Paper: Simulations of lunar equatorial regolith temperature profile based on measurements of Diviner on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

(Before It's News)

This recent work will lead to comparing notes

Simulations of lunar equatorial regolith temperature profile based on measurements of Diviner on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
RAN Zhen, WANG ZhenZhan
SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences 2014, Vol. 57 Issue (9): 2232-2241 DOI: 10.1007/s11430-014-4886-4

Abstract

Lunar equatorial regolith temperature profiles were simulated using the half-limited solid heat conduction model. Based on the infrared data measured using the Diviner radiometer on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched by the United Sates in June 2009, three factors influencing temperature profiles were analyzed. The infrared brightness temperature data from Diviner channel 7 were used to retrieve surface temperature. In simulating regolith temperature profiles, the retrieved temperature, rather than temperatures calculated from solar radiance at the lunar surface, were used as the input for surface temperature in solving the heat-conductive equation..

The results showed that the bottom-layer temperature at depths of 6 m approached almost 246 K after 10000 iterations. The temperature was different to the temperature of 250 K at the same depth encountered in simulations using solar radiance. Simulations from both methods of surface temperatures over a lunar day gave similar variations. At lunar night, the temperature difference between the two was about 2 K; the main differences occurred when the solar elevation angle was very low when surface temperatures are largely affected by terrain topography.

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Journal page, open access PDF available.

The paper will be of some interest to Talkshop readers given the work done on simulating Lunar temperature over the past few years. Work is ongoing in private involving others, with a four way confirmation. One article is here.

Paper was an accidental find when researching for a different blog article.

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