evaluation of different filtering techniques in the detection of impact crater in high-resolution images of the surface of mars

Remote sensing images have contributed greatly to the study of planetary bodies. In this context, images with better spatial resolutions have been available due to the development of technologies associated with satellites and new sensor systems. In the last decades, the surface of Mars has become of great interest to the scientific community, and the features that stand out in this surface are the impact craters. Many approaches on the detection of impact craters are found in the literature. As for the techniques of detection of these features on the Martian surface, digital image processing plays a key role. However, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the strategies used throughout the process. In this regard, we propose an evaluation the effects of different filtering techniques in the crater detection process of Mars. Three main steps were considered: (i) filtering with different techniques to noise removal and craters contour enhancement: median filter, morphological opening and closing, e bilateral filter, (ii) segmentation based on watershed to draw the impact crater contour and (iii) post-processing to remove small structures and exclude structures are not craters. Images of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) with a spatial resolution of 12.5 m/pixel were used for testing. From a detailed analysis, it was verified that the bilateral filter and the morphological filter presented good performance. Thus, we concluded that the image processing techniques in a well-designed sequence can contribute to the solution of a current problem in the context of impact crater detection on planetary surfaces.