Extracting Accurate and Precise Topography From Lroc Narrow Angle Camera Stereo Observations

Abstract

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) includes two identical Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC) that acquire meter scale imaging. Stereo observations are acquired by imaging from two or more orbits, including at least one off-nadir slew. Digital terrain models (DTMs) generated from the stereo observations are controlled to Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) elevation profiles. With current processing methods, digital terrain models (DTM) have absolute accuracies commensurate than the uncertainties of the LOLA profiles (~10 m horizontally and ~1 m vertically) and relative horizontal and vertical precisions better than the pixel scale of the DTMs (2 to 5 m). The NAC stereo pairs and derived DTMs represent an invaluable tool for science and exploration purposes. We computed slope statistics from 81 highland and 31 mare DTMs across a range of baselines. Overlapping DTMs of single stereo sets were also combined to form larger area DTM mosaics, enabling detailed characterization of large geomorphic features and providing a key resource for future exploration planning. Currently, two percent of the lunar surface is imaged in NAC stereo and continued acquisition of stereo observations will serve to strengthen our knowledge of the Moon and geologic processes that occur on all the terrestrial planets.

The role of substrate characteristics in producing anomalously young crater retention ages in volcanic deposits on the Moon: Morphology, topography, subresolution roughness, and mode of emplacement of the Sosigenes lunar irregular mare patch

“…Kaguya Terrain Camera (TC) 10 m/pixel low-sun image mosaics (evening map products; Haruyama et al 2008) are employed in regional mapping. Topographic and slope analyses are conducted on a 2 m grid digital terrain model (DTM) produced from LROC NAC image pairs (Henriksen et al 2017). SELENE-TC+LRO-LOLA merged DEM products (SLDEM2015; Barker et al 2016) are used to characterize regional topographic trends.…”

High Precision DTM and Dom Generating Using Multi-Source Orbital Data on Chang’e-4 Landing Site

“…The multiple coverage LROC NAC images were selected by the principles which we discussed in the previous studies (Liu et al, 2018; to produce the seamless DOM. The rigorous sensor model (RSM) of LROC NACs was established with exterior orientation (EO) and interior orientation (IO) parameters, which are retrieved from the relevant SPICE kernels (NAIF, 2014;Henriksen et al, 2016). The rational function model (RFM) were constructed by fitting the RSM with residual of 1/100-pixel level (Liu et al, 2016).…”

Landing site topographic mapping and rover localization for Chang’e-4 mission

“…Figure 4 shows the procedure for the landing-site topographic mapping and rover localization, with details of some key techniques given below. The EDR-level LROC NAC images were pre-processed with the integrated system for imagers and spectrometers (ISIS) for the SPICE kernels attached, radiometric correction, and echo effects removed with the "spiceinit", "lronaccal", "lronacecho" commands sequentially [21,22]. The rational function model (RFM) of the images was established by fitting with a rigorous sensor model, which was built based on collinearity equations [23][24][25].…”