Color imaging useful for Mars analysis?

[exoscientist]

News: NASA Orbiter Provides Color Views of Mars Landing Site Candidates.<br />10/10/07<br />"Beginning this week, images will be released in color as well as black-and-white on the camera team's Web site. The colors are false color, not the way Mars would look to human eyes. The images are processed to maximize color differences, a technique useful for analyzing landscapes.<br />"Color data are proving very useful in interpreting geologic processes and history on Mars," McEwen said. "The images we're releasing today include views of some of the most interesting and compositionally diverse areas on the planet."<br />...<br />"Color is a boon to geologists who have been trying to discriminate different surface materials and their relation to the topography, McEwen said. "Color clearly identifies basic material distinctions like dust, sand or rocks, light-toned layered material, and frost or ice," he said. Color also helps geologists correlate layers in the Martian terrain. And scientists will be able to combine data from the high-resolution camera and the imaging spectrometer to make detailed maps of minerals and soil types on the planet."<br />http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-print.cfm?release=2007-116<br /><br />This report is on false-color images to be released where color differences are exaggerated. But McEwens phrasing suggests he means his comments as a general statement about color imaging.<br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[h2ouniverse]

And color is also compulsory when presenting data to the public. The taxpayer has the right to require a motive of pride he/she can understand. The scientists have a moral obligation to the taxpayer in that respect.<br />A black and white picture, a curve or a substandard picure is no longer tolerable in 2007.<br />Best regards.