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Atlas of Lunar Sinuous Rilles

Introduction by Debra M. Hurwitz, James W. Head, and David A. Kring

The Atlas of Lunar Sinuous Rilles is a comprehensive collection of images of 195 lunar sinuous rilles that are globally distributed around the Moon. The interface for the atlas, seen below, contains red circles that represent the source locations of each sinuous rille. Sinuous rilles are identified with numbers that correlate with a matching set of numbers in a database accessible at a link below. The atlas allows the user to zoom into the sinuous rille of interest by centering the region of interest on the screen and scrolling the mouse wheel or clicking shift on the keyboard (click control to zoom out). Alternatively, the user can select the sinuous rille of interest by number from the drop-down menu at the top right of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera’s (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) image mosaic. High-resolution Kaguya Terrain Camera (TC) images and additional geographic information for each feature can be accessed by clicking on the red icon associated with each sinuous rille; the window that appears can be moved by clicking and dragging the top bar of the window. Different hemisphere views of the Moon can be accessed by clicking the associated link on the gray navigation bar on the right side of the screen. For more details about the sinuous rilles mapped in this atlas, please see the associated paper referenced below.

Reference: Hurwitz, D. M., J. W. Head, and H. Hiesinger (2013), Lunar sinuous rilles: Distribution, characteristics, and implications for their origin, Planetary and Space Science, 79-80, p. 1-38.

In the Zoom interface below, zoom into your region of interest. Then click on a feature within a red circle to generate a pop-up window with additional details of the rille inside that circle.


If the extended database files are not available at the website link above, duplicates can be downloaded directly here:

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