Venus 150x in 2 Million Facets by GlobeMaker

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

This Venus Globe has all clouds removed to show an exaggerated version of Venus' landscapes. The elevations from NASA Magellan and Pioneer spececraft have some missing data, so I took the data from the Soviet Union's Venera spacecraft and filled the globe completely. The Venera data has 1 degree grid and the Magellan data is using a 1/4 degree grid. The 150 factor for exaggerated elevations makes the peaks, like Maat Mons and Skadi Mons look very tall. If those names are unfamiliar to you, just google it to see 2D pictures. Or use this 3D sculpture to educate yourself.
The pictures include the 150x and a 7x globe for comparison. On the 7x exaggeration picture, see the diagonal textured lines? They are real landforms called Textured Terrain. That is not an error.http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/26/us/spacecraft-s-images-of-venus-s-terrain-astonish-scientists.html
SPACECRAFT_NAME = MAGELLAN
TARGET_NAME = VENUS
OBJECT = TEXT
PUBLICATION_DATE = 1991-12-31
BYTES = 80
NOTE = "MIT-MGN-GxDR v 2.3
Software Interface Specification"
END_OBJECT = TEXT
END
M.I.T. Center for Space Research
The radar reflectivity rho' is computed from the sum of two
factors, rho derived from the strength of altimetry echoes, and
rhocor, a correction due to diffuse scattering that is derived from
the SAR backscatter cross-section. These parameters were taken from
the ar_rho and ar_rhocor fields of altimetry data files in the
ARCDR product. To compensate for the latitudinal error, all rho
values were multiplied by an 8th order latitude-dependent polynomial
rho' = rho*(p0+x*(p1+x*(p2+x*(p3+...))))/p0 + rhocor

where x = (lat-lat0)/90, lat0 = periapsis latitude (~10N), and

p0 = 0.110826 p1 = -0.0135412 p2 = -0.241179
p3 = -0.0103096 p4 = 1.55816 p5 = -0.130031
p6 = -2.08811 p7 = 0.242347 p8 = 0.962462

The polynomial coefficients p0 through p8 have been adjusted to
retain the same average rho at all latitudes, ignoring areas known
to possess anomalous reflectivity (Maxwell Montes, Beta Regio, and
Aphrodite Terra).
DATA_SET_RELEASE_DATE = 1992-01-15
PROCESSING_LEVEL_ID = 5
PRODUCER_FULL_NAME = 'Peter G. Ford'
PRODUCER_INSTITUTION_NAME = "Massachusetts Institute of Technology"
SOFTWARE_FLAG = N
DETAILED_CATALOG_FLAG = N
PROCESSING_START_TIME = 1991-06-24T20:11:00
PROCESSING_STOP_TIME = 1992-12-04T00:55:49
DATA_SET_DESC = "Global Topographic Data Record (GTDR).
Alan Folmsbee writes:
"I predict that standing stones will be found on Venus. The thick atmosphere slows down meteorites so they make a slow landing. The meteorites stand on the surface, intact."