Water oceans on mars?

by: Magnus Lundstedt, also reachable as magnus on irc-channel #space on the freenode network)

What would mars look like if it had an ocean? Well, probably not like any of these images, but they are intresting nevertheless. For each image I have added a blue tone to the area below the height of the ocean surface. I have done 128 different ocean heights from -8091m to +6488m. There is also a video avaliable here:

The images are generated from altitude data from the MGS MOLA instrument. I have used the 32 px / degree resolution. I will probably try to to the higher resolution version later. The altitude samplesize per pixel is only 8 bit, there is data with 16 bit vertical resolution, but due to technical difficulties I have not yet managed to use that data. Will probably try to do that later. Will also probably try to texturize the "land"-area with true-color mars-texture, and perhaps select a better ocean color. :) But still they are pretty intresting as they are IMO.

The raw data can be found here: http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/mgs/megdr.html

Note! Click on a image for a high resolution 11520 x 5760 px version! :) White = +21181 m, black=-8206 m, blue=ocean
Ocean height: -8091 meter
Image number: 001
Ocean height: -7976 meter
Image number: 002
Ocean height: -7862 meter
Image number: 003
Ocean height: -7747 meter
Image number: 004
Ocean height: -7632 meter
Image number: 005
Ocean height: -7517 meter
Image number: 006
Ocean height: -7402 meter
Image number: 007
Ocean height: -7288 meter
Image number: 008
Ocean height: -7173 meter
Image number: 009
Ocean height: -7058 meter
Image number: 010
Ocean height: -6943 meter
Image number: 011
Ocean height: -6828 meter
Image number: 012
Ocean height: -6714 meter
Image number: 013
Ocean height: -6599 meter
Image number: 014
Ocean height: -6484 meter
Image number: 015
Ocean height: -6369 meter
Image number: 016
Ocean height: -6255 meter
Image number: 017
Ocean height: -6140 meter
Image number: 018
Ocean height: -6025 meter
Image number: 019
Ocean height: -5910 meter
Image number: 020
Ocean height: -5795 meter
Image number: 021
Ocean height: -5681 meter
Image number: 022
Ocean height: -5566 meter
Image number: 023
Ocean height: -5451 meter
Image number: 024
Ocean height: -5336 meter
Image number: 025
Ocean height: -5221 meter
Image number: 026
Ocean height: -5107 meter
Image number: 027
Ocean height: -4992 meter
Image number: 028
Ocean height: -4877 meter
Image number: 029
Ocean height: -4762 meter
Image number: 030
Ocean height: -4647 meter
Image number: 031
Ocean height: -4533 meter
Image number: 032
Ocean height: -4418 meter
Image number: 033
Ocean height: -4303 meter
Image number: 034
Ocean height: -4188 meter
Image number: 035
Ocean height: -4073 meter
Image number: 036
Ocean height: -3959 meter
Image number: 037
Ocean height: -3844 meter
Image number: 038
Ocean height: -3729 meter
Image number: 039
Ocean height: -3614 meter
Image number: 040
Ocean height: -3499 meter
Image number: 041
Ocean height: -3385 meter
Image number: 042
Ocean height: -3270 meter
Image number: 043
Ocean height: -3155 meter
Image number: 044
Ocean height: -3040 meter
Image number: 045
Ocean height: -2926 meter
Image number: 046
Ocean height: -2811 meter
Image number: 047
Ocean height: -2696 meter
Image number: 048
Ocean height: -2581 meter
Image number: 049
Ocean height: -2466 meter
Image number: 050
Ocean height: -2352 meter
Image number: 051
Ocean height: -2237 meter
Image number: 052
Ocean height: -2122 meter
Image number: 053
Ocean height: -2007 meter
Image number: 054
Ocean height: -1892 meter
Image number: 055
Ocean height: -1778 meter
Image number: 056
Ocean height: -1663 meter
Image number: 057
Ocean height: -1548 meter
Image number: 058
Ocean height: -1433 meter
Image number: 059
Ocean height: -1318 meter
Image number: 060
Ocean height: -1204 meter
Image number: 061
Ocean height: -1089 meter
Image number: 062
Ocean height: -974 meter
Image number: 063
Ocean height: -859 meter
Image number: 064
Ocean height: -744 meter
Image number: 065
Ocean height: -630 meter
Image number: 066
Ocean height: -515 meter
Image number: 067
Ocean height: -400 meter
Image number: 068
Ocean height: -285 meter
Image number: 069
Ocean height: -170 meter
Image number: 070
Ocean height: -56 meter
Image number: 071
Ocean height: 59 meter
Image number: 072
Ocean height: 174 meter
Image number: 073
Ocean height: 289 meter
Image number: 074
Ocean height: 403 meter
Image number: 075
Ocean height: 518 meter
Image number: 076
Ocean height: 633 meter
Image number: 077
Ocean height: 748 meter
Image number: 078
Ocean height: 863 meter
Image number: 079
Ocean height: 977 meter
Image number: 080
Ocean height: 1092 meter
Image number: 081
Ocean height: 1207 meter
Image number: 082
Ocean height: 1322 meter
Image number: 083
Ocean height: 1437 meter
Image number: 084
Ocean height: 1551 meter
Image number: 085
Ocean height: 1666 meter
Image number: 086
Ocean height: 1781 meter
Image number: 087
Ocean height: 1896 meter
Image number: 088
Ocean height: 2011 meter
Image number: 089
Ocean height: 2125 meter
Image number: 090
Ocean height: 2240 meter
Image number: 091
Ocean height: 2355 meter
Image number: 092
Ocean height: 2470 meter
Image number: 093
Ocean height: 2585 meter
Image number: 094
Ocean height: 2699 meter
Image number: 095
Ocean height: 2814 meter
Image number: 096
Ocean height: 2929 meter
Image number: 097
Ocean height: 3044 meter
Image number: 098
Ocean height: 3159 meter
Image number: 099
Ocean height: 3273 meter
Image number: 100
Ocean height: 3388 meter
Image number: 101
Ocean height: 3503 meter
Image number: 102
Ocean height: 3618 meter
Image number: 103
Ocean height: 3732 meter
Image number: 104
Ocean height: 3847 meter
Image number: 105
Ocean height: 3962 meter
Image number: 106
Ocean height: 4077 meter
Image number: 107
Ocean height: 4192 meter
Image number: 108
Ocean height: 4306 meter
Image number: 109
Ocean height: 4421 meter
Image number: 110
Ocean height: 4536 meter
Image number: 111
Ocean height: 4651 meter
Image number: 112
Ocean height: 4766 meter
Image number: 113
Ocean height: 4880 meter
Image number: 114
Ocean height: 4995 meter
Image number: 115
Ocean height: 5110 meter
Image number: 116
Ocean height: 5225 meter
Image number: 117
Ocean height: 5340 meter
Image number: 118
Ocean height: 5454 meter
Image number: 119
Ocean height: 5569 meter
Image number: 120
Ocean height: 5684 meter
Image number: 121
Ocean height: 5799 meter
Image number: 122
Ocean height: 5914 meter
Image number: 123
Ocean height: 6028 meter
Image number: 124
Ocean height: 6143 meter
Image number: 125
Ocean height: 6258 meter
Image number: 126
Ocean height: 6373 meter
Image number: 127
Ocean height: 6488 meter
Image number: 128