Ten steps to suggesting a target

If you want to suggest a target area on Mars for HiRISE, but you want to let the scientists decide on the “extras”, like time of year that the image is taken, you can use this tutorial to walk you through it. If you have more time and want to use all of the advanced features of the Target Suggestion site, go here. This takes you through the bare bones needed to suggest a target. Now let’s get started!

1. When you open up the HiRISE Image Suggestion Facility Webpage (HiWeb), you will see a bright colorful map of Mars created with MOLA data. If you move your cursor around the map, you will see a box. This is the area that will come up in the next page. Move your cursor to the site you are interested in and click it. A new window will pop up with an MDIM surface image of the area.

2. You can either click on the + and – to zoom in and out, or you can click on one of the options under “Map Scale”. If you use the plus and minus buttons, the percent zoom and resolution is to the right of the box. You can move the image by either clicking on the arrow buttons, clicking on the image and holding the mouse button down as you drag it, or by dragging the red box in the map at the lower left to the area you want to look at.

3. Once you have found the area you are interested in, click on “Suggest HiRISE Target”.

4. The next window you will see your zoomed-in image of Mars and a series of buttons to the left. This image is the center of the image you selected (before you clicked on suggest a HiRISE image) zoomed in at 200%. Now you can select the area that you think should be imaged. Click “Suggest HiRISE Target”. If you are a new user, you will have to create a user name and password. Do this by clicking the “Register” button at the right of the window that pops up and filling in the Registration Form. Once you are registered, login with your user name and password.

5. Once you have logged in, a new window will appear. Leave this window open, but return to the previous “Map Display/Suggestion” page to select the area you wish to image. Under the button “Suggest HiRISE Target” you can choose either “image footprint” or “polygon”. It is easiest to select an image footprint which is the actual area of a HiRISE image footprint. Do this by clicking the image footprint button (see arrow below). Image footprint will give you a parallelogram by clicking on the image and dragging the cursor or by simply clicking on the page. If it is not in the correct place, you can drag this parallelogram to the area you wish to image. The web image below shows a selected area with an image footprint selected, outlined by the yellow and green box. To find out how to make a polygon, go here.

6. The parameters will automatically be entered into the orange HiRISE suggestion form window under General parameters based on the area you selected. At the right side of the window is an area labeled “Your Priority”. If you are selecting a number of locations, choose which ones are the highest priority for you. 1 is low priority, and 5 is high. Remember that not all of the suggested locations can be imaged, so choose your high priority locations carefully.

7. Next go to Science Justification, just below on the same window, and select a “Primary Science Theme”. This allows you to chose the scientific area that best applies to the reason for your selection. For example, if you think that the area you selected may be an interesting ancient river bed, you would select “Fluvial Processes”. If you are looking at growth or recession of the polar caps, you may select “Glacial Geology” as your primary theme and “Climate Change” as your secondary theme. This then tells us where this request should be sent. Each science theme has a different scientist that will select the best suggestions to be imaged.

8. Next, under “Science Rationale,” type in a brief explanation of why you think this is an important place to collect an image. For example, you may say, “this area is a potential lake bed, and we are interested in seeing evidence of layering or platforms along the lake margins.”

(You can leave the rest of the parameters at the defaults and a scientist will select the appropriate parameters if the site is selected. If you want to learn more about modifying the parameters, go to the Advanced Tutorial here

9. Finally, when you have finished this, you can click “Submit” at the bottom of the window. If any information is missing, you will be alerted.

10. Thank you for suggesting a target! When the image is taken you will be notified by email and will be able to view the collected images at a link provided at: http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/hirise .