Multispectral Photometry of the Moon and Absolute Calibration of the Clementine UV/Vis Camera

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We present a multispectral photometric study of the Moon between solar phase angles of 0 and 85°. Using Clementine images obtained between 0.4 and 1.0 μm, we produce a comprehensive study of the lunar surface containing the following results: (1) empirical photometric functions for the spectral range and viewing and illumination geometries mentioned, (2) photometric modeling that derives the physical properties of the upper regolith and includes a detailed study of the causes for the lunar opposition surge, (3) an absolute calibration of the Clementine UV/Vis camera. The calibration procedure given on the Clementine calibration web site produces reflectances relative to a halon standard and further appear significantly higher than those seen in groundbased observations. By comparing Clementine observations with prior groundbased observations of 15 sites on the Moon we have determined a good absolute calibration of the Clementine UV/Vis camera. A correction factor of 0.532 has been determined to convert the web site (www.planetary.brown.edu/clementine/calibration.html) reflectances to absolute values. From the calibrated data, we calculate empirical phase functions useful for performing photometric corrections to observations of the Moon between solar phase angles of 0 and 85° and in the spectral range 0.4 to 1.0μm. Finally, the calibrated data is used to fit a version of Hapke's photometric model modified to incorporate a new formulation, developed in this paper, of the lunar opposition surge which includes coherent backscatter. Recent studies of the lunar opposition effect have yielded contradictory results as to the mechanism responsible: shadow hiding, coherent backscatter, or both. We find that most of the surge can be explained by shadow hiding with a halfwidth of ∼8°. However, for the brightest regions (the highlands at 0.75–1.0μm) a small additional narrow component (halfwidth of <2°) of total amplitude ∼1/6 to 1/4 that of the shadow hiding surge is observed, which may be attributed to coherent backscatter. Interestingly, no evidence for the narrow component is seen in the maria or in the highlands at 0.415μm. A natural explanation for this is that these regions are too dark to exhibit enough multiple scattering for the effects of coherent backscatter to be seen. Finally, because the Moon is the only celestial body for which we have “ground truth” measurements, our results provide an important test for the robustness of photometric models of remote sensing observations.