There are two options for describing input images. Either: List the image file names Or: provide an ascii file with the file names listed, one per record.
Output tiepoint table. This is an ASCII table with a header, a record indicating the number of tiepoints, then a series of records, one per tiepoint. Values in the record are: laft_image, right_image, left_sample, left_line, right_sample, right_line, corrected_sample, corrected_line, quality, interactive_flag
The vicar image band number. Defaults to 1
When a fiducial xyz is projected to an image line/sample, if this line/sample is not in the image and is not within this distance to the image border, the fiducial is ignored.
The number of samples to search to the left and right about the point fouund by projecting the templates centroid (xyz) to the image being searched. Defaults to 150.
Search lines. See SEARCHNS.
Minimum acceptable correlation quality. Qualities range from 0 (poor) to 1 (excellent). The computed quality is the value of the highest correlation found when searching the search area with the template image. Defaults to 0.6
The minimum percentage of the template that must be used when performing correlations. Only parts of the image which lie within the search image are used to compute correlations. This parameter is used to avoid using too small of a template which would lead to false positive matches. Also, only pixels in the template which are not equal to the mask value are used to compute correlations. See MASK_VALUE.
Starting key number for the tiepoint file . Tiepoint files contain a list of images, each of which is associated with an integer key. Setting START_KEY to some value allows tiepoint files to be merged easily, without the keys conflicting. It is acceptable to have the same image in different sections of a merged file (with different keys); they are properly merged when read in.
When computing correlations, pixels which equal this value are ignored.
Maximum separation angle for image pairs. If the camera orientations are separated by more than this angle, the pair is skipped. This provides a quick efficiency boost by rejecting spurious pairs.
Corrected navigation filename. If marsnav was run on the input images it created a table of corrected pointing parameters. If you refer to this table using NAVTABLE it will override the pointing parameters (e.g. azimuth and elevation) in the picture labels, giving you a better registered mosaic.
Controls the amount of messages to display. Choose either INFO (default) or DEBUG.
There are two tiepoint file formats: "old" is the simple text-based list, as used for most of MER, while "new" is an XML-based format that supports additional tiepoint types. The FORMAT parameter controls which one to use. Over time the use of "old" should be phased out and eventually the FORMAT parameter will disappear.
The local mars surface normal vector coordinate system specified by SURF_COORD parameter (defaults to surface fixed). For most pan/tilt cameras, if the lander is not tilted this vector would be: normal=(0,0,-1). ie: x_component=0, y_component=0, z_component=-1. This need not be a unit vector. This vector is used to define the surface plane to which image points are projected in order to minimize parallax. For SPHERE1/2 surface models, normal's first parameter is used to denote sphere's radius. Thus to describe sphere of radius R, user would specify normal=(R, 0, 0).
Any point on the surface, in coordinate system specified by SURF_COORD parameter
(defaults to surface fixed). This defines where the tilted plane is in space.
Although any point may be used, normally the point just "under" the origin is selected.
Defaults:
Mars Pathfinder: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0) (lander zero point is on the ground)
Mars 98 Lander: (0.0, 0.0, 1.64) (lander zero point is on top of deck)
MER : (0.0, 0.0, 0.294)
For MER images taken on top of the lander, the ground is roughly at (0.0, 0.0, 0.7)
For SPHERE1/2 surface models, GROUND parameter is used to denote sphere's
center.
The coordinate system that surface parameters like GROUND and NORMAL are defined in. For valid values refer to COORD parameter description. The interpretation of the values is dependent on the mission. Defaults to surface fixed coordinate system. Note that no validation is done for input strings because COORD is using the same values. So user needs to be extra careful in specifying SURF_COORD value. For example COORD=local would be correctly interpreted to mean LOCAL_LEVEL because of validation process. On the other hand specifying SURF_COORD=local would lead to underlying code treating the input value as invalid and reverting to default which is FIXED frame. So the values for SURF_COORD should be spelled exactly as found in the list of valid values for COORD parameter.
The type of mars surface to use. The surface is used to intercept view rays emanating from the cameras in order to model out parallax between the stereo cameras. The two options are surface=INFINITY which means no surface is used or surface=PLANE (the default case). If surface=PLANE then the plane is defined by the NORMAL and GROUND parameters. For the cases when PLANE doesn't match local topography sufficiently well, here are two sphere surface models: surface=SPHERE1 and surface=SPHERE2. SPHERE1 is useful to model convex surfaces like hills, it returns closest(first) ray-surface intersection point. SPHERE2 is useful to model concave surfaces, like crater when the camera point is outside looking in, it returns farthest(second) ray-surface intersection point. For the case when camera is inside the sphere surface, like rover sitting in the crater, there is only a single intersection point and SPHERE1 and SPHERE2 behave exactly the same.
A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for configuration and calibration files. Environment variables are allowed in the list (and may themselves contain colon-separated lists). The directories are searched in order for each config/cal file when it is loaded. This allows multiple projectes to be supported simultaneously, and allows the user to override any given config/cal file. Note that the directory structure below the directories specified in this path must match what the project expects. For example, Mars 98 expects flat fields to be in a subdirectory named "flat_fields" while Mars Pathfinder expects them to be directly in the directory specified by the path (i.e. no intermediate subdirectories).
Specifies a mission-specific pointing method to use. Normally this parameter is not used, in which case the "default" pointing methods are used. Some missions may have special, or alternate, pointing methods available, which are indicated by this string (for example, backlash models, using arm joint angles instead of x/y/z/az/el, etc). A substring search is used, so multiple methods (where that makes sense) can be specified by separating the keywords with commas. Note that nav files created using one pointing method will most likely not be compatible with a mosaic created using a different pointing method. The methods available vary per mission, but some methods available at the time of this writing are: BACKLASH : Mars 98 SSI only. Selects a backlash pointing model, which adjusts the telemetered azimuth and elevation values based on knowledge of the camera's mechanical backlash and the direction the motor was travelling when the image was taken.
Disables all label-derived parameters to the Site mechanism which underlies coordinate systems. This forces all sites to be identical, with all rotations and offsets set the same. In the case of MPF or Mars 98, this disables the lander quaternion and offset (sets them to identity and 0, respectively). This option should not be used with images taken from different vantage points (e.g. the spacecraft moved, or mixing a lander and a rover) or invalid results will be obtained. The use of this option invalidates the Fixed coordinate frame; any values reported in the Fixed frame will not correctly reflect the orientation of the lander/rover. Obviously, this option should be rarely used; it is intended for when the image labels defining the site are invalid or inconsistent.
Rover State File. This is a list of filenames to load containing Rover State information. These files contain position and orientation information for a rover (or other mobile spacecraft) at various sites. They are in XML format. See the "Rover Motion Counter (RMC) Master File SIS" for details on these files. Rover State Files have a priority order. The files listed first have the highest priority. Environment variables may be used in the list. For MER, if a directory is specified, then that directory is searched for RMC Master files and any found are loaded. The directory structure and filename convention is covered in the RMC SIS. The directory specified is the one containing "master", so if <dir> is the name specified in the RSF parameter, the following files will be searched for: <dir>/master/_Master.svf <dir>/master/ _Site_ _Master.rvf The name of each file loaded is printed to the stdout log for reference.
If enabled, this causes the internal database of RMC locations to be printed out to the stdout log. This is after the RSF files have been loaded and the coordinate systems read from the input label(s).
This parameter is ignored by marsfidfinder. It is here for compatibility with subroutines used by other programs (see e.g. marsmap).
This parameter is ignored by marsfidfinder. It is here for compatibility with subroutines used by other programs (see e.g. marsmap).
Specifies which major Site is the "Fixed" Site for this run.
Historically, MPF and M98 had a single "Surface Fixed" frame which never
moved, and which all other coordinate system frames were referenced to.
With the advent of long-range rovers (such as MER and FIDO), that became
insufficient. The rover traverses far enough that errors in knowledge of
coordinate system offset and orientation become unacceptable.
For this reason, a system of major Sites was introduced. Periodically
during the mission, a Site frame is declared. This then becomes the
reference frame for all activities until the next Site is declared.
References are kept local, and errors don't propogate across Sites.
However, if images from more than one Site are combined together, the
Site's must be placed relative to each other. Therefore a single reference
frame is still needed to combine different sites.
The FIXED_SITE parameter controls which of the major Site frames is
the reference ("fixed") site for this program run. This fixed frame
can vary in different program runs, but is constant throughout one
execution.
If not specified, FIXED_SITE defaults to the minimum Site number (i.e.
lowest numbered, or earliest chronologically) used in all input images.
Normally this default is sufficient; rarely must FIXED_SITE be specified.
One or more Rover State Files must usually be specified in order to combine
image from more than one Site. These describe the relationship between
sites. See the RSF parameter.