Mars Surface Change Detection from Multi-temporal Orbital Images

A vast amount of Mars images have been acquired by orbital missions in recent years. With the increase of spatial resolution to metre and decimetre levels, fine-scale geological features can be identified, and surface change detection is possible because of multi-temporal images. This study briefly reviews detectable changes on the Mars surface, including new impact craters, gullies, dark slope streaks, dust devil tracks and ice caps. To facilitate fast and efficient change detection for subsequent scientific investigations, a featured-based change detection method is developed based on automatic image registration, surface feature extraction and difference information statistics. Experimental results which use multi-temporal images demonstrate the promising potential of the proposed method.