The reconstruction of digital terrain model using panoramic camera images of Chang'E-3

The most direct and effective way of understanding the planetary topography and morphology is to build the accurate 3D planetary terrain model. Stereo images taken by the two panoramic cameras (PCAM), which were installed on the recently launched Change'E-3 rover, can be an optimal data source to assess the lunar landscape around the rover. This paper proposed a fast and efficient workflow to realtimely reconstruct the high-resolution 3D lunar terrain model, including the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Digital Orthophoto Map (DOM), using the PCAM stereo images. We found that the residual errors of coordinates in the adjacent images of the mosaiced DOM were within 2 pixels, and the distance deviation from the topographic data generated from the decent camera images was small. Thus, we concluded that this terrain model could satisfy the needs of identifying exploration targets and planning the rover traverse routes.