1156 - Drive 16.76 meters (55 ft) due WNW
1156 - Drive 16.76 meters (55 ft) due WNW
post drive tiled NavCam. Located on the south bank of Neretva Vallis. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Is that thing used for colour calibration and white balancing? In the camera or on the images? Or is it used for something entirely different?
Correct that's the 2 calibration targets for the mast cameras. It's not an automatic calibration though in the camera, they image the cal targets regularly and then use those images later in the lab to calibrate the images that come down from the rover. The early colour images that arrive from the rover that we see on the public image server are uncalibrated and compressed for public release, that compression alters the colours a little (adds a green hue, the amount of green depends on the level of compression) I removed that green hue on this post.
You can read more about the target on this link: https://mastcamz.asu.edu/caltarget-fiesta-why-is-perseverance-taking-so-many-mastcam-z-calibration-target-images/
You can find the calibrated MastCam-Z images here : https://mastcamz.asu.edu/mars-images/images-videos/?pg=1