Internal Morphology Point Clouds of Six Lunar Pits

Six point clouds show the internal geometry of pits on the Moon. The data was generated via manual feature matching in oblique stereo pairs of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera images. R. V. Wagner of Arizona State University created this archive, with methods detailed in Wagner and Robinson (2022).

Use Cases

• Analyzing pit wall geometry and collapse mechanisms based on the 3D point cloud data.
• Validating automated photogrammetry methods against the manually-generated point clouds.
• Studying the relationship between surface pits and potential subsurface voids like lava tubes.

Strengths

• Covers six distinct lunar pits, including Lacus Mortis and Mare Ingenii.
• Point clouds merge manually-generated data with digital terrain models for coverage of upper walls, floors, and surroundings.
• Derived from LROC NAC images with pixel scales of ~0.3-2.2 m/pixel, enabling point spacing on the order of 5-10 m.

Limitations

• Row count and total file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Arizona State University

Collection Method

Manual feature matching in oblique stereo pairs of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera (LROC NAC) images, merged with digital terrain models.

Geography

Moon (specific pits: Lacus Mortis, Mare Ingenii, Mare Tranquillitatis, Marius Hills, Schlüter Crater, Southwest Mare Fecunditatis)