Morphology-constrained pixel-resolution topographic reconstruction of impact craters from single-imagery

IF 3 2区物理与天体物理 Q2 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Icarus Pub Date : 2025-09-06 DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116798

Wai Chung Liu , Min Ding , Luyuan Xu , Meng-Hua Zhu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Impact craters provides critical insight into the geological evolution of solid solar system bodies, and accurate 3D topography is required to quantify their morphology. To this end, single-image methods (e.g., photoclinometry) that reconstructs topography from one image are gaining attention for their significantly better spatial resolution and coverage. They are particularly useful for planetary bodies with limited observations, such as asteroids and icy moons visited by flybys. However, single-image techniques suffer from spatially uneven uncertainties which may introduce significant systematic bias to the resulted crater geometry.

Therefore, we developed a crater-morphology-constrained photoclinometric method for generating reliable, unbiased, pixel-resolution crater 3D models from single-imagery. The systematic bias are handled by considering a crater's symmetrical properties. We validated the method using ∼200 lunar craters (D = 50-1100 m) automatically detected from the LROCNAC images, with stereo NACDTMs as ground truth. The new method achieved a crater depth error of about 9 %–18 % and discrepancies in crater depth retrieval due to systematic bias were below 2 %, outperforming other single-image methods that have a depth error of ∼20 % and a systematic bias of ∼15 % for the same condition. The performance behavior and limitations of the new technique were extensively discussed. In addition, we also presented demonstrations on applications to Mercury and Ganymede craters.

The intended applications of this work include reliable 3D mapping of craters on icy moons, Earth's Moon and other solar system bodies. This work is also the first recent attempt to systematically assess single-image methods in retrieving crater depth. Hence crater researchers can refer to our assessment results when using single-image techniques in their studies to obtain crater morphological parameters.

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基于单幅图像的形态约束的撞击坑像素分辨率地形重建

撞击坑提供了对固体太阳系天体地质演化的关键见解，需要精确的3D地形来量化它们的形态。为此，从一张图像重建地形的单图像方法（例如，光测斜法）因其明显更好的空间分辨率和覆盖范围而受到关注。它们对观测有限的行星体特别有用，比如小行星和被飞掠所访问的冰冷卫星。然而，单图像技术受到空间不均匀不确定性的影响，这可能会对所得到的陨石坑几何形状产生重大的系统偏差。因此，我们开发了一种陨石坑形态约束的光斜测量方法，用于从单图像生成可靠，无偏，像素分辨率的陨石坑3D模型。系统偏差是通过考虑陨石坑的对称特性来处理的。我们使用从LROCNAC图像中自动检测到的~ 200个月球陨石坑（D = 50-1100 m）验证了该方法，并使用立体nacdtm作为地面真值。新方法获得的陨石坑深度误差约为9% - 18%，由于系统偏差导致的陨石坑深度检索差异低于2%，优于其他单图像方法，这些方法在相同条件下具有深度误差约为20%和系统偏差约为15%。对新技术的性能、行为和局限性进行了广泛的讨论。此外，我们还展示了在水星和木卫三环形山上的应用。这项工作的预期应用包括对冰冻卫星、月球和其他太阳系天体上的陨石坑进行可靠的3D测绘。这项工作也是最近首次尝试系统地评估单图像方法在检索陨石坑深度方面的作用。因此，陨石坑研究人员在使用单图像技术研究陨石坑形态参数时，可以参考我们的评估结果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Icarus 地学天文-天文与天体物理

CiteScore

6.30

自引率

18.80%

发文量

356

审稿时长

2-4 weeks

期刊介绍： Icarus is devoted to the publication of original contributions in the field of Solar System studies. Manuscripts reporting the results of new research - observational, experimental, or theoretical - concerning the astronomy, geology, meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology, and other scientific aspects of our Solar System or extrasolar systems are welcome. The journal generally does not publish papers devoted exclusively to the Sun, the Earth, celestial mechanics, meteoritics, or astrophysics. Icarus does not publish papers that provide "improved" versions of Bode''s law, or other numerical relations, without a sound physical basis. Icarus does not publish meeting announcements or general notices. Reviews, historical papers, and manuscripts describing spacecraft instrumentation may be considered, but only with prior approval of the editor. An entire issue of the journal is occasionally devoted to a single subject, usually arising from a conference on the same topic. The language of publication is English. American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these.