TY - JOUR
T1 - Simultaneous observation of lunar radar sounder and laser altimeter of kaguya for lunar regolith layer thickness estimate
AU - Kobayashi, Takao
AU - Kim, Jung Ho
AU - Lee, Seung Ryeol
AU - Araki, Hiroshi
AU - Ono, Takayuki
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received August 27, 2009; revised October 8, 2009. Date of publication February 17, 2010; date of current version April 29, 2010. This work was partially supported by the Basic Research Project, “Development of new geological technology for tracing earth and planetary evolution” of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. T. Kobayashi is with the Mineral Resources Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 305-350, Korea (e-mail: tak@kis.kigam.re.kr). J. H. Kim and S. R. Lee are with the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 305-350, Korea. H. Araki is with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan. T. Ono is with the Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LGRS.2009.2038499
PY - 2010/7
Y1 - 2010/7
N2 - Simultaneous observations of Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) and Laser ALTimeter (LALT) of Kaguya, a Japanese lunar exploration project, were carried out for the purpose of mapping regolith layer thickness of the Moon. Nadir surface echo of a high-frequency (5 MHz) pulse of LRS interferes the shallow (< 10 m) subsurface echo from the bottom of the regolith layer, which subsequently makes the apparent surface be detected at a range deviated from the actual surface range, while the actual surface range is optically detected by LALT. Regolith layer thickness information is retrieved from this range difference after an inversion process. So far, four major maria on the near side of the Moon (Maria Tranquillitatis, Serenitatis, Imbrium, and Oceanus Procellarum) have been investigated, and the mean regolith layer thicknesses of the four maria were found to be about the same, ranging from 6.3 to 6.9 m. However, spatial distribution of areal regolith thickness appears different in eastern maria from western maria, which implies a difference of the growth history of the regolith layer.
AB - Simultaneous observations of Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) and Laser ALTimeter (LALT) of Kaguya, a Japanese lunar exploration project, were carried out for the purpose of mapping regolith layer thickness of the Moon. Nadir surface echo of a high-frequency (5 MHz) pulse of LRS interferes the shallow (< 10 m) subsurface echo from the bottom of the regolith layer, which subsequently makes the apparent surface be detected at a range deviated from the actual surface range, while the actual surface range is optically detected by LALT. Regolith layer thickness information is retrieved from this range difference after an inversion process. So far, four major maria on the near side of the Moon (Maria Tranquillitatis, Serenitatis, Imbrium, and Oceanus Procellarum) have been investigated, and the mean regolith layer thicknesses of the four maria were found to be about the same, ranging from 6.3 to 6.9 m. However, spatial distribution of areal regolith thickness appears different in eastern maria from western maria, which implies a difference of the growth history of the regolith layer.
KW - Kaguya
KW - Laser ALTimeter (LALT)
KW - Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS)
KW - regolith
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U2 - 10.1109/LGRS.2009.2038499
DO - 10.1109/LGRS.2009.2038499
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77954621531
VL - 7
SP - 435
EP - 439
JO - IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
JF - IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
SN - 1545-598X
IS - 3
M1 - 5411790
ER -