Lunar regolith parameters, such as physical temperature, thickness and dielectric constant, are important in studying regolith features, distribution of lunar resources and evolution of the Moon. There had been no mea...Lunar regolith parameters, such as physical temperature, thickness and dielectric constant, are important in studying regolith features, distribution of lunar resources and evolution of the Moon. There had been no measurement obtained by lunar-orbit-borne microwave radiometer applied to evaluate the properties of lunar regolith before CE-1 Lunar Microwave Sounder (CELMS) being launched. CEMLS is the first passive microwave radiometer in the world to sound the surface of the Moon. The brightness temperatures (TB) sensed by CELMS include complicated information on the above geophysical parameters. In this paper, algorithms of retrieving dielectric constant, regolith thickness, and 3He content from CELMS brightness temperatures are developed, and the results are compared with those from literature. The results show that the regolith thicknesses are mostly in the range of 4.0-6.0 m, and 43% of them are bigger than 5.0 m. The content of 3He evaluated by retrieved regolith thickness is about 1.03 million tons.展开更多
Interest in the Moon started to increase at the beginning of the 21st century, and henceforth, more and more attention has been paid to the content and distribution of water ice in the lunar polar regions. The existen...Interest in the Moon started to increase at the beginning of the 21st century, and henceforth, more and more attention has been paid to the content and distribution of water ice in the lunar polar regions. The existence of water or ice in the regolith can apparently change its dielectric features. Therefore, in this article, the Dobson model is adopted and improved according to the Moon＇s environmental features, to construct the relationship between the volumetric water ice content and the di- electric constant. Thereafter, a lunar regolith dielectric distribution map is generated based on the improved Dobson model and the Clementine UVVIS data. The map indicates that the imaginary part of the dielectric constants in the lunar mare is much higher than that in the highlands. However, the maximum dielectric constants occur at the north- and south-pole regions, whose values are apparently bigger than those in the middle and low latitudes. Then, an abnormal map of the dielectric constant is gained if the threshold is put as 0.053 7, which is the highest value in the middle and low latitudes. The statistical results indicate that the number of abnormal pixels is 110 596, and the average is about 0.057 9. Assuming that the mean dielectric constant in the lunar mare is the normal dielectric constant at the south and north poles and ε1=11.58＋i0.057 9 is the abnormal one, the volumetric water ice content can be evaluated using the advanced Dobson model. The results show that the average volumetric water ice content is about 1.64%, and the total area is about 25 294 km^2, where 10 956 km2 belongs to the north pole and the rest is in the south pole.展开更多
基金supported by "CE-1" Lunar Microwave Sounder Program
文摘Lunar regolith parameters, such as physical temperature, thickness and dielectric constant, are important in studying regolith features, distribution of lunar resources and evolution of the Moon. There had been no measurement obtained by lunar-orbit-borne microwave radiometer applied to evaluate the properties of lunar regolith before CE-1 Lunar Microwave Sounder (CELMS) being launched. CEMLS is the first passive microwave radiometer in the world to sound the surface of the Moon. The brightness temperatures (TB) sensed by CELMS include complicated information on the above geophysical parameters. In this paper, algorithms of retrieving dielectric constant, regolith thickness, and 3He content from CELMS brightness temperatures are developed, and the results are compared with those from literature. The results show that the regolith thicknesses are mostly in the range of 4.0-6.0 m, and 43% of them are bigger than 5.0 m. The content of 3He evaluated by retrieved regolith thickness is about 1.03 million tons.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 40901159, 40901187)the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (No. 20090061120055)+1 种基金the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 200903047)the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2010AA122203)
文摘Interest in the Moon started to increase at the beginning of the 21st century, and henceforth, more and more attention has been paid to the content and distribution of water ice in the lunar polar regions. The existence of water or ice in the regolith can apparently change its dielectric features. Therefore, in this article, the Dobson model is adopted and improved according to the Moon＇s environmental features, to construct the relationship between the volumetric water ice content and the di- electric constant. Thereafter, a lunar regolith dielectric distribution map is generated based on the improved Dobson model and the Clementine UVVIS data. The map indicates that the imaginary part of the dielectric constants in the lunar mare is much higher than that in the highlands. However, the maximum dielectric constants occur at the north- and south-pole regions, whose values are apparently bigger than those in the middle and low latitudes. Then, an abnormal map of the dielectric constant is gained if the threshold is put as 0.053 7, which is the highest value in the middle and low latitudes. The statistical results indicate that the number of abnormal pixels is 110 596, and the average is about 0.057 9. Assuming that the mean dielectric constant in the lunar mare is the normal dielectric constant at the south and north poles and ε1=11.58＋i0.057 9 is the abnormal one, the volumetric water ice content can be evaluated using the advanced Dobson model. The results show that the average volumetric water ice content is about 1.64%, and the total area is about 25 294 km^2, where 10 956 km2 belongs to the north pole and the rest is in the south pole.
