Methods in Planetary Topographic Mapping: A Review

Abstract

Elevation data can characterize geology, from global to local scales. For centuries, however, the only planetary topographic data were those of lunar peaks and craters. In the last few decades, several independent techniques have been developed to extract topographic information from diverse types of planetary datasets, which provide key information for the distinction and geologic interpretation of surface features. In this chapter, we discuss techniques to obtain, reconstruct, and visualize elevation data.