Restoration of Motion-Blurred, High-Resolution Mars Express SRC Images of Phobos
We present an automated and fully reproducible pipeline for restoring motion-smeared Mars Express SRC images of Phobos. A one-dimensional motion point spread function (PSF) is derived directly from SPICE geometry and microsecond-precision exposure timing, and Wiener deconvolution (SNR = 16 dB) is applied to recover image sharpness. Tested on 14 images from 4 orbits spanning slant distances of 52–292 km, exposures of 14–20 milliseconds, sampling of 0.47–2.7 m/pixel, and PSF lengths of 11–119 pixels, the method achieves up to 31.7 dB PSNR, 0.78 SSIM, and positive sharpness gains across all cases. The restored images reveal sub-meter surface features previously obscured by motion blur, with residual energy reduced relative to the acquisition model. The workflow relies solely on open data and open-source tools (ISIS, ALE/SpiceyPy, OpenCV), requires no star-field calibration, and generalizes to other motion-degraded planetary datasets, providing a fully transparent and reproducible solution for high-resolution planetary imaging.
Authors
- Hiroshi Kikuchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0067-4606)
- Ryodo Hemmi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9638-6926)
Institutions
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JP)
- Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (JP)
- Gakushuin University (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Remote Sensing
- Published
- 2025-09-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17183256
- Primary Topic
- Planetary Science and Exploration
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency