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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Frost at the Viking 2 landing site (super-resolution)

Frost at the Viking 2 landing site (super-resolution)
Frost at the Viking 2 landing site (super-resolution) This image of frost on Mars has become iconic. Unfortunately, it is tiny, because it was obtained using Viking's low resolution mode and there was no high resolution image taken along with it. This version of the image was processed using a super-resolution technique. NASA / JPL / Ted Stryk

Using a different high resolution image and simply using the color as an overlay would not work, because the frost would be absent or the patterns wouldn't match. Other image sets of the frost exist, but they have more serious problems with over/under exposure due to the high contrast of the scene and the limitations of the Viking imaging system. Therefore, I used super-resolution processing, a technique pioneered by Tim Parker of JPL, in order to get the best resolution I could out of the existing dataset. The result is quite pleasing.