LRO Diviner Soil Composition Measurements - Lunar Sample Ground Truth

Abstract

The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter [1,2] includes three thermal infrared channels spanning the wavelength ranges 7.55-8.05 microns 8.10-8.40 microns, and 8.38-8.68 microns. These "8 micron" bands were specifically selected to measure the "Christiansen feature". The wavelength location of this feature, referred to herein as CF, is particularly sensitive to silicate minerals including plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine the major crystalline components of lunar rocks and soil. The general trend is that lower CF values are correlated with higher silica content and higher CF values are correlated with lower silica content. In a companion abstract, Greenhagen et al. [3] discuss the details of lunar mineral identification using Diviner data