Topography Characteristics Analysis of Von Kármán Crater Using LOLA Data

Abstract

Von Kármán crater, located in the northwest of SPA, is the candidate landing site for Chang’e-4. In this paper, LOLA (onboard LRO satellite) data are processed by the maximum mean method, the root mean square height method and the box counting method respectively to acquire and analyze the slope, roughness and fractal dimension information of Von Kármán crater. The results show that the elevation of Von Kármán crater is low and the most-south area has the lowest elevation and the rest areas have respectively higher elevation. There are many impact structures in Von Kármán crater. The mean slope of Von Kármán basin is 1.3° and there are about 85% areas having the slope less 2°. There are 95.1% areas having roughness of less than 20m and the FD (Fractal Dimension) of the whole Von Kármán basin is high. All of these show that Von Kármán basin has smooth topography and stable structure. The statistical results hint that the south, southeast, and northeast parts of Von Kármán basin have lower slope, lower roughness and higher FD, which makes the basin is appropriate for the Chang’e-4’s landing. What’s more, the comparative analysis presents that the topography condition in Von Kármán basin is better than that in Chang’e-3 landing area.

Keywords

LOLA data / Von Kármán crater / landing site / topography