Titan Data Atlas

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Titan Polar Mapping

Ready-made ArcGIS map projects for Titan's north and south poles, with the radar swaths, mosaics, topography and mapping shapefiles they use.

In plain words

This package holds the two ArcMap projects behind a published geomorphologic map of the polar terrains, together with every polar radar swath, two polar radar mosaics, polar topography and the mapping shapefiles, including lake and sea outlines. The two polar mosaics also have their own DOIs on Cornell eCommons.

Good for: see what titan's surface looks like; study the polar lakes and seas; start from the original radar swaths.

Open it in your GIS

ArcGIS Pro

Opens directly Opens as it is downloaded.

  1. Download titan_polar_mapping_birch.zip (6.4 GB) from the Hayes Research Group data products page.
  2. Extract the zip and keep every folder together in one place.
  3. Open ArcGIS Pro and create a new project.
  4. On the Insert tab, in the Project group, click Import Map.
  5. Select north_polar_project.mxd or south_polar_project.mxd in the ArcGIS_Projects folder, then click OK.
  6. On the Project tab, click Save As and save the project under your own name.
  7. Remove the shapefile layers you do not need from the Contents pane.
  8. Keep the polar SAR mosaic layers as your basemap.
  9. Add your own layers on top with Add Data on the Map tab.
  10. Get extra ArcGIS-ready single SAR swaths from NASA Solar System Treks (Titan Trek) if you need them.
  • Expert tip, paraphrased from a Cornell Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility talk: start from one of these ArcGIS projects, save it as your own, delete the shapefiles you do not need and keep the basemap mosaics.
  • The projects are ArcMap documents (.mxd). ArcGIS Pro opens them through Import Map, not by double-clicking.
  • The Read Me says the projects find their data only when all folders stay together. Do not move single folders.
  • Titan is a sphere of radius 2,575 km. Do not let ArcGIS Pro treat the map as Earth (WGS 1984). Titan 2000 is Esri WKID 104943.
  • Each swath cube is about 1.3 GB. Expect slow drawing the first time.

QGIS

Opens directly Opens as it is downloaded.

  1. Download titan_polar_mapping_birch.zip and extract it into one folder.
  2. Select Layer > Add Layer > Add Raster Layer.
  3. Select a mosaic .cub file in the Polar SAR Mosaics folder and click Add.
  4. Check that the layer CRS is polar stereographic on Titan, in Layer Properties, on the Source tab.
  5. Right-click the mosaic layer and select Layer CRS > Set Project CRS from Layer.
  6. Select Layer > Add Layer > Add Vector Layer.
  7. Select the lake, sea or channel shapefiles you need from Various Mapping Shapefiles.
  8. Add single swath cubes from North Polar SAR Data or South Polar SAR Data if you need detail.
  • QGIS cannot open the ArcMap .mxd projects directly. Add the cubes and shapefiles one by one.
  • Titan is a sphere of radius 2,575 km. Never assign EPSG:4326 (WGS 84) to these layers.
  • The ISIS3 cubes carry their own CRS. If a shapefile has none, select Layer > Set CRS of Layer(s), or make one with Settings > Custom CRS (Custom Projections in older versions).
  • If you cite the shapefiles, cite their papers: Birch et al. (2017) and Miller et al. (2021).

JMARS

Not confirmed Nobody has confirmed this tool opens it yet.

  1. Select Titan in the JMARS body list, if your version offers it.
  2. Clip a region under 512 MB from a polar mosaic in QGIS (Raster > Extraction > Clip Raster by Extent).
  3. Save the clipped region as an ISIS cube or TIFF without an alpha band.
  4. Click Add New Layer, then click Advanced Map.
  5. Click Upload Map in the Available Maps section.
  6. Enter the file path, then type a name for the map.
  7. Select regional, and type the bounding box if the file is not an ISIS cube.
  8. Type an ignore value for blank pixels.
  • JMARS support for Titan is not confirmed. The JMARS FAQ lists a Titan radius of 2,576 km, but no JMARS page we found confirms Titan as a selectable body.
  • Each polar mosaic is about 1.3 GB, above the 512 MB custom-map limit, so you must clip it first.
  • The polar mosaics use a polar stereographic projection. JMARS documentation does not say how it handles polar custom maps; test with a small area first.

Titan products here are referenced to a sphere of radius 2,575 km. If your GIS asks for a coordinate system, pick a Titan sphere, never an Earth one, and check the product's own label or .prj file first.

Converted sample

No converted sample for this product yet. Use the download or the full dataset links instead.