We are examining this area to see if it really has slopes of 25 degrees, because the
shadows on the MOC images imply that the slopes are much lower.
Within the square (from 298.8E,4.75S
to 297E,4.55S), the more saturated pixels represent actual MOLA data. Five
west-east profiles are shown.
This is the same area, but the east-west scales of the image and the
graph line up.>
Mars MOLA profiles
A grid at 1/128 degree (0.0078125 degree) resolution was created from the
Mars Orbital Laser Altimiter. However, the average number of samples per
pixel is .557, and the low latitudes have wide gaps between the nearly
north-south swaths:
MOLA data from 0°N to 1.2°N
The situation is much better at high latitudes:
MOLA data from 86°N to 87.2°N
Things are actually much better than this image indicates, because a
degree of longitude at 87 N is actually quite small. I created 57
east-west profiles between 86.609375N and 87.0546875N. The scaling factor
1/cos(latitude) ranges from 16.91 to 19.46, meaning that the east-west
interval ranges from 22.8m to 26.6m. interpolated values were omitted
from the profiles. A perfect profile would have 46080 values, and we see
that the range from 29937 samples at the south edge to 43615 in the north.