[lug] Off-topic: Contour line in image problem

[Glenn Murray]

Thanks all for the suggestions. so far.  There seems to be some
confusion about what I am trying to calculate.  I am not trying to
calculate the two-dimensional area visible in the image, but I am
trying to calculate the area of the three-dimensonal surface seen in
profile in the 2D image.  That's the easy part for me, once I can draw
and find the length of the contour described below.

The hard part for me, and the one I'm asking for help on, is to draw a
countour line through an image and find its length, that's all.

Ralf Mattes asked why jpeg---good question!  The images are
compressed because they are being sent down from the space shuttle,
and my user and program has to cycle through them quickly.

I looked at GRASS but am a little overwhelmed at the size of the
thing---it would probably take a month to find out if it can be bent
to do something it wasn't designed to do.

The Gimp may be the way to go, following Ralf's suggestion.  Has
Michael J. Hammel (hint, hint) or anyone else seen anything like this?

Glenn Murray
www.mines.edu/~gmurray/public_html/Welcome.html