DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.30187999
title: ME6M300TGT: A Global Mercury Crater Catalog derived by YOLOLens and enhanced with Morphometric Parameters

description: This repository hosts the ME6M300TGT Mercury crater catalog, generated through a revised version of the YOLOLens model. By integrating visible imagery and elevation data (MESSENGER-derived DTMs), the model significantly enhances crater detection performance, particularly in regions affected by challenging illumination and surface degradation.Detailed information on the model architecture and methodology can be found in the following publications (see point 3 for details):<i>La Grassa, Riccardo, et al. "YOLOLens: A deep learning model based on super-resolution to enhance the crater detection of the planetary surfaces." Remote Sensing 15.5 (2023): 1171. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15051171</i><i>La Grassa, R, et al. "LU5M812TGT: An AI-Powered global database of impact craters ≥0.4 km on the Moon." ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2024.11.010</i><i>La Grassa, R, et al. "From the Moon to Mercury: Release of Global Crater Catalogs using Multimodal Deep Learning for Crater Detection and Morphometric Analysis." </i><i>Remote Sens.</i> <b>2025</b>, <i>17</i>, 3287. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17193287The catalog contains <b>6,299,481</b> craters, spanning diameters from <b>&lt;1 km up to &gt;100 km</b>, and provides the following variables for each entry:<b>Longitude, Latitude</b> – crater center coordinates in decimal degrees.<b>Diameter W, H</b> – horizontal and vertical bounding box dimensions (km).<b>Confidence</b> – model-assigned certainty score of crater identification.<b>Morphometric</b> <b>parameters</b> – depth estimates, rim elevations, and depth-to-diameter ratios derived from global DTMs.<b>Morphometric Extraction</b>To enrich the AI-derived catalog with quantitative geomorphological measures, crater morphometry was extracted using a neighborhood-based sampling approach on global Mercury DTMs. For each predicted crater, elevation profiles were computed within a spatial window proportional to its diameter, reducing errors from bounding box misalignment. Key metrics include:<b>Central depth</b> – minimum elevation within the crater neighborhood.<b>Rim peak elevations</b> – maximum elevation values around crater rims.<b>Differential rim-to-center depths</b> – elevation differences between crater center and rim.<b>Depth-to-diameter ratio</b> – normalized depth as a function of average crater diameter.<b>Benchmarking and Validation</b>The ME6M300TGT catalog was validated against established and regional crater datasets, including those compiled for the <b>Victoria Quadrangle (H02), Kuiper Quadrangle (H06), Suisei Planitia (H03), the South Pole, and the Northern Hemisphere</b>. Across these independent references, YOLOLens achieved an high recall rates, with performance influenced by image resolution and the degree of crater degradation. Compared with Herrick’s seminal catalog, ME6M300TGT achieves a <b>300-fold increase in crater coverage</b>, especially improving the census of craters &lt;10 km. Manual validation by expert operators confirmed robust generalization across diverse Hermean terrains, with particularly strong results in high-latitude regions and complex resurfaced areas.<b>Key Features</b><b>Global coverage of Mercury</b>.<b>Over 6 million craters</b>, enabling comprehensive impact flux studies.<b>Multimodal integration</b> of MESSENGER optical imagery and DTMs.<b>Confidence-based filtering</b> for customizable analysis.<b>Enrichment with morphometric parameters</b> for geomorphological research.<b>Applications</b>This dataset provides a foundation for:Large-scale studies of Mercury’s <b>impact chronology and resurfacing history</b>.Comparative planetology analyses with the <b>LU6M371TGT lunar catalog</b>.Investigations into <b>morphometric trends</b> across planetary bodies.Mission planning and target selection for future Mercury exploration.<br>