HR: 1340h
AN: P23A-0233    [Abstracts]
TI: Thermal Infrared Spectroscopy of the Moon
AU: * Steutel, D
EM: dsteutel@higp.hawaii.edu
AF: HIGP, Univ. of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 United States
AB: In May 2004, we used the University of Hawaii's (UH's) Airborne Hyperspectral Imager (AHI), a 256-band spectrometer covering 7.8-11.5 microns, on the UH 2.2 m telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii to image the Moon. At 1-2 days past full Moon, we collected hyperspectral images for the entire near side at diffraction-limited resolution (about 5 km at center of disk). These data, by far, constitute the most extensive hyperspectral imagery ever collected of the Moon at these wavelengths. Thermal infrared wavelengths have been previously shown to have potential for identifying lunar mineralogy and petrology based on laboratory experiments (e.g., [1-3]) and telescopic observations of a handful of locales on the Moon (e.g., [4]). We are currently processing our data for atmospheric and telescopic transmission and emission effects, as well as compensating for unforeseen registration errors due to wavelength dependent refraction in the atmosphere, apparently due to ozone. While the signal is dominated by surface temperature and surface topography compounded by challenging calibration, preliminary analysis indicates that the final signal-to-noise will approximate the value of 1000 reported by [3] as necessary for useful interpretation of lunar thermal infrared spectra. [1] Conel, J. E., JGR, 74: 1614-1634, 1969. [2] Salisbury, J. W. and L. S. Walter, JGR, 94: 9192-9202, 1989. [3] Salisbury, J. W. et al., Icarus, 130: 125-139, 1997. [4] Sprague, A. L. et al., Icarus, 100: 73-84, 1992.
DE: 5410 Composition
DE: 5464 Remote sensing
DE: 5494 Instruments and techniques
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting