Localizzazione e caratterizzazione di frane all’interno dei crateri di impatto lunari

Geological slope failure processes have been observed on the Moon surface for decades. However a detailed and exhaustive lunar landslide inventory has not been produced yet. As a part of the “Moon Mapping” cooperative project between Italy and China, an algorithm for lunar landslide detection in impact craters has been proposed. The simple type of impact craters sizing between 5-12 km has been analysed. The Chebyshev polynomials have been used for estimating crater’s cross-sectional profiles on the basis of a 100 m x 100 m resolution digital elevation model (WACGDL100 DEM) derived from LROC NASA mission. The presence of landslides in lunar craters is then investigated by analysing the contribution of odd coefficients of the estimated polynomials, since they are representing the asymmetric component of a transversal profile. After the analysis of four orthogonal profiles per crater, we correctly classified 87.7% of cross-sectional profiles really affected by slope failures. On the other side, we obtained a correct classification of 83.3% of cross- sectional profiles without slope failures. Even though a complete successful rate could not be achieved, these results are quite encouraging since the proposed automated procedure would allow to a first scrutiny of the presence of landslides in craters, to be refined afterwards with visual recognition and the analysis of other types of data.