Color Images from Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter

Images by Sol

W = Watson Camera
H = Helicopter Camera
N = Navcam & Hazcam
1297 – 1299: —
1296: W:  4, N:  4
1295: N: 29
1294: N: 20
1293: N: 24
1292: N: 22
1291: N:  5
1290: N: 22
1289: N:  1
1288: N: 34
1287: N: 26
1286: N: 15
1285: N: 22
1284: N: 35
1283: N: 16
1282: W: 46, N: 10
1281: N: 29
1280: N: 22
1279: N: 27
1278: N: 16
1277: W: 42, N: 17
1276: N:  1
1275: N:  2
1274: N: 27
1272 – 1273: —
1271: N: 27
1270: N: 14
1269: N:  6
1268: N: 16
1267: N: 15
1266: N: 15
1265: N: 25
1264: N: 34
1263: W:  6, N:  5
1262: W: 10
1261: W: 39, N: 16
1259 – 1260: —
1258: N:  2
1257: W: 52, N: 95
1256: N:  5
1255: N:  1
1254: N: 28
1253: N: 34
1252: N: 21
1251: N: 29
1250: N: 20
1249: W: 20
1248: N:  1
1247: N: 24
1246: N: 29
1245: N: 30

previous Sols

Ingenuity Helicopter Images

Color images created by processing raw images taken by the Ingenuity Helicopter RTE Camera, and Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Left and Right NavCams, Front and rear HazCam pairs and Watson Camera are offered here. Mastcam-Z images will be added later.

On desktop browsers use keys ↑ ↓ ← → ↵ (Enter) for fast browsing through the album pages.

On mobiles swipe left, right and up for navigation through the album pages.

Use the list on the left to access the images. It is sorted by the Martian day (Sol) since landing, the 2nd entry shows the available color images for each Sol.

MarsEarth

Changelog

2024-10-01
Ultra-HDR mode activated since sol 1277! Works with Chrome, Opera, Edge and Brave on Macbooks and iMacs since M1 / 2020 and recent Android phones. On Windows only if an HDR-capable display is attached. It uses JPEGs with embedded gain-maps to provide the full 12-bits/channel Navcam/Hazcam dynamic range.
2024-01-25
With the Ingenuity flight activity having ended on Jan 17, 2024 (US timezones, Jan 18 Europe/Asia), all color images the helicopter took are now accessible in a separate overview page areo.info/mars20/heli and also here on this page on the left side.
2023-12-01
New daily images incoming since sol 989 after solar conjunction.
2023-11-11
No new images during solar conjunction until Nov 25.
2023-04-29
Improved overview page for each sol when reassembled images are present.
2023-04-26
Increased quality for reassembled Navcam and Hazcam full frame images since sol 767 thanks to a fix at the NASA/JPL daily raw image web service.
2023-02-12
Removed black borders created by lens distortion correction and improved contrast.
2022-12-29
Detailed image time in UTC and in hours before/after local Mars noon added.
2022-11-09
Reassembled fullframe Navcam 10MP and 20MP images added since sol 606 with image captions 1/2 res and fullres.
2022-11-03
Fixed the processing errors of sol 586 through 606.
2022-09-03
Improved ECM intensity function decoding.
2022-08-26
Using real flatfield image for Navcam instead of approximated.
2022-08-21
Added camera-specific image count per sol.
2022-08-05
The processing errors between sol 511 and 520 are now fixed. The PNGs on https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/ need a different LUT for decoding since 511.
2022-08-04
Since sol 512, Navcam and Hazcam images are apparently already processed in part on the raw data page which leads to a wrong final result after my image pipeline is applied to them. I'm working on a fix.
2021-08-07
Ingenuity Helicopter RTE Images added with preliminary camera profile.
2021-07-04
Larger preview images on mobile devices.
2021-04-21
Watson camera RGB matrix adjusted for whitebalance.
2021-04-04
Hazcams images added, showing the helicopter.
2021-04-03
Watson camera images added, showing the helicopter.
2021-04-02
Scikit-Image intensity enhancement added.
2021-03-31
Improved swipe navigation to enable pinch-zoom.
2021-03-17
Layout updated. Link to original raw image added.
2021-03-14
Improved automatic contrast adjustment.
2021-03-10
Compensated for geometric and luminosity lens effects. Added estimated camera color correction matrix.
2021-03-08
Initial release. Only Navcam images so far processed. Calibration still preliminary, no camera profile applied yet.

Color Calibration

The intention is to approximate the impression a human observer would have when standing on the surface of planet Mars. Though, as of now, the image processing pipeline is not yet completed due to missing camera calibration information. As soon this information becomes available it will be integrated into the processing pipeline.

Currently, the only color processing applied is a static color correcting 3x3 matrix based on calibration results of previous missions' Mars cameras. The color variation visible between individual images within one Sol is mainly caused by the variations in sunlight conditions over the day and also influenced by dynamic and static effects of the image sensor, for example static channel-based nonlinear gain effects or dynamic sensor read-out effects.

The automated color processing algorithm used here is similar to the process done in commercial digital cameras when they are manually set to daylight conditions, for example by switching off the white balance.

Comparing images from the 1976 Viking Landers, 1997 Mars Pathfinder, 2004 Rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the 2012 Curiosity Rover revealed similar light conditions on the Martian surface as on a clear sky day on Earth. Just the total light intensite is lower, about 60% of Earth's. Technically it means, there is a close match between the relative calibration method, based on the Rover-attached color targets and the absolute calibration method based on the pre-flight camera spectral response measured under standard daylight illumination on Earth. Images taken during a clear day on Mars with the calibration applied on this website not only show the color perception a human on the planet would see by themselves, but also the colors a geologist on Earth would see when observing a Martian rock sample brought back to Earth and viewed during noon under a clear blue sky on Earth.

During dust storm season, the relative and absolute calibrations don't match, but these conditions usually occur only for a few weeks per Martian year. They are characterized by diffuse reddish ambient illumination compared to the sharp and defined shadows during clear sky days.


Image Processing

The images are automatically created daily from raw data available at Mars Perseverance Raw Image Gallery.

Processing pipeline:

  • Debayer the NLE and NRE images. The NLF and NRF images are already debayered.
  • Linearize by decompanding via the inverted 11-to-8 bit lookup table, LUT 0, squareroot. Though the AD DC_OFFSET value is missing. For RTE images the standard sRGB table is used.
  • Compensate radial gain variation. (Nav/Haz only)
  • Compensate horizontal sensor read out intensity decay. (Nav/Haz only)
  • Apply flatfield calibration image (Heli flatfield only)
  • Compensate wide angle distortion on large images (Nav/Heli only)
  • Apply preliminary camera profile static color correction matrix.
  • Apply preliminary camera profile static RGB shaper curves (Heli only)
  • Increase contrast by applying non-linear intensity function
  • Apply sRGB compression ("gamma")
  • Not yet enabled: Apply camera profile for a D50 standard illuminant, an ICC file created by ArgyllCMS or DCamProf.

The creation of the camera profile would be following the process as presented at the 2017 International Mars Society Convention. The presentation describes the creation of a camera profile for the 1976 Viking Lander digital scanning cameras and the 2012 Curiosity Rover MAHLI camera. Slides: http://www.marspapers.org/paper/Isenberg_2017_pres.pdf


The Ambigram Logo

The Ambigram Logo shown above on top of this page and the variant on areo.info were invented and created in December 2012 through January 2013 by Holger Isenberg. Published and © 2013 Holger Isenberg. If you like to use it, contact me. Have you found the 2 hidden words in it?


Related Resources


Cameras Documentation


Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter Image Browsers and Visualization Tools


Other Mars Missions Image Browsers and Visualization Tools

Author and Publisher

Image processing framework by Holger Isenberg ([email protected]) using Python, NumPy, scikit-image, OpenCV-Python, fetch_m20_raw.py, Perl, ImageMagick, and Album.

Impressum on main page: areo.info

Image Credits: Automated color calibration and image processing by areo.info. Raw data from NASA / JPL-Caltech mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images.