I did a bit of playing myself, nothing as sophisticated as Robert's formula but enough to get a sense.
There really is a LOT of blue in that post-RAT area.
I tried images from sol 79, 81, 82 -- three different lighting conditions, and in all three the brushed and ground area is very blue, even with the rest of the rock something like the usual Mars color.
Taking my own suggestion, turning down the blue brightness enough to make the RAT area go black made the rest of the rock turn a garish strawberry red. You just can't make the ground surface a neutral color without turning the rest of the rock into a very un-Mars bright red.
Likewise, if you just look at the histograms of the blue images, there's lot more contrast than you typically see in rock images. Some stuff in those images (the RAT exposure) is way more blue than the rest.
I still suspect that the subtle blue-green tints we're seeing on less dusty rock surfaces are exagerated and that grey is more like it, but for that RAT area, wow, something is going on, if not on Mars, then with the image processing on JPL's end.
Space/Science » in reply to Blue brightness too high?
On second thought....
The whole thread (33 posts)
- Glassy material at the Spirit site.
- Mazatlal rock--MI and color
- Clarification
- some guesses and first impressions
- 3D image of the glassy material.