Lunar Surface Roughness Estimation Using Stereoscopic Data

Abstract

On September 14, 2007, Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), which is a Japanese lunar polar orbiter, was launched. SELENE carries the optical instrument, which is referred to as the Lunar Imager / SpectroMeter (LISM). The LISM is composed of three sensors. One of sensors of the LISM is the Terrain Camera (TC). TC is used to produce Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from stereo observation of lunar surface. In this work, the lunar surface bidirectional reflectance is investigated from images acquired by the TC. The Radiance Ratio (RR) of surface-reflected solar radiance measured from two view angles is obtained. The estimation of lunar surface roughness using images of the TC is discussed. As a result, it is found that the moon surface is not based on Lambert's law.