DISTRIBUTION OF SLOPES ON A CRATERED PLANETARY SURFACE.

Abstract

The distribution of slopes over any finite span on a surface excavated by primary impact craters is derived from a representation of the surface as a 'moving average' of impact events. The cumulants are always positive, and are large for typical mare crater densities. In some cases the distribution can be approximated by a rapidly convergent Gram-Charlier Type A series. The slope distribution has much heavier tails, than a Gaussian distribution with the same variance. Under some conditions, the slopes have approximately a symmetric stable distribution law with characteristic exponent one smaller than the crater diameter population index. Observations of slopes in Mare Cognitum are in good agreement with theory. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1969
Accession Number
AD0695448

Entities

People

  • Allan H. Marcus

Organizations

  • Johns Hopkins University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Agreements
  • Data Acquisition
  • Diameters
  • Distribution Functions
  • Functions (Mathematics)
  • Gaussian Distributions
  • Geometry
  • Mathematics
  • Normal Distribution
  • Observation

Readers

  • Geotechnical Engineering.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.
  • Statistical inference.