MOSCOW, August 12Scientists at the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) are going to apply the experience gained when creating the world's first map of Saturn's chaotically rotating satellite Hyperion to study the movement of icebergs on Earth and ensure the safety of navigation on the Northern Sea Route, said Nadezhda Kamynina, Rector of the University.
«The accumulated experience in creating DEMs (digital elevation models. — Ed.) using the example of Hyperion and its mapping will allow the use of existing space developments to work with objects on Earth, in particular, when studying the movement of icebergs. Yes, of course, they move not as chaotically as Hyperion, but the task of their study is similar — difficulties in determining orientation elements and the need for additional modeling of an irregularly shaped object,» Kamynina said.
According to her, the image from the spacecraft goes through a long processing before becoming part of the map. It includes photo correction, calculation of image orientation elements to create a single reference network and link all images to each other, as well as its adjustment. Then scientists set the so-called geometric reference surface (for the Earth, for example, it is an ellipsoid, and for the Moon — a sphere), on the basis of which a digital elevation model and all the necessary projections are already created.
As the rector of MIIGAiK explained, the seventh satellite of Saturn has a chaotic rotation and an irregular shape, therefore, at some stages of this chain (obtaining orientation elements, creating a reference network, setting and orienting the geometric reference surface and choosing a projection), standard algorithms do not work, and new ones have been invented at the university .
«These innovative space developments are important for the work on the study of icebergs, which are carried out as part of the program for the development of the Northern Sea Route and the use of geospatial data to ensure technological sovereignty in this area. MIIGAiK is already conducting a number of studies of the Arctic regions,» concluded Kamynin.
It was previously reported that MIIGAiK scientists, using a unique method developed at the university for creating photographic maps of celestial bodies, compiled the world's first detailed photographic map of Hyperion.