Mars Pathfinder IMP Image Browser Help

This help page is intended to describe the various components of the Mars Pathfinder image browser and to explain how they are related to each other. It also explains how to navigate through the browser.
There are six types of pages (shown below) in this Mars Pathfinder image browser. They are designed to allow you to search for an image using the following steps:

  1. From the Top Page, select the intended target of the image. Ex., "MARS", "ROVER", "WINDSOCK".

  2. From the Observation Page, select the image observation. (The "observation" is usually related to the purpose for which the picture was taken.) Ex., "ROVER MOVIE", "ROVER NAVIGATION IMAGES", "ROVER TRACK IMAGES".

  3. From the Thumbnail Page, view the thumbnails of the images from a given observation and select the one you're interested in. This will take you to the Browse Page for that image.
The directory structure of the BROWSE directory is identical to the directory structure of the PDS archive images on the rest of this CD. However, although the directory structure on this CD sorts images by target/sequence/sclk, for searching purposes, this browser sorts them by target/observation. There is some correspondence between sequence numbers and image observation names, but since the latter are textual rather than numerical, they are more intuitive for use in searching. In general, the observation describes the purpose for which an image was acquired, while the sequence number represents the commands used to acquire the image.

Two versions of each image exist. "Thumbnail" images are reduced size images used on the image observation pages; "browse" images are full size images used on the browse pages. The browse images were created from the PDS archive images by reducing them from 12-bit to 8-bit and converting them to GIF format. The thumbnail images were converted to 8-bit, scaled down to maximum dimensions of 50 pixels in height or 100 pixels in width (retaining the original aspect ratio), and then converting them to JPEG format. The choice was made to use both GIF and JPEG formats, so that for a given PDS archive image, both browse images, an HTML file, and a PDS label, could all be stored in the same directory with the same file name.

Top Page

The top page is the starting point for the browser. It has some general information about the browser organization. From the top page, you can access any of the observation pages by selecting a target. Please note that the targets are intended targets of observation; thus, the actual object observed may not agree with the target classification assigned to it. Also note that targets do not include individual surface features like "Yogi" or "Barnacle Bill". For a listing of these features and their locations, consult the feature name gazetteer in the GAZETTER directory on this CD.

From this page you can also access the definition page and the help page. You can return to the top page from any other page by using the top button (shown below).
Observation Page

Each observation page contains a listing of the image observations associated with a target. The observation is generally a textual description of the purpose for which an image was taken. (Please note: although there is NOT a one-to-one correspondence between observations and sequence numbers, there is usually some rough correspondence. Therefore, the sequence numbers associated with each observation are listed in parentheses to the right of the observation name. This will hopefully assist those of you who are more used to searching by sequence number than by observation.)

Any observation page can be accessed directly from the top page. Or, if you are on a thumbnail page, you can access the observation page by using the up-arrow button.

Thumbnail Page

Each thumbnail page contains thumbnail versions of the images acquired for a specific target and image observation name. These may vary in number from one to several hundred.

The thumbnail page can be accessed by selecting an observation name from the observation page, or by clicking on the left-arrow or right-arrow on another thumbnail page. It can also can also be accessed from a browse page by using the up-arrow button.

Browse Page

At the top of each browse page, a single Mars Pathfinder browse image is shown. Immediately below it is shown the pathname for the full resolution PDS image on the CD. By clicking on that pathname, you can access the full resolution image.

Below the image, selected keywords and values from the image's PDS label are shown. Definitions for the keywords can be accessed by selecting a highlighted keyword.

Each browse page can be reached from a thumbnail page by clicking on a thumbnail image. You can also cycle through browse pages within a specific observation by using the left-arrow or right-arrow buttons on each browse page.
Definition Page

The definition page contains definitions for those PDS keywords that are shown on each browse page. The definition page can be accessed from the top page or from any browse page, by clicking on a highlighted keyword.

Help Page

The help page is the page you are currently reading. It can be accessed from any other page by using the help button (shown below).

There are 5 types of buttons on the various pages of this browser. Each button is illustrated below, along with a brief explanation of the button's function within the browser.

  Top   Go to the browser top page.
  Help   Go to this help page.
  Previous   Display the previous page on the same level as the current one.
  Up   Move up to the page a level above the current one.
  Next   Display the next page on the same level as the current one.