Polygonal terrains on Mars

• Main Authors: Pedro Pina, Joana Antunes, Lourenço Bandeira, José Saraiva, Teresa Barata
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: CEG 2009-06-01
• Series: Finisterra - Revista Portuguesa de Geografia
• Subjects: Mars; Polygonal terrains; Detection; Geometry; Topology
• Online Access: http://www.ceg.ul.pt/finisterra/numeros/2009-87/87_06.pdf

The presence of water ice on Mars is well established. Some featureson the planet point to the occurrence of processes similar to those that take place in periglacial areas of Earth. One of the clues for this is the existence of small-scale polygonal terrains. In this paper, we present a methodology that aims at the automated identification of polygonal patterns on high-spatial resolution images of the surface of Mars. In the context of the research project TERPOLI, this step will be complemented with a full characterization, in both geometric and topological terms, of thenetworks detected. In this manner, we hope to collect data that will lead to a better understanding of the conditions of formation of the polygons, and of their temporal evolution; namely, we intend to identify different groups of polygons and to compare them with terrestrial examples.