diviner lunar radiometer observations of cold traps in the moon s south polar region diviner lunar radiometer experiment surface temperature maps reveal the existence of widespread surface and near surface cryogenic regions that extend beyond the boundaries of persistent shadow the lunar crater observation and sensing satellite lcross struck one of the coldest of these regions where subsurface temperatures are estimated to be 38 kelvin large areas of the lunar polar regions are currently cold enough to cold trap water ice as well as a range of both more volatile and less volatile species the diverse mixture of water and high volatility compounds detected in the lcross ejecta plume is strong evidence for the impact delivery and cold trapping of volatiles derived from primitive outer solar system bodies

lunar surface rock abundance and regolith fines temperatures derived from lro diviner radiometer data 1 surface temperatures derived from thermal infrared measurements provide a means of understanding the physical properties of the lunar surface the contrasting thermophysical properties between rocks and regolith fines cause multiple temperatures to be present within the field of view of nighttime multispectral data returned from the lunar reconnaissance orbiter lro diviner radiometer between 60 n s latitudes regolith temperatures are influenced by the presence of rocks in addition to factors such as the thermophysical properties of the regolith fines latitude and local slopes and radiative heating from adjacent crater walls preliminary comparisons of derived rock concentrations with lro camera images show both qualitative and quantitative agreement although comparisons of derived rock concentrations with circular polarization ratio radar data sets display general similarities there are clear differences between the two data sets in the relative magnitude and areal extent of rocky signatures several surface units can be distinguished based on their regolith temperature and rock concentration values and distributions including maria and highlands surfaces rocky impact craters rilles and wrinkle ridges dark mantled deposits and isolated cold surfaces rock concentrations are correlated with crater age and rocks are only preserved on the youngest surfaces or where steep slopes occur and mass wasting prevents mantling with fines the presence of rocky surfaces excavated by young impacts allows for the estimation of minimum regolith thickness from the size of the impact the derived rock concentrations confirm the presence of thicker regolith cover in the highlands and in locations of radar dark haloes

the global albedo of the moon at 1064 nm from lola the lunar orbiter laser altimeter lola measures the backscattered energy of the returning altimetric laser pulse at its wavelength of 1064 nm and these data are used to map the reflectivity of the moon at zero phase angle with a photometrically uniform data set global maps have been produced at 4 pixels per degree about 8 km at the equator and 2 km resolution within 20 latitude of each pole the zero phase geometry is insensitive to lunar topography so these data enable characterization of subtle variations in lunar albedo even at high latitudes where such measurements are not possible with the sun as the illumination source the geometric albedo of the moon at 1064 nm was estimated from these data with absolute calibration derived from the kaguya multiband imager and extrapolated to visual wavelengths the lola estimates are within 2 of historical measurements of geometric albedo no consistent latitude dependent variations in reflectance are observed suggesting that solar wind does not dominate space weathering processes that modify lunar reflectance the average normal albedo of the moon is found to be much higher than that of mercury consistent with prior measurements but the normal albedo of the lunar maria is similar to that of mercury suggesting a similar abundance of space weathering products regions within permanent shadow in the polar regions are found to be more reflective than polar surfaces that are sometimes illuminated limiting analysis to data with slopes less than 10 eliminates variations in reflectance due to mass wasting and shows a similar increased reflectivity within permanent polar shadow steep slopes within permanent shadow are also more reflective than similar slopes that experience at least some illumination water frost and a reduction in effectiveness of space weathering are offered as possible explanations for the increased reflectivity of permanent shadow porosity is largely ruled out as the sole explanation the south polar crater shackleton is found to be among the most reflective craters in its size range globally but is not the most reflective so mass wasting cannot be ruled out as a cause for the crater s anomalous reflectance models of the abundance of ice needed to account for the reflectance anomaly range from 3 to 14 by weight or area depending on assumptions regarding the effects of porosity on reflectance and whether ice is present as patches or is well mixed in the regolith if differences in nanophase iron abundances are responsible for the anomaly the permanently shadowed regions have between 50 and 80 the abundance of nanophase iron in mature lunar soil

regolith thickness over the lunar nearside results from earth based 70 cm arecibo radar observations the inversion of regolith thickness over the nearside hemisphere of the moon from newly acquired earth based 70 cm arecibo radar data is investigated using a quantitative radar scattering model the radar scattering model takes into account scattering from both the lunar surface and buried rocks in the lunar regolith and three parameters are critically important in predicting the radar backscattering coefficient the dielectric constant of the lunar regolith the surface roughness and the size and abundance of subsurface rocks the measured dielectric properties of the apollo regolith samples at 450 mhz are re analyzed and an improved relation among the complex dielectric constant bulk density and regolith composition is obtained the complex dielectric constant of the lunar regolith is estimated globally from this relation using the regolith composition derived from lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer data to constrain the lunar surface roughness and abundance of subsurface rocks from radar data nine regions are selected as calibration sites where the regolith thickness has been estimated using independent analysis techniques for these sites scattering from the lunar surface and buried rocks cannot be perfectly distinguished and a tradeoff relationship exists between the size and abundance of buried rocks and surface roughness using these tradeoff relations as guidelines for globally representative parameters the regolith thickness of four regions over the lunar nearside is inverted and the inversion uncertainties caused by calibration errors of the radar data and model input parameters are analyzed the regolith thickness of the maria is generally smaller than that of highlands and older surfaces have thicker regolith thicknesses our approach cannot be applied to regions where the surface roughness is very high such as with young rocky craters and regions in the highly rugged highlands

lunar surface geochemistry global concentrations of th k and feo as derived from lunar prospector and clementine data abstract accurate estimates of global concentrations of th k and feo have an important bearing on understanding the bulk chemistry and geologic evolution of the moon we present empirical ground truth calibrations transformations for lunar prospector gamma ray spectrometer data k and th and a modified algorithm for deriving feo concentrations from clementine spectral reflectance data that incorporates an adjustment for tio 2 content the average composition of soil samples for individual landing sites is used as ground truth for remotely sensed data among the apollo and luna sites apollo 12 and 14 provide controls for the incompatible element rich compositions apollo 16 and luna 20 provide controls for the feldspathic and incompatible element poor compositions and apollo 11 15 and 17 and luna 16 and 24 provide controls for fe rich compositions in addition to these apollo and luna sample data we include the composition of the feldspathic lunar meteorites as a proxy for the northern farside highlands to extend the range of the calibration points thus providing an additional anorthositic end member composition these empirical ground truth calibrations for lunar prospector th and k provide self consistency between the existing derived data and lunar sample data clementine spectral reflectance data are used to construct a tio 2 sensitive feo calibration that yields higher feo concentrations in areas of high fe low ti mare basalt rich surfaces than previous feo algorithms the data set so derived is consistent with known sample compositions and regolith mixing relationships

first microwave map of the moon with chang e 1 data the role of local time in global imaging abstract among recent lunar orbiters only the chinese chang e 1 ce 1 was equipped with a passive microwave radiometer mrm to measure the natural microwave emission from the lunar surface the microwave emission characterized by a frequency dependent brightness temperature tb is related to the physical temperature and dielectric properties of the lunar surface by measuring the brightness temperature at different frequencies detailed thermal behavior and properties of the lunar surface can be retrieved using ce 1 s microwave data we present here a set of microwave maps of the moon constructed through a rescaling of tb to noontime or midnight the adopted processing technique helps to reduce the effect of mixing up the temporal and spatial variations introduced by the satellite s localized measurements which cover different locations of the globe at different lunar local times the resulting maps show fine structures unseen in previous microwave maps that disregarded the local time effect we discussed the new features revealed and their possible connections with the lunar geology

the global surface temperatures of the moon as measured by the diviner lunar radiometer experiment abstract the diviner lunar radiometer experiment onboard the lunar reconnaissance orbiter lro has been acquiring solar reflectance and mid infrared radiance measurements nearly continuously since july of 2009 diviner is providing the most comprehensive view of how regoliths on airless bodies store and exchange thermal energy with the space environment approximately a quarter trillion calibrated radiance measurements of the moon acquired over 5 5 years by diviner have been compiled into a 0 5 resolution global dataset with a 0 25 h local time resolution maps generated with this dataset provide a global perspective of the surface energy balance of the moon and reveal the complex and extreme nature of the lunar surface thermal environment our achievable map resolution both spatially and temporally will continue to improve with further data acquisition daytime maximum temperatures are sensitive to the albedo of the surface and are 387 397 k at the equator dropping to 95 k just before sunrise though anomalously warm areas characterized by high rock abundances can be 50 k warmer than the zonal average nighttime temperatures an asymmetry is observed between the morning and afternoon temperatures due to the thermal inertia of the lunar regolith with the dusk terminator 30 k warmer than the dawn terminator at the equator an increase in albedo with incidence angle is required to explain the observed decrease in temperatures with latitude at incidence angles exceeding 40 topography and surface roughness influence temperatures resulting in increasing scatter in temperatures and anisothermality between diviner channels nighttime temperatures are sensitive to the thermophysical properties of the regolith high thermal inertia ti materials such as large rocks remain warmer during the long lunar night and result in anomalously warm nighttime temperatures and anisothermality in the diviner channels anomalous maximum and minimum temperatures are highlighted by subtracting the zonal mean temperatures from maps terrains can be characterized as low or high reflectance and low or high ti low maximum temperatures result from high reflectance surfaces while low minimum temperatures from low ti material conversely high maximum temperatures result from dark surface and high minimum temperatures from high ti materials impact craters are found to modify regolith properties over large distances the thermal signature of tycho is asymmetric consistent with an oblique impact coming from the west some prominent crater rays are visible in the thermal data and require material with a higher thermal inertial than nominal regolith the influence of the formation of the orientale basin on the regolith properties is observable over a substantial portion of the western hemisphere despite its age 3 8 gyr and may have contributed to mixing of highland and mare material on the southwest margin of oceanus procellarum where the gradient in radiative properties at the mare highland contact is broad 200 km

pressure driven shoreline currents in a perennially ice covered pro glacial lake in antarctica identified from a licl tracer injected into a pro glacial stream the distribution of streamwater within ice covered lakes influences sub ice currents biological activity and shoreline morphology perennially ice covered lakes in the mcmurdo dry valleys antarctica provide an excellent natural laboratory to study hydrologic limnologic interactions under ice cover for a 2 h period on 17 december 2012 we injected a lithium chloride tracer into andersen creek a pro glacial stream flowing into lake hoare over 4 h we collected 182 water samples from five stream sites and 15 ice boreholes geochemical data showed that interflow travelled west of the stream mouth along the shoreline and did not flow towards the lake interior the chemistry of water from andersen creek was similar to the chemistry of water below shoreline ice additional evidence for westward flow included the morphology of channels on the ice surface the orientation of ripple marks in lake sediments at the stream mouth and equivalent temperatures between andersen creek and water below shoreline ice streamwater deflected to the right of the mouth of the stream in the opposite direction predicted by the coriolis force deflection of interflow was probably caused by the diurnal addition of glacial runoff and stream discharge to the eastern edge of the lake which created a strong pressure gradient sloping to the west this flow directed stream momentum away from the lake interior minimizing the impact of stream momentum on sub ice currents it also transported dissolved nutrients and suspended sediments to the shoreline region instead of the lake interior potentially affecting biological productivity and bedform development copyright 2014 john wiley sons ltd

mapping the feo and tio2 content of the lunar surface with multispectral imagery the derivation of quantitative elemental concentrations from multispectral imaging of the moon has long been a goal of lunar remote sensing concentration maps at the spatial resolutions available from the recent clementine mission would provide a revolutionary new tool for understanding the origin and evolution of the lunar crust lucey et al 1995 presented a method for extracting the concentration of fe from multispectral imaging of the moon this paper examines and quantifies important aspects ofthat technique left unexamined by lucey et al which had the potential to severely limit its utility these aspects include the effects of maturity grain size mineralogy shading due to topography and the presence of glass we also present a new algorithm for derivation of tio2 from multispectral imaging of both mare and highland units we find that both techniques are only weakly sensitive to maturity and that they have about 1 wt accuracy based on examination of the spectral properties and compositions of resolved lunar sampling stations presented by blewett et al 1997 we also discuss these findings in the context of two contrasting views of the effect of composition on lunar spectral properties presented by pieters and coworkers and hapke and coworkers we find the view of hapke and coworkers to be more consistent with our observations using a global mosaic of clementine multispectral data and these element derivation algorithms we find that the global modal abundance of feo is 4 5 wt 1 wt and the global modal abundance of tio2 is 0 45 wt 1 wt

lunar microwave brightness temperature model interpretation and inversion of spaceborne multifrequency observations by a neural network approach understanding the lunar physical properties has been attracting the interest of scientists for many years this paper is devoted to a numerical study on the capability of retrieving the thickness of the first layer of regolith as well as the temperature profile behavior from satellite based multifrequency radiometers at frequencies ranging from 1 to 24 ghz to this purpose a forward thermal electromagnetic numerical model able to simulate the response of the lunar material in terms of upward brightness temperature tb has been used the input parameters of the forward model have been set after a detailed investigation of the scientific literature and available measurements different choices of input parameters are possible and their selection is carefully discussed by exploiting a monte carlo approach to generate a synthetic data set of forward model simulations a physically based inversion methodology has been developed using a neural network technique the latter has been designed to perform from multifrequency tb s the temperature estimation at the lunar surface the discrimination of the subsurface material type and the estimate of the near surface regolith thickness results indicate that within the simplified scenarios obtained by interposing strata of rock ice and regolith the probability of detection of the presence of discontinuities beneath the lunar crust is on the order of 84 the estimation uncertainty of the near surface regolith thickness estimation ranges from 11 to 81 cm whereas for the surface temperature its estimation uncertainty ranges from about 1 5 k to 3 k conditioned to the choice of radiometric frequencies and noise levels

metamorphic and thermal history of a fore arc basin the fossil bluff group alexander island antarctica the himalia ridge formation fossil bluff group alexander island is a 2 2 km thick sequence of upper jurassic lower cretaceous conglomerates sandstones and mudstones derived from an andesitic volcanic arc and deposited in a fore arc basin the metamorphic and thermal history of the formation has been determined using authigenic mineral assemblages and vitrinite reflectance measurements metamorphic effects include compaction pore space reduction cementation and dissolution and replacement of detrital grains by clay minerals smectite illite smectite corrensite and kaolinite calcite chlorite laumontite prehnite pumpellyite albite and mica with less common quartz haematite pyrite and epidote the authigenic mineral assemblages exhibit a depth dependence and laumontite and calcite exhibit a strong antipathetic relationship detrital organic matter in the argillaceous layers has vitrinite reflectance values r o ranging from 2 3 to 3 7 this indicates considerable thermal maturation with a systematic increase in reflectivity with increasing depth there is good correlation of metamorphic mineral assemblages with chlorite crystallinity and vitrinite reflectance values all indicating temperatures in the range of 140 20degreesc at the top of the sequence to 250 10degreesc at the base of the sequence the temperatures suggest a geothermal gradient of 36 64degreesc km and a most likely gradient of 50degreesc km it is suggested that this higher than average gradient for a fore arc basin resulted either from rifting during basin formation or from a late stage arc migration event

a primary analysis of microwave brightness temperature of lunar surface from chang e 1 multi channel radiometer observation and inversion of regolith layer thickness abstract in china s first lunar exploration project chang e 1 ce 1 a multi channel microwave radiometer was aboard the satellite with the purpose of measuring microwave brightness temperature tb from lunar surface and surveying the global distribution of lunar regolith layer thickness in this paper the primary 621 tracks of swath data measured by ce 1 microwave radiometer from november 2007 to february 2008 are collected and analyzed using the nearest neighbor interpolation to collect the tb data under the same sun illumination global distributions of microwave brightness temperature from lunar surface at lunar daytime and nighttime are constructed based on the three layer media modeling the top dust soil regolith and underlying rock media for microwave thermal emission of lunar surface the ce 1 measured tb and its dependence upon latitude frequency and feo tio2 content etc are discussed the ce 1 tb data at apollo landing sites are especially chosen for validation and calibration on the basis of available ground measurements using the empirical dependence of physical temperature upon the latitude verified by the ce 1 multi channel tb data at apollo landing sites the global distribution of regolith layer thickness is further inverted from the ce 1 brightness temperature data at 3 ghz channel those inversions at apollo landing sites and the characteristics of regolith layer thickness for lunar maria are well compared with the apollo in situ measurements and the regolith thickness derived from the earth based radar data finally the statistical distribution of regolith thickness is analyzed and discussed

compositional analyses of lunar pyroclastic deposits abstract the 5 band clementine uvvis data at 100 m pixel were used to examine the compositions of 75 large and small lunar pyroclastic deposits lpds and these were compared to representative lunar maria and highlands deposits results show that the albedo spectral color and inferred composition of most lpds are similar to those of low titanium mature lunar maria these lpds may have consisted largely of fragmented basalt with substantial components of iron bearing mafic minerals pyroxenes olivine and smaller amounts if any of volcanic glass several smaller lpds also show substantial highland components three classes of very large deposits can be distinguished from most lpds and from each other on the basis of crystallinity and possible titanium content of their pyroclastic components one class has spectral properties that are dominated by high titanium crystallized black beads e g taurus littrow a second consists of a mixture of high titanium glasses and beads with a higher glass bead ratio sulpicius gallus than that of taurus littrow and a third has a significant component of quenched iron bearing volcanic glasses aristarchus with possible moderate titanium contents although areally extensive these three classes of very large pyroclastic deposits compose only 20 of the 75 deposits studied 27 and eruption of such materials was thus likely to have been less frequent on the moon

a rock model for the cold and hot spots in the chang e microwave brightness temperature map thermal anomaly spots both hot and cold have been found in the global 37 ghz brightness temperature tb map of the moon based on the chang e ce microwave radiometer measurements to explain their origin a rock model is proposed to simulate the tb variation against latitude along the profile of a fresh crater in a single track way which is selected to highlight the topographic effect and avoid any modification to the data a mixed upper layer made up of rock and soil regolith and dust was employed into our previous multilayer model the thermal properties thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the mixture layer are presumed to be linear with the fraction of rocks given that high frequency 37 ghz measurements are chosen only the meter size and larger rocks of the upper mixed layer are considered to avoid scattering effects several fresh craters poor rich in ilmenite are selected as testing sites despite uncertainties in parameters such as rock abundance ra and iron and titanium abundances three conclusions can be reached from these cases 1 ra has a significant effect on both the tb value and tb variation trend against latitude its contribution over some craters may be as high as 15 k 2 the simulations based on our rock model fit the ce observations better than those when rocks are not included and 3 the rock and ilmenite contributions could be the main cause for the cold and hot spots found in the ce microwave map

analysis of chang e 2 brightness temperature data and production of high spatial resolution microwave maps of the moon abstract the microwave radiation passively emitted from the moon is valuable for investigating the physical properties of the lunar regolith microwave maps which can reveal subsurface characteristics at depths of centimeters to meters give clues to understanding the evolution of the lunar surface china s chang e 2 ce 2 spacecraft carried a microwave radiometer mrm and conducted passive microwave remote sensing of the moon at 3 7 8 19 35 and 37 ghz 10 3 84 1 55 and 0 81 cm wavelengths during 2010 2011 brightness temperature tb data derived from the mrm orbital observations cover the entire moon and the time coverage is over a complete lunation in this paper we use spherical harmonic fits to model the tb variation as functions of local time and latitude using these fits we normalized the day and nighttime tb data measured at various local times into noon time and midnight conditions the spatial sampling of the normalized tb maps is 6 km pixel much higher than ground based observations and higher resolution than the mrm maps derived from chang e 1 by removing the variation in tb related to local time and latitude we produced a series of microwave maps that reveal differences in the properties of the regolith across the lunar surface the microwave behavior of various lunar surface features can be explained primarily by differences in the microwave loss tangent of the materials for example we find that the high ti maria have high daytime tb and exhibit lower nighttime tb than the other maria as a result of the high dielectric loss tangent of ilmenite the ilmenite rich materials are less transparent to microwaves and hence emissions emerge from closer to the surface which is heated strongly in the day and cools quickly at night most fresh craters correspond to low tb spots in the nighttime microwave maps in contrast to their behavior as hot spots in nighttime infrared data suggesting that the higher loss tangent of rocks compared to soils suppresses microwave emission at night the aristarchus plateau has a lower loss tangent relative to its surroundings because it is blanketed by fine grained rock poor pyroclastic material the pyroclastic blanket is more transparent to microwaves than the nearby maria causing the plateau to have relatively cool daytime tb and warm nighttime tb as a consequence of microwave emissions that originate at greater depths the orientale basin is another prominent anomaly in the microwave maps indicating that orientale materials differ in thermophysical and or dielectric properties from typical highland lithologies brightness temperature differences among prominent rayed craters indicate that the very youngest crater rays e g giordano bruno have lower thermal inertia than older but still optically immature rays e g tycho

density and porosity of the lunar crust from gravity and topography 1 newly obtained gravity and topography data of the moon combined with a lithospheric flexure model that considers both surface and subsurface loading are used to place constraints on the density of the upper crust from a localized spectral admittance analysis subsurface loads are found to be relatively unimportant in the highlands and when subsurface loads are neglected the best fitting bulk densities for a number of highland regions are found to vary from 2590 to 2870 kg m 3 with a mean value of 2691 kg m 3 crustal rock densities estimated from geochemical considerations and global iron and titanium abundances imply somewhat greater densities which we interpret as porosity affecting the gravity derived bulk density estimates the average porosity in the upper few kilometers of crust is calculated to be about 7 7 which is consistent with porosity estimates of impact fractured meteorites and terrestrial impact craters

earth based observations of radar dark crater haloes on the moon implications for regolith properties 1 earth based radar can be used in conjunction with other data sets collected remotely or in situ to characterize the physical and chemical properties of the lunar regolith we use previously existing and newly acquired earth based radar measurements at 70 cm wavelength to investigate the properties of distinctive low return haloes surrounding 39 nearside impact craters these haloes are distinct from the well known optically dark haloes associated with volcanic craters or with impacts into cryptomare deposits we examine two possible mechanisms for formation of radar dark haloes 1 excavation of high tio2 high loss tangent basalt and 2 deposition of a mantling layer produced in the impact process that is depleted in meter sized blocks comparison of the radar data with apollo and lunar orbiter images indicates a general spatial correspondence between radar dark crater haloes and radial ridged ejecta facies distal to the radar bright crater rims comparison with clementine uv vis multispectral data indicates no apparent spatial correlation between regions of enhanced tio2 content and radar dark haloes though variations in tio2 content may play a role for some mare craters they are insufficient to account for the observed offsets in radar echo power we conclude that the radar dark haloes result from a block poor ejecta deposit that disappears over time with meteoroid bombardment a more detailed and comprehensive analysis of ejecta degradation processes and rates following acquisition of additional high resolution radar data could lead to a refinement of the lunar geologic timescale

abundance and distribution of iron on the moon the abundance and distribution of iron on the moon is derived from a near global data set from clementine the determined iron content of the lunar highlands crust 3 percent iron by weight supports the hypothesis that much of the lunar crust was derived from a magma ocean the iron content of lower crustal material exposed by the south pole aitken impact basin on the lunar farside is higher 7 to 8 percent by weight and consistent with a basaltic composition this composition supports earlier evidence that the lunar crust becomes more mafic with depth the data also suggest that the bulk composition of the moon differs from that of the earth9s mantle this difference excludes models for lunar origin that require the earth and moon to have the same compositions such as fission and coaccretion and favors giant impact and capture

lunar equatorial surface temperatures and regolith properties from the diviner lunar radiometer experiment 1 the diviner lunar radiometer experiment onboard the lunar reconnaissance orbiter has measured solar reflectance and mid infrared radiance globally over four diurnal cycles at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution these data are used to infer the radiative and bulk thermophysical properties of the near surface regolith layer at all longitudes around the equator normal albedos are estimated from solar reflectance measurements normal spectral emissivities relative to the 8 m christiansen feature are computed from brightness temperatures and used along with albedos as inputs to a numerical thermal model model fits to daytime temperatures require that the albedo increase with solar incidence angle measured nighttime cooling is remarkably similar across longitude and major geologic units consistent with the scarcity of rock exposures and with the widespread presence of a near surface layer whose physical structure and thermal response are determined by pulverization through micrometeoroid impacts nighttime temperatures are best fit using a graded regolith model with a 40 increase in bulk density and an eightfold increase in thermal conductivity adjusted for temperature occurring within several centimeters of the surface

lunar iron and titanium abundance algorithms based on final processing of clementine ultraviolet visible images the clementine mission to the moon returned global imaging data collected by the ultraviolet visible uvvis camera this data set is now in a final state of calibration and a five band multispectral digital image model dim of the lunar surface will soon be available to the science community we have used observations of the lunar sample return sites and stations extracted from the final dim in conjunction with compositional information for returned lunar soils to revise our previously published algorithms for the spectral determination of the feo and tio2 content of the lunar surface the algorithms successfully normalize the effects of space weathering so that composition may be determined without regard to a surface s state of maturity these algorithms permit anyone with access to the standard archived dim to construct high spatial resolution maps of feo and tio2 abundance such maps will be of great utility in a variety of lunar geologic studies

remote sensing of lunar pyroclastic mantling deposits abstract mantling deposits on the moon are considered to be pyroclastic units emplaced on the lunar surface as a result of explosive fire fountaining these pyroclastic units are characterized as having low albedos having smooth fine textured surfaces and consisting in part of homogeneous febearing volcanic glass and partially crystallized spheres mantling units exhibit low returns on depolarized 3 8 cm radar maps indicating an absence of surface scatterers in the 1 to 50 cm size range a number of reflectance spectra from several regional pyroclastic deposits are presented for the first time these data support a previous interpretation that mantling units have a unique spectral signature which is indicative of the presence of a significant fe bearing volcanic glass component the rima bode region is discussed as an example of an area in which several types of remote sensing data including 3 8 cm radar spectral reflectance and multispectral vidicon data were used to reconstruct the geologic events surrounding the emplacement of a regional pyroclastic mantling deposit the recognition of numerous varieties of volcanic glass samples especially relatively high albedo e g green yellow glasses suggests the existence of additional unrecognized mantling deposits with albedos higher than those studied to date on the basis of the remote sensing data summarized and presented five new areas have been identified which may represent higher albedo regional pyroclastic deposits