Rainbow Dash: Intuitiveness, Interpretability and Memorability of the Rainbow Color Scheme in Visualization.

After demonstrating that rainbow colors are still commonly used in scientific publications, we comparatively evaluate the rainbow and sequential color schemes on choropleth and isarithmic maps in an empirical user study with 544 participants to examine if a) people intuitively associate order for the colors in these schemes, b) they can successfully conduct perceptual and semantic map reading and recall tasks with quantitative data where order may have implicit or explicit importance. We find that there is little to no agreement in ordering of rainbow colors while sequential colors are indeed intuitively ordered by the participants with a strong dark is more bias. Sequential colors facilitate most quantitative map reading tasks better than the rainbow colors, whereas rainbow colors competitively facilitate extracting specific values from a map, and may support hue recall better than sequential.

A case for using ground-based thermal inertia measurements to detect Martian caves.

Martian caves are regarded as one of the most interesting locations in which to search for life on the planet. Data obtained during the MARS2013 expedition at Hamar Laghdad Ridge in the Tafilalt region of Morocco indicate that even small cavities can display thermal behavior that is characteristic for caves. For example, temperature in a cavity equaled 14°C±0.

Field trial of a dual-wavelength fluorescent emission (L.I.F.E.) instrument and the Magma White rover during the MARS2013 Mars analog mission.

Abstract We have developed a portable dual-wavelength laser fluorescence spectrometer as part of a multi-instrument optical probe to characterize mineral, organic, and microbial species in extreme environments. Operating at 405 and 532 nm, the instrument was originally designed for use by human explorers to produce a laser-induced fluorescence emission (L.I.

The MARS2013 Mars analog mission.

We report on the MARS2013 mission, a 4-week Mars analog field test in the northern Sahara. Nineteen experiments were conducted by a field crew in Morocco under simulated martian surface exploration conditions, supervised by a Mission Support Center in Innsbruck, Austria. A Remote Science Support team analyzed field data in near real time, providing planning input for the management of a complex system of field assets; two advanced space suit simulators, four robotic vehicles, an emergency shelter, and a stationary sensor platform in a realistic work flow were coordinated by a Flight Control Team.

Remote science support during MARS2013: testing a map-based system of data processing and utilization for future long-duration planetary missions.

MARS2013 was an integrated Mars analog field simulation in eastern Morocco performed by the Austrian Space Forum between February 1 and 28, 2013. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the system of data processing and utilization adopted by the Remote Science Support (RSS) team during this mission. The RSS team procedures were designed to optimize operational efficiency of the Flightplan, field crew, and RSS teams during a long-term analog mission with an introduced 10 min time delay in communication between "Mars" and Earth.