JMARS

  • Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing
  • MISSION: Data-analysis and Mission Planning tool for orbiters at Mars, Earth's Moon, Venus, Jupiter's moons, Mercury, asteroids Ceres and Vesta
  • Launch: June 2003
  • Currently: Available online

JMARS is an acronym that stands for Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing. It is a geospatial information system (GIS) developed by ASU’s Mars Space Flight Facility to provide mission planning and data-analysis tools to NASA scientists, instrument team members, students of all ages and the general public. JMARS has been available to the public since 2003. It is used in over 65 countries and has over 6,000 active users.

JMARS provides free and efficient access to more than a terabyte of NASA orbiter data, and has basic image and vector-processing features to conveniently compare, plot, and blend data.

While JMARS began with a focus on Mars, it now includes data for Earth, Earth’s Moon, Venus, Jupiter’s moons, Mercury, asteroids Ceres and Vesta, and more. In all its variants, it’s free to use and open-sourced, and is actively supported on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

JMARS can simultaneously display multiple datasets (such as maps, image footprints, numerical data products, etc.) collected by instruments on several past and current NASA missions.

New datasets are constantly being added to JMARS from all missions and instruments as new data are collected and existing data undergoes further processing and analysis.

Capabilities

  • Take multiple datasets and overlay them into a single, registered multilayer image.
  • Make topographic profiles, extract surface temperatures, plot footprints, and render remote-sensing images from orbiters.
  • Correlate mineral compositions with topographic data.
  • Combine surface roughness data with thermal inertia data.
  • Create contour maps.
  • Plots may be created by drawing multi-segment lines on the map, making it easy to sample elevation, thermal inertia, or other surface properties in an area of interest.
  • Use vector processing tools to calculate properties like line bearing or polygonal area.
  • SQL-like scripting language provides a powerful transformation and filtering feature.
JMARS provides access to many Mars data products: image footprints and rasters from the THEMIS, MOC, CTX, HiRISE, CRISM, Viking Imaging System, HRSC, and OMEGA instruments; mosaics from THEMIS, Viking, and CTX; topography from MOLA; compositional maps from TES and GRS/HEND; albedo and thermal inertia from TES and Viking.For the Moon, datasets include Clementine UV/VIS multispectral imaging, Lunar Orbiter imaging, Arecibo radar, and laser altimetry topography from Kaguya (Selene) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.For Earth, datasets include topography and ASTER and MODIS multispectral imaging.Science team members for Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, can also use JMARS to plan observations, identify regions of interest, review previously acquired data, and examine datasets from past missions.

JMARS Team

Principal Investigator

  • Philip Christensen, Principal Investigator
  • Arizona State Unversity

Software Developers

  • Zoya Anderson, Scientific Software Engineer
  • Arizona State University
  • Saadat Anwar, Scientific Software Engineer
  • Arizona State University
  • Meghan Burris, GIS Specialist
  • Arizona State University
  • Scott Dickenshied, Scientific Software Engineer
  • Arizona State University
  • Warren Hagee, Scientific Software Engineer
  • Arizona State University
  • Dale Noss, System Programmer Senior
  • Arizona State University
  • Nick Piacentine, IT Manager
  • Arizona State University
  • Ken Rios, Scientific Software Engineer
  • Arizona State University
  • Paul Wren, Scientific Software Engineer
  • Arizona State University