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Remote Sensing
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Planetary Geologic Mapping and Remote Sensing (Third Edition)
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Planetary Geologic Mapping and Remote Sensing (Third Edition)

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 2978

Editors

Prof. Dr. Jan-Peter Muller

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Head, Imaging Group, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Department of Space & Climate Physics, University College London (UCL), Holmbury St Mary, RH5 6NT, UK
Interests: deep learning for change detection on Mars; 3D imaging for Mars and the Moon; orbital-rover image fusion; subsurface mapping; super-resolution restoration; surface albedo; cloud heights and winds; globe imaging; VR.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Zongyu Yue

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geology and Geophysics Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Interests: planetary remote sensing; planetary impact craters; planetary surface dating

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Planetary geologic maps are spatial and temporal representations of the materials, landforms, structures, and processes of planetary surfaces. Planetary geologic mapping is largely based on analyses of various remote sensing data acquired by space missions and is fundamental in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary surfaces and shallow subsurfaces. Planetary remote sensing techniques and the ever-increasing data have greatly supported geologic mapping, as well as other scientific studies of the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies in the solar system.

This is the third edition of the Special Issue “Planetary Geologic Mapping and Remote Sensing”. The first edition and the second edition were a great success and attracted much attention in the scientific community. Therefore, we are pleased to announce this new volume in Remote Sensing.

We welcome new submissions on the recent advances in planetary geologic mapping and planetary remote sensing, including theory, methods, techniques, algorithms, data validation, mapping products, and applications. Review articles are also welcome. Articles may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Planetary geologic mapping;
  • Planetary geomorphologic mapping;
  • Photogrammetric remote sensing of planetary surfaces;
  • Spectroscopic remote sensing of planetary surfaces;
  • Remote sensing methods, data calibration and validation;
  • Planetary GIS for geologic mapping;
  • Recent and future planetary exploration missions;
  • Landing sites studies;
  • Analog studies.

Prof. Dr. Jan-Peter Muller
Prof. Dr. Zongyu Yue
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • planetary geology
  • planetary topography and geomorphology
  • planetary chronology
  • planetary spectrum
  • planetary remote sensing
  • geologic structures
  • geologic mapping
  • planetary composition
  • planetary GIS
  • planetary exploration missions
  • landing sites

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issues

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 13955 KB  
Article
LS2ODiff: A Diffusion-Based Framework with Partial Convolution for Lunar SAR-to-Optical Image Translation
by Chenxu Wang, Man Peng, Kaichang Di, Yuke Kou and Bin Xie
Remote Sens. 2026, 18(10), 1587; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18101587 - 15 May 2026
Viewed by 342
Abstract
Lunar optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery provide complementary information for characterizing the lunar surface. However, their joint use remains challenging because of substantial cross-modality differences and severe illumination constraints, particularly in polar regions. To address this challenge, we propose LS2ODiff (Lunar [...] Read more.
Lunar optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery provide complementary information for characterizing the lunar surface. However, their joint use remains challenging because of substantial cross-modality differences and severe illumination constraints, particularly in polar regions. To address this challenge, we propose LS2ODiff (Lunar SAR-to-Optical Diffusion), a diffusion-based framework designed for SAR-to-optical image translation in lunar environments. LS2ODiff uses SAR observations as conditional guidance in the diffusion process and incorporates a partial-convolution strategy into the U-Net backbone to handle irregular invalid regions. In addition, self-attention modules are incorporated into the downsampling stages of the U-Net to model long-range spatial dependencies and enhance global structural consistency in complex lunar terrain. We further construct a dedicated paired dataset of the lunar south polar region by registering Chandrayaan-II DFSAR data with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) imagery. Comparative experiments against Pix2Pix, CycleGAN, SynDiff, and ConDiff demonstrate that LS2ODiff achieves better visual fidelity and quantitative performance in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), Fréchet inception distance (FID), and learned perceptual image patch similarity (LPIPS). These results demonstrate the potential of diffusion models for high-fidelity lunar image translation, offering new opportunities for polar terrain interpretation and future exploration missions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planetary Geologic Mapping and Remote Sensing (Third Edition))
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30 pages, 3561 KB  
Article
Cross-View Localization Based on Few-Shot Learning for Mars Rover via MarsCVFP Guidance
by Yuke Kou, Wenhui Wan, Kaichang Di, Zhaoqin Liu, Man Peng, Yexin Wang, Bin Xie, Biao Wang and Waichung Liu
Remote Sens. 2026, 18(4), 668; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18040668 - 23 Feb 2026
Viewed by 909
Abstract
High-precision localization of Mars rovers is essential for safe path planning and efficient navigation toward scientific targets. As planetary rovers traverse the surface, their positional uncertainty accumulates, which can be corrected through global localization by registering rover images to orbital maps. To date, [...] Read more.
High-precision localization of Mars rovers is essential for safe path planning and efficient navigation toward scientific targets. As planetary rovers traverse the surface, their positional uncertainty accumulates, which can be corrected through global localization by registering rover images to orbital maps. To date, image-based solutions are widely adopted; however, substantial manual intervention is often required, which is time-consuming and limits the range of autonomous navigation. To address these challenges, we propose a two-stage localization framework, comprising the Mars cross-view few-shot training paradigm (MarsCVFP), Mars cross-view feature extraction network (MCVN) trained under MarsCVFP, and a robust template matching algorithm. Specifically, the MarsCVFP model can leverage implicit cross-view feature as guidance without relying on a large amount of high-precision location-level supervision and explicitly annotated, specific learning targets in the scene. MCVN can capture discriminative fine-grained features on the weakly textured and unstructured surface of Mars by constructing the multi-scale feature pyramid structure (MSFPS) and the feature interaction module (FIM). We validate our framework on 85 unit-planned sites and 20 panoramic sites, respectively, as traversed by the Zhurong rover. The experimental results demonstrate that our framework consistently outperforms both the traditional approaches and the representative learning-based methods across diverse terrains, including dunes, bedrock, craters, and flat plains, achieving a localization success rate above 82% while maintaining a localization accuracy of better than 4 pixels, even under coarse prior positions uncertainties spanning 40 m × 40 m. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planetary Geologic Mapping and Remote Sensing (Third Edition))
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19 pages, 5281 KB  
Article
Morphometric Analysis and Emplacement Dynamics of Folded Terrains at Avernus Colles, Mars
by Caitlin Ahrens and Rachel A. Slank
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(24), 3946; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17243946 - 6 Dec 2025
Viewed by 1263
Abstract
Folded, arcuate terrains on the surface of Mars provide insight into the volcanic properties of surface materials and emplacement dynamics. This research focused on the analysis of folded terrains in the chaotic-terrain Avernus Colles region, located near Elysium Planitia, using images from the [...] Read more.
Folded, arcuate terrains on the surface of Mars provide insight into the volcanic properties of surface materials and emplacement dynamics. This research focused on the analysis of folded terrains in the chaotic-terrain Avernus Colles region, located near Elysium Planitia, using images from the Mars Odyssey Orbiter and altimetry data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). The combined data revealed areas of deformation, which is inferred to be the result of compressions and possibly collapse from the late Amazonian period. We identified and measured 19 distinct folds, with morphometric wavelengths ranging from 0.7 to 1.75 km. These measurements were applied to a simple two-layer regolith model to better understand the folding patterns observed. The model suggests that these folds could have formed with an upper viscous boundary layer less than 0.55 km thick and strain rates approximately 10−7 s−1. These strain rates indicate that the deformation of the terrains likely occurred over a relatively short period of time, ranging from 16 to 38 days. By studying these deformation patterns, we can enhance our understanding of the volcanic history and surface processes on Mars, offering insight into the planet’s geologic evolution and material properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planetary Geologic Mapping and Remote Sensing (Third Edition))
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