Chang’E-5 In Situ Spectra Revealing Meter-scale Surface Temperature Distribution Characteristic of the Moon

Abstract

The Lunar Mineral Spectrometer (LMS), on board the Chang’E-5 (CE-5) lander obtained the in situ spectra of the sampling area close to the Moon’s local noon. This provides an opportunity to investigate the meter-scale thermophysical properties and temperature distribution of the lunar surface. We established a new thermal correction method using the laboratory-measured spectra of CE-5 samples in this study. The surface temperature of the CE-5 sampling area was derived by applying this new method to LMS in situ data. The temperature of the flat lunar surface estimated by LMS is very close to that of Diviner data. The temperature estimated by Diviner probably represents the temperature characteristic of a flat lunar surface. The characteristic of meter-scale temperature distribution within the CE-5 sampling area was also discussed. This is essential to understanding the influence of the microscale landforms and roughness on the thermal and physical characteristics of the lunar surface.

Keywords

• Lunar surface
• Infrared spectroscopy