Re-Evaluating Influence of Rocks on Microwave Thermal Emission of Lunar Regolith Using CE-2 MRM Data

Abstract

The influence of rocks on the microwave thermal emission (MTE) of the lunar regolith has not been fully studied with the four-channel microwave radiometer (MRM) data onboard Chang’e-1/2 satellites. To highlight the influence of the rocks on the MTE of the regolith, the Hertzsprung basin located near the lunar equator in highland regions is selected as the study area. The comparison between the brightness temperature (TB) maps derived from the Chang’e-2 MRM data and rock abundance (RA) map derived from the Diviner data postulates three special issues about the correlation between the MTE features and the regolith with rocks. Then, aimed to interpret the issues, two new layered regolith models and the corresponding radiative transfer models are constructed. The main results are as follows. First, the observation and the simulation both verify that the regolith with rocks will provide a cold TB anomaly at night and at low frequencies at daytime, but result in a hot anomaly at high-frequency at daytime. Moreover, the temperature profiles of the regolith with surface and hidden rocks are evaluated with the theoretical model. Second, the simulation results verify the existence of the hidden rocks in the lunar regolith assumed when studying the TB performances of the Hertzsprung basin. Third, the rock distribution revealed by the TB maps shows a different view compared to that estimated by the Diviner data in space and values, and the change of the TB with frequencies postulates a new view about the variation of the RA with depth. This study hints that the MRM data probably provide a new way to quantitatively estimate the RA values of the lunar regolith, and the results will be meaningful to improve understanding of the evolution of the impact craters.