Simulations on the influence of lunar surface temperature profiles on CE-1 lunar microwave sounder brightness temperature

摘要

Surface temperature profile is an important parameter in lunar microwave remote sensing. Based on the analysis of physical properties of the lunar samples brought back by the Apollo and Luna missions, we modeled temporal and spatial variation of lunar surface temperature with the heat conduction equation, and produced temperature distribution in top 6.0 m of lunar regolith of the whole Moon surface. Our simulation results show that the profile of lunar surface temperature varies mainly within the top 20 cm, except at the lunar polar regions where the changes can reach to about 1.0 m depth. The temperature is stable beyond that depth. The variations of lunar surface temperature lead to main changes in brightness temperature (TB) at different channels of the lunar microwave sounder (CELMS) on Chang’E-1 (CE-1). The results of this paper show that the temperature profile influenced CELMS TB, which provides strong validation on the CELMS data, and lays a solid basis for future interpretation and utilization of the CELMS data.