Areography

Not to be confused with aerography.
A high-resolution colorized map of Mars based on Viking orbiter images. Surface frost and water ice fog brighten the impact basin Hellas to the right of lower center; Syrtis Major just above it is darkened by winds that sweep dust off its basaltic surface. Residual north and south polar ice caps are shown at upper and lower right as they appear in early summer and at minimum size, respectively.

Areography, also known as the geography of Mars, is a subfield of planetary science that entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars.[1][2][3] Areography is mainly focused on what is called physical geography on Earth; that is the distribution of physical features across Mars and their cartographic representations. In April 2023, The New York Times reported an updated global map of Mars based on images from the Hope spacecraft.[4] A related, but much more detailed, global Mars map was released by NASA on 16 April 2023.[5]

  1. ^ "Areography". Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  2. ^ Lowell, Percival (April 1902). "Areography". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 41 (170): 225-234. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  3. ^ Sheehan, William (19 September 2014). "Geography of Mars, or Areography". Astrophysics and Space Science Library. 409. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09641-4_7.
  4. ^ Chang, Kenneth (15 April 2023). "New Mars Map Lets You 'See the Whole Planet at Once' - Scientists assembled 3,000 images from an Emirati orbiter to create the prettiest atlas yet of the red planet". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  5. ^ Staff (16 April 2023). "Welcome to Mars! Caltech's Jaw-Dropping, 5.7 Terapixel Virtual Expedition Across the Red Planet". SciTech. Retrieved 6 April 2023.