Quantitative Analysis of Rim Crest Asymmetry in Fresh Lunar Simple Craters Using Chandrayaan-2 TMC-2 DEM

Core idea

Fresh lunar simple craters — young, bowl-shaped craters that haven't yet been worn down by subsequent impacts — are usually treated as roughly circular. In practice their rim crests are often measurably asymmetric. This paper builds a systematic, quantitative measurement of that rim crest asymmetry across a set of fresh simple craters, using high-resolution digital elevation models derived from Chandrayaan-2's Terrain Mapping Camera-2 (TMC-2).

My contribution

I contributed to the machine-learning side of the analysis pipeline, working alongside Dr. Sajin Kumar K S and the rest of the University of Kerala geology group — the same lab and DEM-based crater work behind my lunar terrain age paper. Lead authorship is Arya Nandakumar's, alongside A. Rajaneesh, Sachana Sathyan, S. James, and Dr. Sajinkumar.

Published in Icarus, Vol. 461 (2027), article 117329. DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2026.117329