Mini-RF's Perspective of the Lunar Western Hemisphere and Orientale Basin's Ejecta Deposits

Details Mini-RF's Perspective of the Lunar Western Hemisphere and Orientale Basin's Ejecta Deposits Mini-RF's Perspective of the Lunar Western Hemisphere and Orientale Basin's Ejecta Deposits

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p13g..08c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P13G-08

Mathematics

Logic

[5420] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Impact Phenomena, Cratering, [5464] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

The usefulness of radar is its sensitivity to surface roughness, subsurface scatterers, and composition. This attribute has provided a way to examine the nearside lunar surface and subsurface physical properties for several decades (Thompson et al. 1970). However, during this time radar was used relatively infrequently compared to other orbital instruments and techniques (e.g., near-infrared, neutron, and gamma-ray spectroscopy) to study the lunar surface. This was partly due to Earth-based surveys yielding data with lower spatial resolution, a limited variety of products, and coverage limited to the nearside of the Moon. That said, Earth-based radar products have continually improved in quality and studies derived from these data yielded a steady stream of additional information regarding the distribution of surface and subsurface geologic deposits, rock abundance, and accessing the possibility of water-ice on the lunar surface (e.g., Campbell et al. (2002), Campbell et al. (2005), Ghent et al. (2008), etc). These topics are uniquely in line with intended objectives of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which are to gather as much relevant information for the lunar physical environment as possible to enable future human exploration. Studies of the lunar western hemisphere's physical properties is a prime example of very relevant science being limited by the available spatial coverage of the area. Ghent et al. (2008)'s examination of the influence of Orientale ejecta on the southern highlands megaregolith was instrumental for not only identifying the extent and distribution of Orientale ejecta on the nearside of the Moon, but also for more fully characterizing its physical properties. Here, we present a spatially more comprehensive perspective of Orientale using radar data recently acquired by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) payload. Using Mini-RF we build upon previous work derived from Earth-based radar surveys by providing an S-band (12.6 cm) perspective of western Orientale previously not viewable with Earth-based radar. We further leverage the unique Mini-RF data set to characterize its deposits using several new data products.

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