LO data are available here:
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/LunarOrbiterDigitization/statusmaps.html
The near side (pole-to-pole) LO mosaic is comprised largely of LO IV HR camera data. Far side
coverage is dominated by limb and terminator views acquired by LO V HR and MR cameras.
Also included is a single view obtained by LO III HR and MR cameras that provides coverage at
the southern far side (centered on crater Tsiolkovsky). To fill in gaps where possible, LO IV MR
data are included. The mid-latitude empty area across the far side is a LO data gap. Data
coverage in this region acquired by LO I, II and IV could not be cartographically processed due
to poor quality, lack of reseau marks on film, or unexposed fiducial marks.
Cosmetic Processing
Following cartographic construction of the LO frame mosaics, cosmetic processing for the LO
frame mosaics included removal of the synchronized read-out (white) dashes and destriping.
Cosmetic processing was not applied to the data included the global mosaic. Only a high-pass
filter was applied to the frames before mosaicking to normalize the relative brightness, especially
in terminator regions across the far side. The results accentuate the high frequency information
by retaining only 10% of the low frequency brightness variation.
Observed Artifacts
Spacecraft faults: A majority of the frames contain random spacecraft processing faults, and
these artifacts often look like "water mark" or "coffee ring" patterns. The faults occurred during
processing of the film onboard the spacecraft. Data in these areas are lost and not recoverable.
An overlapping frame covering the same area often does not have a processing fault. No attempt
was made to remove these artifacts.
White Dashes: Every frame contains synchronized read-out (white) dashes along the film strip
margins. The global mosaic was constructed with non-cosmetic "raw" frames containing these
dashes. A first-order cosmetic enhancement process later removed the dashes on many of the
constructed frames. Successful "no-dash" versions of the frames are available on the LO website
listed above. Due to the difficulty of isolating the dashes from original data, the removal was not
100% successful for all frames and the no-dash LO data collection is incomplete. The no-dash
LO frames were not included in the mosaic at the present time.
"Venetian Blind" Striping: Low-contrast striping across each frame remains in the LO mosaic.
This "venetian blind" effect is a familiar characteristic of Lunar Orbiter data and it was caused by
systematic variations in brightness levels across each film strip. The white dashes along the
filmstrip margins also contribute to this apparent banding.
Film Strip Gaps: A number of frames display narrow data gaps between film strips. The gaps
were not removed before mosaicking and can be particularly obvious where an overlapping
frame shows through in the mosaic. These gaps were likely caused by data or film distortion
during a mission readout process either onboard or transfer to Earth. Although the pre-exposed
reseau marks (+) on the film were used rectify each digital film strip for frame construction, the
number and spacing of the reseau marks were inadequate to fully remove the distortion in severe
cases.
DEM Artifacts: There are a few areas in the global mosaic where spikes or artifacts in the ULCN
2005 topographic or digital elevation model (DEM) caused artifacts or errors in the LO mosaic.
For each pixel in a LO frame, radius values from the same site in the DEM file are used to
project the pixel onto the surface. Pronounced artifacts in the DEM were propagated to the
projected LO image data. The resulting pattern in the LO mosaic is a "log cabin" or
"checkerboard" effect where the image data is compromised in a few isolated areas. The ULCN
2005 DEM will continue to be evaluated and "smoothed" to remove these artifacts in the future.
Geometric Control
The LO spacecraft orbit and camera angles for each frame were adjusted to the ULCN 2005
using a least squares photogrammetric triangulation. Overlapping frames share control point
pixel measurements in addition to measurements to existing points within the ULCN 2005.
Selected NASA Clementine 750-nm basemap image tiles were used as the image reference for
the ULCN 2005 points measured in LO frames. The latitude, longitude and radius values for the
ULCN 2005 control points were fixed as .ground truth. in the LO global solution. For each LO
exposure, adjusting both the LO spacecraft position and the camera angles reduced the maximum
RMS errors by a factor of two.
As each frame was projected into the equirectangular map projection, the ULCN 2005 DEM was
used to map every pixel to the surface topography according to the radius value within the DEM.
This orthorectifation of the frames resulted in a high-order registration of features across and
within overlapping projected frames. The LO global mosaic is the first digital map product
constructed based on both the horizontal (latitude, longitude) and vertical (topography) ULCN
2005 geometry and DEM. Other lunar products have been warped to the UCLN 2005 horizontal
geometry (LPSC 2008; B. Archinal and T. Hare; see
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/2245.pdf and
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/2337.pdf).
ISIS3 Processing
To use ISIS3 for working with the LO frame mosaics, first retrieve and unzip the ISIS2 files:
ï‚· Download the desired ISIS2 frames from
ftp://pdsimage2.wr.usgs.gov/pub/pigpen/moon/lunar_orbiter/Frames/ISIS2/
ï‚· On a linux box (prompt is indicated by % below), unzip the cube(s)
 % gunzip *.cub.gz
ï‚· Initiate ISIS3:
 % setisis isis3 or % setisis isis3.1.2 (the latter will change as ISIS3 changes)
ï‚· Within ISIS3, run the following for each file (change filenames as necessary):
 % pds2isis from=isis2_frame1.cub to=isis3_frame1.cub
ï‚· NOTE: The frame mosaics were created in ISIS2 using the lat/lon range of the frames,
so each will have different resolutions and coordinate ranges. Because the mosaic
programs ‘mapmos’ and ‘automos’ require that incoming files have the same mapping
parameters, you’ll need to reproject the frames of interest using the same map file prior to
mosaicking them. If other lunar data (e.g., Clementine color mosaics) are to be included
in a mosaic, they would also need to be reprojected to a common lat/lon using the same
map file. A map.map file contains the output mapping parameters; it can be created from
an existing cube label with the desired Mapping Group, by editing a text file, or using
‘maptemplate’. For example:
 % map2map from=isis3_frame1.cub map=map.map
to=isis3_frame1_newmap.cub
ï‚· To mosaic frames, create an ASCII file containing the list of converted ISIS3 frames:
 % ls -1 *frames*.cub > any_frames.lis
ï‚· Then run the following:
 % automos fromlist=any_frames.lis to=your_mosaic.cub
 % map2map (to reproject if desired)
ï‚· Refer to the ISIS online help for more information on ISIS2 and ISIS3:
 http://isis.astrogeology.usgs.gov/index.html
References
Archinal, B.A., M.R. Rosiek, R.L. Kirk and B.L. Redding, 2006, The Unified Lunar Control
Network 2005 , U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2006-1367.
Becker, T., L. Weller, L. Gaddis, 2008, Lunar Orbiter Mosaic of the Moon, LPS XXXIX, abs.
#2357.
Becker, T., L. Weller, L. Gaddis, D. Soltesz, D. Cook, A. Bennett, D. Galuszka, B. Redding, and
J. Richie, 2004, Progress on Reviving Lunar Orbiter: Scanning, Archiving, and
Cartographic Processing at USGS, LPS XXXV, abs. #1791.
Becker, T., L. Weller, L. Gaddis, D. Soltesz, D. Cook, B. Archinal, A. Bennett, T. McDaniel, B.
Redding, and J. Richie, 2005, Lunar Orbiter Revived: Update on Final Stages of
Scanning, Archiving, and Cartographic Processing at USGS, LPS XXXVI, abs. #1836.
Bowker, D.E. and J.K. Hughes, 1971, Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon, NASA SP-
206.
Gaddis, L.R., T. Sucharski, T. Becker, and A. Gitlin, 2001, Cartographic Processing of Digital
Lunar Orbiter data, LPS XXXII, abs. #1892.
Gaddis, L., T. Becker, L. Weller, D. Cook, J. Richie, A. Bennett, B. Redding, and J. Shinaman,
2003, Reviving Lunar Orbiter: Scanning, Archiving, and Cartographic Processing at
USGS, LPS XXXIV, abs. #1459.
Gaddis, L., T. Becker, L. Weller, T. Hare, and C. Isbell, 2009, Lunar Orbiter Digital Frame
Mosaics: Ready for Prime Time, LPS XXXX, abs. #2437.
Hansen, Thomas P., 1970, Guide to Lunar Orbiter Photographs, NASA SP-242.
Weller, L., B. Redding, T. Becker, L. Gaddis, R. Sucharski, D. Soltesz, D. Cook, B. Archinal, A.
Bennett and T. McDaniel, 2006, Lunar Orbiter Revived: Very High Resolution Views of
the Moon, LPS XXXVII, abs. #2143.
Weller, L., T. Becker, B. Archinal, A. Bennett, D. Cook, L. Gaddis, D. Galuska, R. Kirk, B.
Redding, D. Soltesz, 2007, USGS Lunar Orbiter Digitization Project: Updates and Status,
LPS XXXVIII, abstract #2092.
Document Outline
