A Fully-Automated Framework for Mineral Identification on Martian Surface Using Supervised Learning Models

Abstract

The availability of various spectral libraries for CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) data on NASA PDS (Planetary Data System) hugely facilitated the research on the surface mineralogy of Mars, however, building supervised learning models for mineral mapping appears to be challenging due to the lack of ground-truth/training data. In this paper, an automated framework is presented that classifies the spectra in a CRISM hyperspectral image using supervised learning models, where the required training data is produced by augmenting the mineral spectra available in the MICA (Minerals Identified in CRISM Analysis) spectral library, that keeps the key absorption signatures in the mineral spectra intact while providing adequate variability. The framework contains a pre-processing pipeline that in addition to some conventional pre-processing steps includes a new feature extraction method to capture the information of the most distinguishable absorption patterns in the spectra. The proposed framework is validated on a set of CRISM images captured from different locations on the Martian surface by using different types of supervised learning models, like random forests, support vector machines, and neural networks. An uncertainty analysis of the different steps involved in the pre-processing pipeline is provided, as well as a comparison of performances with some of the previously used methods for this purpose, which shows this framework works comparably well with a mean accuracy of around 0.8. Interactive mineral maps are also provided for the detected dominant minerals.