Unsupervised clustering analysis of spectral data for the Rudaki area on Mercury

Abstract

We present a study of spectral reflectance data from Mercury focused on an area that encompasses the craters Kuiper-Murasaki, Rudaki, and Waters. The goal is to identify different spectral units and analyze potential relations among them. The study region is geologically and spectrally classified as heavily cratered intermediate terrain (IT) with mixed patches of high-reflectance red plains (HRP) and intermediate plains (IP), on the basis of multispectral images taken by the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) [1]. Recent analysis of observations by the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft with an unsupervised hierarchical clustering method shows a comparable number of units at global scales [2,3]. Analyses on the local scale reveal a larger number of spectral units with a substantially more complex relationship among units.