Modeling Thermal Emission under Lunar Surface Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Thermal emission spectra can provide key insights into the composition and thermophysical properties of the regolith on the Moon and other airless bodies. However, under lunar surface environmental conditions, the uppermost millimeters of the regolith (from which thermal emission originates) cannot be characterized by a single temperature, leading to changes in spectral characteristics that should be accounted for in interpreting thermal emission measurements. Here, we develop and apply a Monte Carlo radiative transfer method to model thermal emission from particulate media with varying, nonisothermal subsurface temperature profiles. We model emission spectra for three major lunar mineral phases (pyroxene, olivine, and plagioclase), and investigate the effects of particle size and packing density. Modeled spectra are compared to lab measurements acquired under both ambient and simulated lunar conditions. We find that in some cases, the model provides useful constraints on the magnitude of the temperature profile established in a lab sample under lunar-like conditions, whereas in other cases, lab spectra are not well represented by the linear temperature profiles considered in this work. The model is generally successful at predicting changes in spectral contrast under lunar-like conditions, but less successful in accurately predicting shifts in the position of the Christiansen feature emissivity maximum; we illustrate and discuss the validity of the modeling approach for a range of different cases. Model results can also be used to quantify the depth within which observed thermal emission originates; this depth depends on composition and grain size, and ranges from ∼100 to 1000 μm for representative packing densities.