Minnaert Topographic Correction of Mars Color Camera Images from Mars Orbiter Mission

Mars Color Camera (MCC) images obtained from Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) are gaining scientific popularity since MOM insertion into an elliptical orbit around Mars on 24^th Sep, 2014. Planetary remotely sensed images are corrected for topographic effects to normalize the radiance measures before considering the data for science analysis. It is proposed here to use non Lambertian Minnaert semi empirical approach for correcting MCC images that are used for deriving results for Mars surface science. The methodology outlined here uses terrain parameters such as slope and aspect derived from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) digital elevation model (DEM). Topographically corrected images were evaluated for the improvement in its radiometry quantitatively and it is found to reduce topographic shading and improve the image quality.