HR: 0830h
AN: P41B-0409    [PDF]
TI: Auto-Detection of Impact Crater Statistics and Crater Morphologies in Mars THEMIS Data
AU: * Plesko, C S
EM: cplesko@es.ucsc.edu
AF: Earth Sciences Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz, Earth Sciences Dept. Univ. California Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
AU: Brumby, S P
EM: brumby@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop D436 Los Alamos National Lab. PO Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545
AU: Asphaug, E
EM: asphaug@es.ucsc.edu
AF: Earth Sciences Dept., University of California, Santa Cruz, Earth Sciences Dept. Univ. California Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
AB: One of the challenges of planetary science is the development of tools adequate to provide automated crater statistics, for use in chronology, geomorphology and a variety of other investigations. We will present the current results of an ongoing effort to develop new tools for culling THEMIS imagery for crater statistics. Our eventual goal is to generate crater density and age maps of Mars. We are also developing tools to probe the morphologies and near-surface compositions of type-class craters. One crater type of particular significance is the rampart crater, which is unique to Mars. These are widely believed to be the result of impacts into volatile-rich surface materials. We will present the results of our examination of the spectral and morphological properties of several rampart craters in THEMIS IR images as a demonstration of image processing and automated feature extraction techniques. Using techniques developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, we are able to obtain an automated count of craters in an image, their centroids and radii, extract spectra and compare them to spectral libraries of known reference minerals.
UR: http://genie.lanl.gov
DE: 5420 Impact phenomena (includes cratering)
DE: 5464 Remote sensing
DE: 5494 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6225 Mars
DE: 6297 Instruments and techniques
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting