Kevin M. Gill is a fan of Astrophotography. Chances are you have seen some of his images over the years, even if you aren't following the latest developments. Gill has covered it all, from beautiful artist renditions to breathtaking photographs of far-off planets. There are pictures of a unique feature on Mars on his official Flickr page.
Gill is a California-based software engineer, planetary and climate data wrangler, and science data visualization artist with a long history of working with NASA. He is renowned for his images of extraterrestrial environments, as well as artistic depictions of space missions, Solar bodies, and exoplanets. These images are black and white and taken by NASA missions.
The artist created an impression of the Megadunes. Kevin M. Gill is from NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
Gill is able to convey the true depth and beauty of the extraterrestrial environments by adding color, depth, and better resolution. Gill used the images from the HiRISE camera on the Mars MRO to show the large canyon located in the vicinity of Mars's northern polar ice cap.
The images are part of a series taken by HiRISE to create Martian Digital Terrain Models. HiRISE DTMs are made from two images of the same area taken from different angles and processed using sophisticated software. The features known as megadunes are the result of melting ice and dust storms and can be seen in the DTM of the Chasma Boreale region.
The dunes are similar to Barchan dunes, which have been imaged by the MRO for decades. The dunes are located in the northern part of Mars and are the result of deposition. The barchan's signature shape is caused by the same winds that occur in the northern and southern hemispheres.
The MRO has a HiRISE instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
The dunes are hard to see in the winter. The frost sublimates become visible during the summer because of their mineral composition. The dunes are pushed across the surface by the Martian winds. The barchans have a smaller size than the megadunes and may have secrets about Mars.
Gill processed the HiRISE data using the GDAL software to create his photos of the megadunes. The images were rendered using 3D computer graphics software and cloud-based photo editing platform. The images he created show what the megadunes look like.
The features could be seen by surface missions in the near future. It is possible that astronauts will see them up- close when the first crewed missions to Mars are conducted in the next decade. It is possible to see how wind patterns and glaciers changed over time on Mars, by studying the megadunes and other features.
The artist's rendering gives us a glimpse of what we could be seeing soon.
Kevin Gill is a writer for the Flickr.
