Exploring Martian Climatologic Data Using Geovisualization: MARSIG a Spatio-Temporal Information System for Planetary Science
Résumé
The accumulation of observation data about the planet Mars during the last decade has contributed to the development of the Martian climatology field. This field focuses on the study of temporal evolution of physical proprieties of surface and atmosphere of the planet Mars. Taking into account the temporal dimension is a new topic in planetary sciences, which requires new methodologies and tools to explore data. Data about Mars come from Mars-Express or Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter spacecrafts. These data are multidimensional, including spatial, temporal, spectral and thematic components. They are also extremely heterogeneous and incomplete. To carry out their studies, the researchers need to identify and to extract some relevant dataset for a region of interest and a selected time period. This paper presents MARSIG, a spatio-temporal information system dedicated to explore and visualize Martian climatologic data. First, the main characteristics of the Martian climatologic data are presented, and the needs of the researchers in planetary sciences in terms of exploration and visualization are discussed. Then, we present how the different dimensions of these specific data, and more especially temporal dimension, have been integrated into a geovisualisation interface to answer their needs.