Version 2.4 for Windows
Measure Attitudes of Geological Strata and Other Structures Using Satellite Imagery
Orion™ for Windows uses satellite images together with gridded topographic data to help you compute the structural attitude of geological strata or other planar structures. The program calculates the attitude from three or more points selected by point-and-click for a lithological contact or fault surface seen in the image.
Image Formats
TIFF, GeoTIFF, JPEG, Windows BMP, PCX, PNG, Targa TGA, Planetary Data IMG, VICAR and JPEG2000
Gridded Elevation Data Formats
BIL (with HDR header), ASCII XYZ grid, ArcInfo® ASCII Grid, Planetary Data IMG, VICAR and Uncompressed GeoTIFF
How It Works
Using an interactive mouse tool, click on selected points along the geological contact in the image. Orion computes the best-fit plane through those points and shows the fitting statistics with their confidence limits. Check your fit by looking at the fitted surface trace across the image. You can also see the fitted plane in a 3D block view. Then add, delete and move the selected points until you are satisfied you have the best fit possible. Once you accept and save the measurements, Orion then plots the result on the image as a strike/dip or dip-direction/dip symbol. You can analyze a group of measurements projected on a customizable stereonet and perform basic structural analysis by computing the principal directions of the fitted planes and contouring their density distribution.
Orion now gives you more ways to view your image:
- Rotatable
3-dimensional block diagram with your image draped on the
surface
- Colored
anaglyph
showing the surface in 3 dimensions
- Cross-section,
with projected planes
But Orion does more:
- You can make a geological map from the image, or just annotate it for presentation. Text, structural symbols, decorated lines and symbol-filled polygons can all be added on the image as a selectable layer.
- You can make measurements of distances and directions on the image and topographic map with a handy popup measuring tool.
- You can plot elevation contours
to help understand the geometric relationship between structural units.
Output options:
- Save the images and plots as bitmap
files.
- Save the computations as a table
of results.
- Print the images, plots or table of results.
- Export the data to a
spreadsheet or wordprocessor.
And more!
Download
the
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A Sample Application of Orion:
Structural Attitude of Layering in Valles Marineris, Mars
Dr. Paula MacKinnon, Dr.
Frank Fueten (both of Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario)
and Dr. Bob Stesky (Pangaea Scientific) are using Orion 2.4 to estimate
the
attitude of strata visible in the gigantic Valles
Marineris chasm on Mars. Working with scientists associated with the
European Mars Express mission's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)
project, they are analyzing high resolution imagery and digital terrain
models of the Martian surface. They have already published three papers,
will shortly submit a fourth for publication and will present the latest
results at
the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas. Two recent abstracts are available as PDF files: Candor
(743 kb) and Coprates (413 kb).
