File:Cydonia Mensae - False Color (PIA26152).jpg

English: The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows part of Cydonia Mensae. Cydonia Mensae is located in the region between the cratered highlands of northwestern Arabia Terra and the southern lowlands of Acidalia Planitia. This area contains many different landforms, including tectonic features, chaos terrain and impact craters. This VIS image shows a portion of chaos in the top left of the frame, and several tectonic depressions. The THEMIS VIS camera is capable of capturing color images of the Martian surface using five different color filters. In this mode of operation, the spatial resolution and coverage of the image must be reduced to accommodate the additional data volume produced from using multiple filters. To make a color image, three of the five filter images (each in grayscale) are selected. Each is contrast enhanced and then converted to a red, green, or blue intensity image. These three images are then combined to produce a full color, single image. Because the THEMIS color filters don't span the full range of colors seen by the human eye, a color THEMIS image does not represent true color. Also, because each single-filter image is contrast enhanced before inclusion in the three-color image, the apparent color variation of the scene is exaggerated. Nevertheless, the color variation that does appear is representative of some change in color, however subtle, in the actual scene. Note that the long edges of THEMIS color images typically contain color artifacts that do not represent surface variation. Orbit Number: 95074 Latitude: 35.0203 Longitude: 347.284 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-05-21 16:54 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26152