Issue |
A&A
Volume 664, August 2022
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A43 | |
Number of page(s) | 17 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142803 | |
Published online | 04 August 2022 |
Yutu-2 radar observation of the lunar regolith heterogeneity at the Chang’E-4 landing site
1
Institute of Advance Study, Shenzhen University,
Shenzhen
518060,
PR China
e-mail: dingchunyu@szu.edu.cn
2
Space and Earth Interdisciplinary Center, Shenzhen University,
Shenzhen
518060,
PR China
3
Guangdong Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy(SZ),
Shenzhen
518000,
PR China
4
College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University,
Shenzhen
518060,
PR China
e-mail: shaopeng@szu.edu.cn
5
College of Geo-Exploration Science and Technology, Jilin University,
Changchun
130015,
PR China
6
Key Laboratory of Applied Geophysics, Jilin University,
Changchun
130015,
PR China
7
Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing
100012,
PR China
8
School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing
100049,
PR China
Received:
1
December
2021
Accepted:
25
April
2022
Context. The lunar penetrating radar (LPR) carried by the Yutu-2 rover performed the first in situ measurement of the subsurface structure and physical properties of the subsurface materials on the far side of the Moon. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the formation and evolution of the lunar surface.
Aims. This paper aims to quantitatively estimate the heterogeneity of the lunar regolith using the high-frequency Yutu-2 radar observation and constrain the modeling parameters (e.g., autocorrelation length) on a radar simulation.
Methods. The heterogeneity of the lunar regolith was quantified by comparing the simulation and observation acquired by the high-frequency Yutu-2 radar within the first 17 lunar days after its landing. The radar simulation was determined by the numerical calculation of the stochastic regolith model. The change in the autocorrelation length to the modeling was derived by calculating the coarseness of the model.
Results. The disturbance range of the lunar regolith with a thickness of ~12 m at the Chang’E-4 landing site is constrained to be ~0.20 ± 0.06 m, indicating a high self-similarity. The stochastic model’s spatial disturbance is controlled by the autocorrelation length and is also scaled by the model size, and the radar scattering echo strength decreases with the increase in autocorrelation length.
Conclusions. We conclude that the heterogeneity of lunar regolith is positively related to the geological age. The application of the disturbance range at the decimeter scale might provide a valuable reference to assist in interpreting the radar observation data of the Moon (e.g., Arecibo radar, Min-SAR and Mini-RF, and in situ LPR).
Key words: Moon / planets and satellites: surfaces / planets and satellites: detection / methods: data analysis / techniques: radar astronomy
© C. Ding et al. 2022
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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