High resolution Ceres HAMO Atlas derived from Dawn FC images

Abstract

Introduction: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft entered the orbit of dwarf planet Ceres in March 2015, and will characterize the geology, elemental and mineralogical composition, topography, shape, and internal structure of Ceres. One of the major goals of the mission is a global mapping of Ceres. Data: The Dawn mission is mapping Ceres from three different orbit heights during Survey orbit (4425 km altitude), HAMO (High Altitude Mapping Orbit, 1475 km altitude), and LAMO (Low Altitude Mapping Orbit, 375 km altitude) [1]. The Dawn mission is equipped with a framing camera (FC) [2] which was the prime instrument during the HAMO phase. Dawn orbited Ceres during HAMO in 6 cycles between August 18 and October 21, 2015. The framing camera took about 2,600 clear filter images with a resolution of about 140 m/pixel during these cycles. The images were taken with different viewing angles and different illumination conditions. We selected images from one cycle (cycle #1) for the mosaicking process to have similar viewing and illumination conditions. Very minor gaps in the coverage were filled with a few images from cycle #2.