Engineering topics

Strickland, R. N.

Publications and source records attributed to Strickland, R. N..

3 records

NASA NTRS1981

Rectification and enhancement of three severely distorted images of Jupiter's north polar region

A number of high-resolution images of Jupiter's northern hemisphere were received from the imaging photopolarimeter (IPP) aboard Pioneer 11 in 1974. Erratic scanning of the IPP caused severe distortions in three scientifically important images, which until now have never been satisfactorily restored. New rectification and enhancement techniques, implemented on up-to-date image processing hardware, yielding images of sufficient quality to enable full scientific exploitation of the photometric data are reported.

Strickland, R. N.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Cloud forms on Saturn

The imaging photopolarimeter on Pioneer Saturn provided spin-scan images of Saturn's cloudtops. Only subtle departures from a uniform brightness distribution were apparent, except in the polar regions. At other latitudes the images show only a few features; they primarily support the conclusion that the visible atmosphere is a deep haze. Belts and zones are seen, and some detail in a zone near + or - 60 deg latitude. The North Equatorial Belt consists of two dark belts separated by a brighter zone exhibiting longitudinal structure.

Burke, J. J.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Geometrical rectification of spin-scan images from Pioneer 11

Images of Saturn received from Pioneer 11 suffer from geometrical distortions due to the curvilinear scan lines and the unequal sampling intervals in orthogonal directions, which are inherent in spin-scan imaging. In this paper geometrical image rectification by polynomial transformation based on control points is discussed. Factors that affect the accuracy of reconstruction are shown to include the spatial distribution and spatial density of control points, and the order of the polynomial distortion model. A computer implementation of the technique is described.

Strickland, R. N.↗