An Efficient High-Resolution Global-Local Network to Detect Lunar Features for Space Energy Discovery

Lunar craters and rilles are significant topographic features on the lunar surface that will play an essential role in future research on space energy resources and geological evolution. However, previous studies have shown low efficiency in detecting lunar impact craters and poor accuracy in detecting lunar rilles. There is no complete automated identification method for lunar features to explore space energy resources further. In this paper, we propose a new specific deep-learning method called high-resolution global-local networks (HR-GLNet) to explore craters and rilles and to discover space energy simultaneously. Based on the GLNet network, the ResNet structure in the global branch is replaced by HRNet, and the residual network and FPN are the local branches. Principal loss function and auxiliary loss function are used to aggregate global and local branches. In experiments, the model, combined with transfer learning methods, can accurately detect lunar craters, Mars craters, and lunar rilles. Compared with other networks, such as UNet, ERU-Net, HRNet, and GLNet, GL-HRNet has a higher accuracy (88.7 +/- 8.9) and recall rate (80.1 +/- 2.7) in lunar impact crater detection. In addition, the mean absolute error (MAE) of the GL-HRNet on global and local branches is 0.0612 and 0.0429, which are better than the GLNet in terms of segmentation accuracy and MAE. Finally, by analyzing the density distribution of lunar impact craters with a diameter of less than 5 km, it was found that: (i) small impact craters in a local area of the lunar north pole and highland (5 degrees-85 degrees E, 25 degrees-50 degrees S) show apparent high density, and (ii) the density of impact craters in the Orientale Basin is not significantly different from that in the surrounding areas, which is the direction for future geological research.

Automated summary

In this paper, a new deep-learning method called high-resolution global-local networks (HR-GLNet) is proposed to explore lunar craters and rilles and to discover space energy simultaneously. The model, combined with transfer learning methods, can accurately detect lunar craters, Mars craters, and lunar rilles with higher accuracy and recall rate compared to other networks.