Brightness temperature of the global moon: Comparison between theoretical simulation and observation by Chang'E-1 lunar orbiter

Abstract

To help further processing the data from Chang'E-1 lunar orbiter (CE-1), an initial comparison is made between simulated brightness temperature (TB) of lunar surface and TB observed by microwave radiometer on CE-1. First, a simulation model is presented and simulated TB is given for global moon. Then, global observed TB map is established based on the observed TB from CE-1. Further, the difference between simulated TB and observed TB is given. It is seen the differences are smaller at the nearside of the moon than those at the farside, smaller at low-latitude areas than those at the high-latitude areas, smaller at mare regions than those at highland regions, especially at the Oceanus Procellarum. Differences at most nearside low-latitude areas are within 10 K, but at farside low-latitude areas the differences can reach up to 40 K.