Web-based planetary image dissemination platforms usually show outline coverage of available data and offer querying for metadata as well as preview and download. While the usual form of presenting multiorbit data sets is to merge the data into a larger mosaic, for change detection purposes it is essential to maintain the individual images as an important snapshot of the planetary surface taken at a specific time. We introduce the web-based interactive Mars Analysis and Research System (iMARS web-GIS), which is specialized on planetary surface change analysis with novel tools for simultaneous visualization of single images as time series in their original sequence. As the data foundation, we use the vast quantity of automatically coregistered orthoimages and digital terrain models (DTM) from three NASA missions' instruments processed and ingested in the context of the EU-funded iMars project. The baseline for the coregistered images are the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) multiorbit quadrangle image mosaics, which are based on bundle block-adjusted multiorbit DTM mosaics. Additionally, we make use of the existing along-track bundle-adjusted HRSC single images and DTMs available at the planetary data archives. We provide two science cases for exemplary workflows of the multitemporal single-image analysis, demonstrating the dedicated tools for surface change interpretation-one near Mawrth Vallis and one near the south pole. A web mapping application including the presented functionality has been implemented and is available at http://imars.planet.fu-berlin.de with the iMars project website (http://www.i-mars.eu/web-gis) serving as a mirror.
Plain Language SummaryWe present a web-based mapping system for Mars with the emphasis on the analysis of change detection features. It contains topographic base maps in an intuitive click, browse, and zoom environment. Single images from the available archive of most past and current space missions can be arranged as stacks and viewed as time series of the recent Martian's surface history. We use the system for two scientific case studies, one from an equatorial region currently under investigation for landing site selections of future rover missions, one from the south pole-known for its continuous annual growth and retreat of polar ice.