Abstract Terrestrial radiation is another possible source of heat in lunar thermal environment at its nearside besides the solar illumination. On the basis of Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) data products, the effect of terrestrial radiation on the brightness temperature ( TB e ) of the lunar nearside has been theoretically calculated. It shows that the mafic lunar mare with high TB e is more sensitive to terrestrial radiation than the feldspathic highland with low TB e value. According to the synchronous rotation of the Moon, we extract TB e on lunar nearside using the microwave radiometer data from the first Chinese lunar probe Chang’E-1 (CE-1). Consistently, the average TB e at Mare Serenitatis is about 1.2K while the highland around the Geber crater (19.4°S,13.9°E) is relatively small at ∼0.4K. Our results indicate that there is no significant effect of terrestrial radiation on TB e at the lunar nearside. However, to extract TB e accurately, effects of heat flow, rock abundance and subsurface rock fragments which are more significant should be considered in the future work.


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    Title :

    Effect of terrestrial radiation on brightness temperature at lunar nearside: Based on theoretical calculation and data analysis


    Contributors:
    Wei, Guangfei (author) / Li, Xiongyao (author) / Wang, Shijie (author)

    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 55 , 4 ; 1234-1240


    Publication date :

    2014-11-17


    Size :

    7 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English