A significant quantity of water is believed to reside in Martian subsurface in the form of ground ice. The models predict that the depth to ground ice varies with latitude. In a paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Mars Stepinski and Urbach have used spatial distribution of depth-to-diameter ratio for craters in the Terra Cimmeria region on Mars to calculate such variation. They have demonstrated that this ratio changes significantly at the latitude of 40 degrees south, and have attributed this change to the presence of ground ice.  This work was made possible by utilizing a robust machine crater detection algorithm developed by T. Stepinski that provides a "carpet coverage" of craters in the site. This is the first time that results of automatic crater detection were reliable enough to be applicable to planetary research.  

We are witnessing a rapid expansion of datasets describing various properties of planetary surfaces. A modern spacecraft produces in the order of 10 terabytes of data from a single instrument onboard. This deluge of data challenges the ability of the scientific community to process, analyze, and ultimately turn the data into knowledge. In a paper presented at the Nineteenth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference T. Stepinski, S. Ghosh, and R. Vilalta have shown how to automate the process of geomorphic mapping of Martian surface by means of segmentation and classification of landscape given by topographic data. 

Remotely sensed data, combined with automated methods of its analysis, has potential to expedite geologic mapping and exploration. In a paper presented at the Geoinformatics 2007 Conference Wei Luo, Tom Stepinski, and Yi Qi proposed a technique that uses remotely sensed elevation data to detect changes in the underlying geology on a regional scale. A landscape dissection pattern is encapsulated by a continuous map of valleys density, derived, in turn, from a distribution of valleys mapped by a computer algorithm from a digital elevation model. This map is used to deduce boundaries between geologic formations. They have applied this technique to a study site in the Oregon Cascade Range featuring sharp contrast between the two adjacent geologic provinces.  This work was made possible by utilizing a valleys delineation technique originally developed by T. Stepinski for mapping valley networks on Mars.