Abstract
The Moon displays a number of hemispherically asymmetric features that may be related to long‐wavelength structure and dynamics in the lunar mantle. Here we propose to use observations of the non‐degree‐2 gravitational response of the Moon to degree‐2 tidal forcing to constrain the long‐wavelength lunar mantle structure. For a planetary body with laterally varying structure, degree‐2 tidal forces excite gravitational response at non‐degree‐2 harmonics due to mode coupling effects. Using a new numerical model, we determine that for a lunar mantle with ∼5% hemispherical variations in seismic shear wave velocityVs, the degree‐3 response could reach ∼2% of the degree‐2 response. The larger the hemispherical variations inVs, the larger the degree‐3 response. We suggest that if observations from recent lunar missions such as SELENA and GRAIL could be used to determine the non‐degree‐2 tidal response, it might be possible to place constraints on the lunar mantle structure.
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