Resolution Digital Terrain Model Research Articles

The morphology of transverse aeolian ridges on Mars

Abstract A preliminary survey of publicly released high resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) produced by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter identified transverse aeolian ridges (TARs) in 154 DTMs in latitudes from 50°S to 40°N. Consistent with previous surveys, the TARs identified in HiRISE DTMs are found at all elevations, irrespective of the regional thermal inertia of the surface. Ten DTMs were selected for measuring the characteristics of the TARs, including maximum height, mean height, mean spacing (wavelength), and the slope of the surface where they are located. We confined our measurements to features that were taller than 1 m and spaced more than 10 m apart. We found a surprisingly wide variability of TAR sizes within each local region (typically 5 km by 25 km), with up to a factor of 7 difference in TAR wavelengths in a single DTM. The TAR wavelengths do not appear to be correlated to latitude or elevation, but the largest TARs in our small survey were found at lower elevations. The tallest TARs we measured were on the flat floor of Moni crater, within Kaiser crater in the southern highlands. These TARs are up to 14 m tall, with a typical wavelength of 120 m. TAR heights are weakly correlated with their wavelengths. The height-to-wavelength ratios for most TARs are far less than 1/2π (the maximum predicted for antidunes), however in two cases the ratio is close to 1/2π, and in one case (in the bend of a channel) the ratio exceeds 1/2π. TAR wavelengths are uncorrelated with surface slope, both on local and regional scales. TAR heights are weakly anti-correlated with local slope. These results help constrain models of TAR formation, particularly a new hypothesis (Geissler, 2014) that suggests that TARs were formed from micron-sized dust that was transported in suspension. The lack of correlation between TAR wavelength and surface slope seems to rule out formation by gravity-driven dust flows such as avalanches or density currents, and suggests that the TARs were instead produced by the Martian winds.

Late Holocene evolution of glaciers in the southeastern Alps

ABSTRACTThe Julian Alps (in the southeastern European Alps, Italy and Slovenia) represent an important case study area for the study of small and very small maritime glaciers. High mean annual precipitation results in great snow accumulation during the winter, permitting the presence of ice bodies with the lowest Equilibrium Line Altitudes in the Alps. During the Little Ice Age (LIA) 19 small glaciers (<1 km2) existed, covering a total area of 2.4 km2. By 2012, the glacierized area had shrunk by 84% and only isolated glacierets and ice patches survived, each having a total area less than 0.5 km2. We present here a geomorphological and palaeoglaciological map of 8 sections of the Julian Alps related to the late Holocene distribution of glaciers, at a scale of 1:6000. Glacier topography during the LIA maximum was reconstructed on the basis of well-expressed geomorphological features together with historical archive data. The present-day distribution of ice bodies was inferred from orthophotos and 1 m resolution digital terrain models derived from airborne laser scanning. The past and present areal extent and surface morphology of glaciers permits calculation of volume loss since the LIA, which is estimated at 96%.

Rock glaciers, protalus ramparts and pronival ramparts in the south-eastern Alps

Rock glaciers and protalus ramparts are characteristic landforms of the periglacial domain often used as markers for the occurrence of permafrost in mountain terrains. As such, relict rock glaciers can be used for paleoclimate reconstructions. We present here the first previously unreported rock glacier inventory of the south-eastern Alps (including the north-eastern-most region of Italy and Slovenia), interpreted from high resolution orthophotos and a high resolution digital terrain model interpolated from airborne laser scanning (LiDAR). We mapped 53 rock glaciers covering a total area of 3.45km2. The majority of rock glaciers are classified as relict and distributed between 1708 and 1846ma.s.l. with slope ranging between 19° and 27°. In addition to rock glaciers we observed 66 protalus (pronival) ramparts, having median elevation of 1913ma.s.l. and covering 0.48km2. More than half of the inventoried protalus ramparts are located in the more maritime area of the Alps with higher precipitation compared to the location of rock glaciers. Using paleoclimate reconstruction based on the 1981–2010 climatological record of the area, we infer that the rock glaciers formed during one of the dry and cold periods of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Possible evolution of the active pronival forms observed in the most maritime area of this alpine sector is also discussed.

Bare-earth extraction and DTM generation from photogrammetric point clouds including the use of an existing lower-resolution DTM

ABSTRACTA method of extracting bare-earth points from photogrammetric point clouds by partially using an existing lower resolution digital terrain model (DTM) is presented. The bare-earth points are extracted based on a threshold defined by local slope. The local slope is estimated from the lower resolution DTM. A gridded DTM is then interpolated from the extracted bare-earth points. Five different interpolation algorithms are implemented and evaluated to identify the most suitable interpolation method for such non-uniformly scattered data. The algorithm is tested on four test sites with varying topographic and ground cover characteristics. The results are evaluated against a reference DTM created using aerial laser scanning. The deviations of the extracted bare-earth points, and the interpolated DTM, from the reference DTM increases with increasing forest canopy density and terrain roughness. The DTM created by the method is significantly closer to the reference DTM than the lower resolution national DTM. The ANUDEM (Australian National University Digital Elevation Modelling) interpolation method is found to be the best performing interpolation method in terms of reducing the deviations and in terms of modelling the terrain realistically with minimum artefacts, although the differences among the interpolation methods are not considerably large.

BARE-EARTH EXTRACTION AND DTM GENERATION FROM PHOTOGRAMMETRIC POINT CLOUDS WITH A PARTIAL USE OF AN EXISTING LOWER RESOLUTION DTM

Abstract. A method of extracting bare-earth points from photogrammetric point clouds by partially using an existing lower resolution digital terrain model (DTM) is presented. The bare-earth points are extracted based on a threshold defined by local slope. The local slope is estimated from the lower resolution DTM. A gridded DTM is then interpolated from the extracted bare-earth points. Five different interpolation algorithms are implemented and evaluated to identify the most suitable interpolation method for such non-uniformly scattered data. The algorithm is tested on four test sites with varying topographic and ground cover characteristics. The results are evaluated against a reference DTM created using aerial laser scanning. The deviations of the extracted bare-earth points, and the interpolated DTM, from the reference DTM increases with increasing forest canopy density and terrain roughness. The DTM created by the method is significantly closer to the reference DTM than the lower resolution national DTM. The ANUDEM (Australian National University Digital Elevation Modelling) interpolation method is found to be the best performing interpolation method in terms of reducing the deviations and in terms of modelling the terrain realistically with minimum artefacts, although the differences among the interpolation methods are not considerably large.

BARE-EARTH EXTRACTION AND DTM GENERATION FROM PHOTOGRAMMETRIC POINT CLOUDS WITH A PARTIAL USE OF AN EXISTING LOWER RESOLUTION DTM

A method of extracting bare-earth points from photogrammetric point clouds by partially using an existing lower resolution digital terrain model (DTM) is presented. The bare-earth points are extracted based on a threshold defined by local slope. The local slope is estimated from the lower resolution DTM. A gridded DTM is then interpolated from the extracted bare-earth points. Five different interpolation algorithms are implemented and evaluated to identify the most suitable interpolation method for such non-uniformly scattered data. The algorithm is tested on four test sites with varying topographic and ground cover characteristics. The results are evaluated against a reference DTM created using aerial laser scanning. The deviations of the extracted bare-earth points, and the interpolated DTM, from the reference DTM increases with increasing forest canopy density and terrain roughness. The DTM created by the method is significantly closer to the reference DTM than the lower resolution national DTM. The ANUDEM (Australian National University Digital Elevation Modelling) interpolation method is found to be the best performing interpolation method in terms of reducing the deviations and in terms of modelling the terrain realistically with minimum artefacts, although the differences among the interpolation methods are not considerably large.

Controls of climate, topography, vegetation, and lithology on drainage density extracted from high resolution topography data

Summary Mark Melton in 1957 found that climate, basin morphometry, and surficial variables control drainage density ( D d ), but differences observed between field surveyed channels and those mapped on topographic contours or blue lines left doubts on these results. Later, several landscape evolution model and observational studies analyzed the behavior of D d . However, only a few studies have been performed over a large number of landscapes of different characteristics and have relied on high resolution topography data. We revisit Melton’s hypothesis by using meter-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) in 101 subbasins in the USA. We first propose a dimensionless drainage density ( D dd ) metric based on the ratio of likely channelized pixels to total number of basin pixels, which has the advantage of eliminating the computation of the channel network. Our analysis shows that D dd is a weak scaling function of the input DTM resolution compared to the classic dimensional D d metric (ratio of total channel length to total basin area). We analyze the correlation of D dd and mean annual precipitation (MAP) with a Gaussian mixture model which identifies two sub-groups displaying different correlation; negative in arid and semi-arid environments, and positive in humid environments. The transition in correlation is around 1100 ± 100 mm/yr of MAP and is accompanied by the occurrence of thick soil layers and high available water capacity that promote dense vegetation cover ( V cov ) and low D dd . While small variation in D dd is observed across vegetation types, increasing V cov corresponds to decreasing D dd . We also explore the relationship between D dd and relief R, and D dd and lithology. D dd and R are weakly correlated in arid and semi-arid environments, while they have strong positive correlation in humid environments. No significant correlation is found between D dd and lithology although the results are likely affected by our sample choice.

Assessment of Image-Based Point Cloud Products to Generate a Bare Earth Surface and Estimate Canopy Heights in a Woodland Ecosystem

We examine the utility of Structure from Motion (SfM) point cloud products to generate a digital terrain model (DTM) and estimate canopy heights in a woodland ecosystem in the Texas Hill Country, USA. Very high spatial resolution images were acquired with a Canon PowerShot A800 digital camera mounted on an unmanned aerial system. Image mosaicking and dense point matching were accomplished using Agisoft PhotoScan. The resulting point cloud was classified according to ground/non-ground classes and used to interpolate a high resolution DTM which was both compared to a DTM from an existing lidar dataset and used to model vegetation height for fifteen 20 × 20 m plots. Differences in the interpolated DTM surfaces demonstrate that the SfM surface overestimates lidar-modeled ground height with a mean difference of 0.19 m and standard deviation of 0.66 m. Height estimates obtained solely from SfM products were successful with R2 values of 0.91, 0.90, and 0.89 for mean, median, and maximum canopy height, respectively. Use of the lidar DTM in the analyses resulted in R2 values of 0.90, 0.89, and 0.89 for mean, median, and maximum canopy height. Our results suggest that SfM-derived point cloud products function as well as lidar data for estimating vegetation canopy height for our specific study area.

English

During the implementation of the EU Flood directive, high resolution (Lidar) digital terrain models (DTM) were produced massively on nearly all the French coast. With those date, the methods used to map sea flooding on the Mediterranean coast were the simple superposition of a sea level on the natural terrain. The methods currently implementing allow, comparing the previous results and the areas actually connected to the sea for a given level, to determine the protected area for this level. The next step is to determine, where appropriate, the protection system. The algorithm developed for this purpose can locate it and determine its level of protection.

Micro Hydro Potential Modelling: Integrating GIS into Energy Alternatives for Climate Change Mitigation

This research focused on integrating GIS into energy alternatives for climate change mitigation by creating a GIS-based hydrologic model that can be used to identify sites that have significant potential for micro hydropower development within the River Perkerra catchment area. Hydropower is a clean and renewable energy source that remains largely untapped in the country and its development can be used to mitigate anthropogenic climate change by reducing reliance on fossil or biomass derived fuels. This research established the extent of this resource and whether the available sites with significant micro hydropower potential within the study area were amply copious to warrant further development. Currently, such identification is done physically using means that are menial, costly and significantly time consuming. A 90-metre resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) data obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and various GIS tools were used to create a hydrologic framework which was used to identify potential sites along River Perkerra that suited any desired head requirement for the purposes of locating micro hydropower plants. The derived model demonstrated that it was possible to identify sites at discrete geographic locations along any stream drainage network using GIS. In addition, the model also provides a decision support system that integrates a powerful graphical user interface, spatial database management system and a generalized river basin network flow model for the purposes of exploiting and developing micro hydropower. With sufficient data on catchment discharge and use of higher resolution DTM, the model can be further enhanced to accurately obtain the total microhydro potential of River Perkerra by aggregating the respective potentials of every steam segment.

Metric-Resolution 2D River Modeling at the Macroscale: Computational Methods and Applications in a Braided River

Metric resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) of rivers now make it possible for multi-dimensional fluid mechanics models to be applied to characterize flow at fine scales that are relevant to studies of river morphology and ecological habitat, or microscales. These developments are important for managing rivers because of the potential to better understand system dynamics, anthropogenic impacts, and the consequences of proposed interventions. However, the data volumes and computational demands of microscale river modeling have largely constrained applications to small multiples of the channel width, or the mesoscale. This report presents computational methods to extend a microscale river model beyond the mesoscale to the macroscale, defined as large multiples of the channel width. A method of automated unstructured grid generation is presented that automatically clusters fine resolution cells in areas of curvature (e.g., channel banks), and places relatively coarse cells in areas lacking topographic variability. This overcomes the need to manually generate breaklines to constrain the grid, which is painstaking at the mesoscale and virtually impossible at the macroscale. The method is applied to a braided river with an extremely complex channel network configuration and shown to yield an efficient fine resolution model. The sensitivity of model output to grid design and resistance parameters is also examined as it relates to analysis of hydrology, hydraulic geometry and river habitats and the findings reiterate the importance of model calibration and validation.

Analysis of dolines using multiple methods applied to airborne laser scanning data

Delineating dolines is not a straightforward process especially in densely vegetated areas. This paper deals quantitatively with the surface karst morphology of a Miocene limestone occurrence in the Styrian Basin, Austria. The study area is an isolated karst mountain with a smooth morphology (former planation surface of Pliocene age), densely vegetated (mixed forest) and with a surface area of 1.3km2. The study area is located near the city of Wildon and is named “Wildoner Buchkogel”. The aim of this study was to test three different approaches in order to automatically delineate dolines. The data basis for this was a high resolution digital terrain model (DTM) derived from airborne laser scanning (ALS) and with a raster resolution of 1×1m. The three different methods for doline boundary delineation are: (a) the “traditional” method based on the outermost closed contour line; (b) boundary extraction based on a drainage correction algorithm (filling up pits), and (c) boundary extraction based on hydrologic modelling (watershed). Extracted features are integrated in a GIS environment and analysed statistically regarding spatial distribution, shape geometry, elongation direction and volume. The three methods lead to different doline boundaries and therefore investigated parameters show significant variations. The applied methods have been compared with respect to their application purpose. Depending on delineation process, between 118 and 189 dolines could be defined. The high density of surface karst features demonstrates that solutional processes are major factors in the landscape development of the Wildoner Buchkogel. Furthermore the correlation to the landscape evolution of the Grazer Bergland is discussed.

Clast mobility within boulder beaches over two winters in Galicia, northwestern Spain

A micro-drone was used to make low altitude flights over boulder beaches at Laxe Brava and Oia in Galicia, northwestern Spain. Flights were made in July 2012, May 2013, and spring 2014. High resolution digital terrain models and orthophotographs, combined with GIS mapping, were used to monitor changes in the position of thousands of boulders. Maximum storm wave height was higher in the winter of 2013–2014 than in winter 2012–2013, and this was reflected in an increase in the proportion of the boulders that moved in the two winters, from 17% to almost 48% at Laxe Brava, and from 53% to almost 88% at Oia. The greater mobility of the boulders at Oia can be attributed in part to their generally smaller size, although there was considerable overlap between the size of boulders that moved and those that did not move within and between the two beaches. There were mobile boulders in areas up to several metres above the high tidal level on both beaches, and boulder transport in the shore-normal and alongshore directions triggered some changes in the beach profiles, particularly in the middle to upper parts of the beaches. Estimates of threshold transport conditions, scaled to boulder mass, breaker height, and other variables, suggested that all but the very largest boulders on the two beaches should have been mobile, even during the summer months when the waves were much lower than in winter. Model over-prediction can be attributed to a number of factors, including: constraints on movement imposed by surrounding boulders; differences in boulder size and their effect on pivoting angles and on the degree to which boulders are exposed or sheltered from wave impact; and difficulties in assigning appropriate values to model coefficients.

The potential of flood forecasting using a variable-resolution global Digital Terrain Model and flood extents from Synthetic Aperture Radar images

A basic data requirement of a river flood inundation model is a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the reach being studied. The scale at which modeling is required determines the accuracy required of the DTM. For modeling floods in urban areas, a high resolution DTM such as that produced by airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is most useful, and large parts of many developed countries have now been mapped using LiDAR. In remoter areas, it is possible to model flooding on a larger scale using a lower resolution DTM, and in the near future the DTM of choice is likely to be that derived from the TanDEM-X Digital Elevation Model (DEM). A variable-resolution global DTM obtained by combining existing high and low resolution data sets would be useful for modeling flood water dynamics globally, at high resolution wherever possible and at lower resolution over larger rivers in remote areas. A further important data resource used in flood modeling is the flood extent, commonly derived from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. Flood extents become more useful if they are intersected with the DTM, when water level observations (WLOs) at the flood boundary can be estimated at various points along the river reach. To illustrate the utility of such a global DTM, two examples of recent research involving WLOs at opposite ends of the spatial scale are discussed. The first requires high resolution spatial data, and involves the assimilation of WLOs from a real sequence of high resolution SAR images into a flood model to update the model state with observations over time, and to estimate river discharge and model parameters, including river bathymetry and friction. The results indicate the feasibility of such an Earth Observation-based flood forecasting system. The second example is at a larger scale, and uses SAR-derived WLOs to improve the lower-resolution TanDEM-X DEM in the area covered by the flood extents. The resulting reduction in random height error is significant.

The first ultra-high resolution Digital Terrain Model of the shallow-water sector around Lipari Island (Aeolian Islands, Italy)

&lt;p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Very high resolution bathymetric map obtained through multibeam echo-sounders data are crucial to generate accurate Digital Terrain Models from which the morphological setting of active volcanic areas can be analyzed in detail. Here we show and discuss the main results from the first multibeam bathymetric survey performed in shallow-waters around the island of Lipari, the largest and the most densely populated of the Aeolian Islands (southern Italy). Data have been collected in the depth range of 0.1-150 m and complete the already existent high-resolution multibeam bathymetry realized between 100 and 1300 m water depth. The new ultra-high resolution bathymetric maps at 0.1-0.5 m provide new insights on the shallow seafloor of Lipari, allowing to detail a large spectrum of volcanic, erosive-depositional and anthropic features. Moreover, the presented data allow outlining the recent morphological evolution of the shallow coastal sector of this active volcanic island, indicating the presence of potential geo-hazard factors in shallow waters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Measuring coral reef terrain roughness using ‘Structure-from-Motion’ close-range photogrammetry

Our understanding of Earth surface processes is rapidly advancing as new remote sensing technologies such as LiDAR and close-range digital photogrammetry become more accessible and affordable. A very-high spatial resolution digital terrain model (DTM) and orthophoto mosaic (mm scale) were produced using close-range digital photogrammetry based on ‘Structure-from-Motion’ (SfM) algorithms for a 250m transect along a shallow coral reef flat on Heron Reef, Great Barrier Reef. The precise terrain data were used to characterise surface roughness, a critical factor affecting ecological and physical processes on the reef. Three roughness parameters, namely the root mean square height, tortuosity (or rugosity) and fractal dimension, were derived and compared in order to asses which one better characterises reef flat roughness. The typical relief across the shallow reef flat was 0.1m with a maximum value of 0.42m. Coral reef terrain roughness, as characterised by the three chosen parameters, generally increased towards the middle of the transect where live coral covers most of the reef flat and decreases towards the edges of the transect. The fractal dimension (values ranging from 2.2 to 2.59) best characterised reef roughness, as evidenced by a closer agreement with the distribution of known coral benthic substrates. This is the first study quantifying scale-independent roughness of a coral reef at benthic and biotope/patch levels (cm-m). The readily available and cost-effective methods presented are highly appropriate for data collection, processing and analysis to generate very-high spatial resolution DTMs and orthophoto mosaics of shallow and energetic coral reefs.

Terrain Model Resolution Effect on Sight Distance on Roads

Available sight distance is a key factor on road design. This research is focused on the effect of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) resolution on available sight distance. In addition, the effect of distance between calculation points along the vehicle path is also considered. The available sight distance is calculated using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Three high resolution DTMs, based on airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), are used. Vehicle path is collected by a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) mounted in a vehicle travelling along the road. Twelve combinations of DTM resolution and distance between calculation points along the vehicle path are studied. Results are statistically analysed and each case study is compared to a reference case which is considered close to reality. The analysis made shows that DTM resolution has a larger effect on the quality of the results than distance between calculation points. Practical issues are discussed.

Using airborne LiDAR sensing technology and aerial orthoimages to unravel roman water supply systems and gold works in NW Spain (Eria valley, León)

LiDAR technology, based on Earth's surface scanning, allows the compilation of high resolution digital terrain models. Recently used in archaeological works for the discovery and description of heritage features such as ancient human-made structures and building ruins, it is particularly effective in areas with dense vegetation or difficult access, where surveying becomes complicated. Among its main advantages over other traditional methods of archaeological research, it highlights the possibility of controlling display parameters, which in turn facilitates data analysis and interpretation. In this study we present an integrated LiDAR and aerial photography data analysis in order to obtain a detailed map of ancient mining works within a small sector of the Roman mining district in northwestern Spain. The presence of gold deposits led to intensive extractive work during the first century b.p.t. Although many of the mining activities were focused on the northwestern area of Las Médulas and Omañas, large deposits were also found along the Duerna and Eria river valleys. Our results complement previous work carried out in the Eria area (Valdería), providing new insights into the hydraulic engineering techniques and the geometry of the main Roman exploitations. This work highlights the scope of the ancient mining works and their impact on the landscape, which are much greater and more important than previously thought.

Hydrogeophysics and remote sensing for the design of hydrogeological conceptual models in hard rocks – Sardón catchment (Spain)

Abstract Hard rock aquifers are highly heterogeneous and hydrogeologically complex. To contribute to the design of hydrogeological conceptual models of hard rock aquifers, we propose a multi-techniques methodology based on a downward approach that combines remote sensing (RS), non-invasive hydrogeophysics and hydrogeological field data acquisition. The proposed methodology is particularly suitable for data scarce areas. It was applied in the pilot research area of Sardon catchment (80 km2) located west of Salamanca (Spain). The area was selected because of hard-rock hydrogeology, semi-arid climate and scarcity of groundwater resources. The proposed methodology consisted of three main steps. First, we detected the main hydrogeological features at the catchment scale by processing: (i) a high resolution digital terrain model to map lineaments and to outline fault zones; and (ii) high-resolution, multispectral satellite QuickBird and WorldView-2 images to map the outcropping granite. Second, we characterized at the local scale the hydrogeological features identified at step one with: i) ground penetrating radar (GPR) to assess groundwater table depth complementing the available monitoring network data; ii) 2D electric resistivity tomography (ERT) and frequency domain electromagnetic (FDEM) to retrieve the hydrostratigraphy along selected survey transects; iii) magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) to retrieve the hydrostratigraphy and aquifer parameters at the selected survey sites. In the third step, we drilled 5 boreholes (25 to 48 m deep) and performed slug tests to verify the hydrogeophysical interpretation and to calibrate the MRS parameters. Finally, we compiled and integrated all acquired data to define the geometry and parameters of the Sardon aquifer at the catchment scale. In line with a general conceptual model of hard rock aquifers, we identified two main hydrostratigraphic layers: a saprolite layer and a fissured layer. Both layers were intersected and drained by fault zones that control the hydrogeology of the catchment. The spatial discontinuities of the saprolite layer were well defined by RS techniques while subsurface geometry and aquifer parameters by hydrogeophysics. The GPR method was able to detect shallow water table at depth between 1 and 3 m b.g.s. The hydrostratigraphy and parameterization of the fissured layer remained uncertain because ERT and FDEM geophysical methods were quantitatively not conclusive while MRS detectability was restricted by low volumetric water content. The proposed multi-technique methodology integrating cost efficient RS, hydrogeophysics and hydrogeological field investigations allowed us to characterize geometrically and parametrically the Sardon hard rock aquifer system, facilitating the design of hydrogeological conceptual model of the area.

Illumination conditions at the lunar south pole using high resolution Digital Terrain Models from LOLA

The illumination conditions of the lunar south pole are investigated using a geometrically adjusted, 20m/pixel Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from laser tracks of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). Several comparisons with Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) images have been made to cross-validate the results. Illumination conditions were first evaluated over a region of 20×20km over a one-year period (October 22, 2018 – October 22, 2019) at surface level and 2m above ground. Three potential landing sites are investigated in more detail. A 19-year study covering the lunar precessional cycle was carried out at surface level, 2 and 10m above ground for a site found at “Connecting Ridge”, the ridge connecting the Shackleton and de Gerlache crater. This area was found to be an ideal site for future landing missions with respect to illumination conditions. We identified locations receiving sunlight for 92.27% of the time at 2m above ground and 95.65% of the time at 10m above ground. At these locations the longest continuous periods in darkness are typically only 3–5days.