Using Mini-RF To Improve Accuracy Of Lunar TiO2 Maps

Details Using Mini-RF To Improve Accuracy Of Lunar TiO2 Maps Using Mini-RF To Improve Accuracy Of Lunar TiO2 Maps

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p23a1612g&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P23A-1612

Mathematics

Logic

[5464] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Remote Sensing, [5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties

Scientific paper

The Mini-Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument is on board the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been in orbit around the Moon since June 2009. Mini-RF is capable of imaging in two bands, X-band (4.2-cm) and S-band (12.6-cm), at 150 m and 30 m (Zoom Mode) resolution respectively, and with an illumination incidence angle of ~48 degrees. The majority of its observations to date have been obtained in S-Band Zoom Mode. Mini-RF was designed to map the permanently dark areas of the lunar poles and characterize the nature of the deposits. In addition, to aid global analyses of mare composition, Mini-RF has acquired coverage for most of the maria. Mini-RF observations of geologic targets of interest are used to improve TiO2 mapping within the lunar maria. Targets of interest include basalt flows that were estimated to contain high-TiO2 compositions based on Clementine spectral reflectance data but had low-TiO2 compositions as measured by Lunar Prospector neutron spectrometer data (LPNS). Visible and near infrared spectral characteristics of lunar soils are controlled by multiple competing factors. Ilmenite, the principal oxide phase, is dark and spectrally neutral relative to the spectrally red mature lunar mare soils; thus causing soils to become spectrally bluer as ilmenite content increases. However, large uncertainties in ultraviolet-visible (UVVIS) based estimates of TiO2 are revealed when comparing LPNS TiO2 and Clementine UVVIS 415/750 ratio. Prime culprits identified as causing this effect are differential agglutinate formation on high-FeO flows, TiO2 in phases other than ilmenite, and surface contamination by highlands materials. Similar to UVVIS spectra, depolarized radar return is found to anticorrelate with titanium abundance - with higher TiO2 abundance leading to lower radar returns. The source of the titanium affecting the radar return is thought to be ilmenite. The possibility that the radar loss tangent is modulated by other mineralogic components is unsupported. Therefore, differences between TiO2 or FeO in silicates, which darkens them so they act opaque, and TiO2 in ilmenite can be determined. Integrating complimentary information from these independent data sets yields encouraging results explaining observed differences between UVVIS spectral based maps of TiO2 and LPNS TiO2.

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