A newly released Juice image map follows a strip from Madagascar across Africa to the Atlantic. ESA combined roughly 40 frames from the spacecraft’s JANUS science camera using its position and pointing. The product comes from the September Earth flyby and helps characterize the camera before its Jupiter mission; publication of the processed imagery is the new development.
Juice, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, has a new Earth-image map assembled from its JANUS science camera. The 16 October release follows an African swath roughly 250–300 kilometres wide. From Madagascar it crosses Mozambique and Malawi, continues through Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then reaches Angola and the Gulf of Guinea.[1]
Mapping the images required the position and viewing direction of Juice for each exposure. About 40 frames taken in red, green and blue were aligned, with their overlapping edges blended. Scaling the colours together retained a roughly natural appearance and the atmosphere’s slight blue haze. The pixels cover about 150 metres near Madagascar and roughly 375 metres over the Atlantic, reflecting the spacecraft’s increasing distance.[1]
The imagery comes from the 28 September Earth flyby. Between 27 September and 2 October, the camera’s tests yielded 740 views of the Moon and Earth across 13 colour filters. Three filters supplied the colour swath. ESA describes these observations as an opportunity to test instruments on real celestial targets before Jupiter-system operations; the newly published product is the processed Earth map. Lake Malawi’s southern shore is visible alongside rivers and coastlines; Madagascar adds patches of green vegetation and red soil.[1]
