Post‐Acquisition Image‐Based Localization for High Resolution Thermal and Visible/Shortwave Infrared Images With Application to the Lunar Trailblazer Mission

Journal article

Plain Language Summary: The Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft was designed to map surface temperature and water content on the Moon via satellite imagery. Onboard are two imagers that measure thermal and visible light bands, which must be aligned to be used in conjunction with each other as well as located precisely relative to pre‐existing topography data. To do this, we develop an algorithm which iteratively matches key features between the images, allowing for the co‐registration of data points. We test the algorithm on topography and visible imagery data from a past satellite mission and simulated data for thermal images. We show 98% accuracy and success in both imagery wavelength bands. While this was originally created for use on the Lunar Trailblazer mission, the process is applicable to future missions requiring similar functionality, and we make the code available for other users.

Authors: Gauld, KD; Dickson, JL; Warren, TJ; Yang, J; Bowles, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Earth and Space Science
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 5
• Article number: e2025EA004594
• Publication date: 2026-05-04
• Acceptance date: 2026-02-23
• DOI: 10.1029/2025ea004594
• EISSN: 2333-5084
• ISSN: 2333-5084
• Language: English
• Keywords: post‐acquisition co‐localization; iterative feature matching; image registration; IMPPAIL; remote sensing; lunar surface mapping