Explore Mars with JMARS
Surface Composition Maps
(under development 9/12/2021)
This page contains directions for looking at surface data such as minerals, rocks, dust, as well as albedo.
TES and OMEGA maps have lower resolution so you can only get averages for large areas. THEMIS can display false colored images of wavelength reflections.CRISM has higher resolution, with less area per image and with less coverage. Both THEMIS AND CRISM are more complicated to use and understand.
great 25 min video about Mars minerals by Dr Liz Rampe, NASA JSC 2020
1. Open JMARS
2. Click on "LAYERS"
3. Click "BROWSE" Tab. Alternately, in "SEARCH LAYERS" type in TES, OMEGA or other layer source for steps 3 and 4.
4. Under "Select Category, in the top box choose '"Instrument" and in the second box choose"TES", or "OMEGA." I recommend starting with TES.("CRISM"also contains Mineral data but is is more complicated to use.)
5. TES: I recommend choosing: albedo, Thermal Inertia (Christensen), mineralogy, rock groups and abundance, dust cover data. 2 mineral maps I recommended are: carbonate (often related on Earth to past life), and hematite (forms from the interaction of iron and water). abundance maps. In the "Rock Groups list, I recommend: basalt (unaltered lava and not dust covered) You may wish to move the transparency slider to compare the new map to Explore map.
6. "OMEGA": I recommend choosing "Global Maps". To help identify which map you would like to use, click on the white "i" (information) button next to the map.
7. "THEMIS"; To access a false colored image of Olivine abundance, follow these directions:
8. The CRISM instrument also reveals mineral groups but is more complicated to use. However, it yields higher resolution of mineral groups associated with past water on Mars.