Centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site

Bo Wu; Yuan Li; Wai Chung Liu; Yiran Wang; Fei Li; Yang Zhao; He Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116666

Centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site

Bo Wu, Yuan Li, Wai Chung Liu, Yiran Wang, Fei Li, Yang Zhao, He Zhang

Research output: Journal article publication › Journal article › Academic research › peer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Chang'E-4 was the first lunar mission to successfully land on the far side of the Moon. The stereo images collected by the panoramic camera (Pancam) mounted on the Jade Rabbit-2 rover have provided the most detailed in situ observations of the landing site along the rover traverse. This paper presents our efforts in centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site using the Pancam images. We first used an integrated photogrammetric and photoclinometric approach to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) and an orthoimage mosaic of the landing site and a 3D model of the Chang'E-4 lander itself, all with spatial resolutions of 1 cm/pixel. Craters with diameters of decimeters to meters and rocks with sizes of decimeters were then extracted and analyzed. The results indicate that Chang'E-4 landed on a terrain slope of 4° toward 72.3° southwest, with one foot sunk in the regolith 1.5 cm deeper than the other foot on the front side of the lander. Fine-scale analysis of the small craters at the Chang'E-4 landing site showed overall a similar power-law trend as large craters of hundreds of meters, but there is a clear gap between their size-frequency distributions, indicating the accumulated impact flux appears to be different for these two crater populations. The average depth-to-diameter ratio of the small craters around the landing site was 0.061, obviously less than those of craters on the kilometer scale. Fine-scale analysis of rocks revealed that the Chang'E-4 landing site has a rock abundance of 0.21%, which agrees well with previous results based on orbital data. Joint analysis of craters and rocks indicates that more rocks are located inside craters with greater depth-to-diameter ratios on such a fine scale. The 3D topographic modeling approach and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks presented in this paper provide new insights into lunar mapping and geological study.

Original language	English
Article number	116666
Journal	Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Volume	553
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116666
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2021

Keywords

Chang'E-4
craters
Pancam
photoclinometry
photogrammetry
rocks

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
Geochemistry and Petrology
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Space and Planetary Science

More information

10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116666

http://hdl.handle.net/10397/90959

Cite this

@article{e63400324b9c45d4b6dfc6579e452400,

title = "Centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site",

abstract = "Chang'E-4 was the first lunar mission to successfully land on the far side of the Moon. The stereo images collected by the panoramic camera (Pancam) mounted on the Jade Rabbit-2 rover have provided the most detailed in situ observations of the landing site along the rover traverse. This paper presents our efforts in centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site using the Pancam images. We first used an integrated photogrammetric and photoclinometric approach to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) and an orthoimage mosaic of the landing site and a 3D model of the Chang'E-4 lander itself, all with spatial resolutions of 1 cm/pixel. Craters with diameters of decimeters to meters and rocks with sizes of decimeters were then extracted and analyzed. The results indicate that Chang'E-4 landed on a terrain slope of 4° toward 72.3° southwest, with one foot sunk in the regolith 1.5 cm deeper than the other foot on the front side of the lander. Fine-scale analysis of the small craters at the Chang'E-4 landing site showed overall a similar power-law trend as large craters of hundreds of meters, but there is a clear gap between their size-frequency distributions, indicating the accumulated impact flux appears to be different for these two crater populations. The average depth-to-diameter ratio of the small craters around the landing site was 0.061, obviously less than those of craters on the kilometer scale. Fine-scale analysis of rocks revealed that the Chang'E-4 landing site has a rock abundance of 0.21%, which agrees well with previous results based on orbital data. Joint analysis of craters and rocks indicates that more rocks are located inside craters with greater depth-to-diameter ratios on such a fine scale. The 3D topographic modeling approach and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks presented in this paper provide new insights into lunar mapping and geological study.",

keywords = "Chang'E-4, craters, Pancam, photoclinometry, photogrammetry, rocks",

author = "Bo Wu and Yuan Li and Liu, {Wai Chung} and Yiran Wang and Fei Li and Yang Zhao and He Zhang",

note = "Funding Information: This work was funded by the China Academy of Space Technology (Project No: 17CPIT/HK0102 ) and a grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Research Impact Fund Project No: R5043-19 ). The work was also supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No: 41671426 ). The Chang'E-4 Pancam images are available at the Data Release and Information Service System of China's Lunar Exploration Program ( http://moon.bao.ac.cn/searchOrder_dataSearchData.search ). The authors would like to thank all those who worked on the archive of the datasets to make them publicly available. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors",

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doi = "10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116666",

language = "English",

volume = "553",

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T1 - Centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site

AU - Wu, Bo

AU - Li, Yuan

AU - Liu, Wai Chung

AU - Wang, Yiran

AU - Li, Fei

AU - Zhao, Yang

AU - Zhang, He

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the China Academy of Space Technology (Project No: 17CPIT/HK0102 ) and a grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Research Impact Fund Project No: R5043-19 ). The work was also supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No: 41671426 ). The Chang'E-4 Pancam images are available at the Data Release and Information Service System of China's Lunar Exploration Program ( http://moon.bao.ac.cn/searchOrder_dataSearchData.search ). The authors would like to thank all those who worked on the archive of the datasets to make them publicly available. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors

PY - 2021/1/1

Y1 - 2021/1/1

N2 - Chang'E-4 was the first lunar mission to successfully land on the far side of the Moon. The stereo images collected by the panoramic camera (Pancam) mounted on the Jade Rabbit-2 rover have provided the most detailed in situ observations of the landing site along the rover traverse. This paper presents our efforts in centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site using the Pancam images. We first used an integrated photogrammetric and photoclinometric approach to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) and an orthoimage mosaic of the landing site and a 3D model of the Chang'E-4 lander itself, all with spatial resolutions of 1 cm/pixel. Craters with diameters of decimeters to meters and rocks with sizes of decimeters were then extracted and analyzed. The results indicate that Chang'E-4 landed on a terrain slope of 4° toward 72.3° southwest, with one foot sunk in the regolith 1.5 cm deeper than the other foot on the front side of the lander. Fine-scale analysis of the small craters at the Chang'E-4 landing site showed overall a similar power-law trend as large craters of hundreds of meters, but there is a clear gap between their size-frequency distributions, indicating the accumulated impact flux appears to be different for these two crater populations. The average depth-to-diameter ratio of the small craters around the landing site was 0.061, obviously less than those of craters on the kilometer scale. Fine-scale analysis of rocks revealed that the Chang'E-4 landing site has a rock abundance of 0.21%, which agrees well with previous results based on orbital data. Joint analysis of craters and rocks indicates that more rocks are located inside craters with greater depth-to-diameter ratios on such a fine scale. The 3D topographic modeling approach and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks presented in this paper provide new insights into lunar mapping and geological study.

AB - Chang'E-4 was the first lunar mission to successfully land on the far side of the Moon. The stereo images collected by the panoramic camera (Pancam) mounted on the Jade Rabbit-2 rover have provided the most detailed in situ observations of the landing site along the rover traverse. This paper presents our efforts in centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site using the Pancam images. We first used an integrated photogrammetric and photoclinometric approach to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) and an orthoimage mosaic of the landing site and a 3D model of the Chang'E-4 lander itself, all with spatial resolutions of 1 cm/pixel. Craters with diameters of decimeters to meters and rocks with sizes of decimeters were then extracted and analyzed. The results indicate that Chang'E-4 landed on a terrain slope of 4° toward 72.3° southwest, with one foot sunk in the regolith 1.5 cm deeper than the other foot on the front side of the lander. Fine-scale analysis of the small craters at the Chang'E-4 landing site showed overall a similar power-law trend as large craters of hundreds of meters, but there is a clear gap between their size-frequency distributions, indicating the accumulated impact flux appears to be different for these two crater populations. The average depth-to-diameter ratio of the small craters around the landing site was 0.061, obviously less than those of craters on the kilometer scale. Fine-scale analysis of rocks revealed that the Chang'E-4 landing site has a rock abundance of 0.21%, which agrees well with previous results based on orbital data. Joint analysis of craters and rocks indicates that more rocks are located inside craters with greater depth-to-diameter ratios on such a fine scale. The 3D topographic modeling approach and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks presented in this paper provide new insights into lunar mapping and geological study.

KW - Chang'E-4

KW - craters

KW - Pancam

KW - photoclinometry

KW - photogrammetry

KW - rocks

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DO - 10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116666

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85096404219

SN - 0012-821X

VL - 553

JO - Earth and Planetary Science Letters

JF - Earth and Planetary Science Letters

M1 - 116666

ER -

Centimeter-resolution topographic modeling and fine-scale analysis of craters and rocks at the Chang'E-4 landing site

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