P00007 15 LDAP15 2 0018 ANALYSIS OF CHANG E ORBITAL AND SURFACE DATA Funding Only Action ($502) 4/8/24 Not listed 15 LDAP15 2 0018 ANALYSIS OF CHANG E ORBITAL AND SURFACE DATA ($502) 4/8/24 6 15 LDAP15 2 0018 ANALYSIS OF CHANG E ORBITAL AND SURFACE DATA Other Administrative Action $0 7/23/22 Not listed 15 LDAP15 2 0018 ANALYSIS OF CHANG E ORBITAL AND SURFACE DATA $0 7/23/22 Not listed SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: THE SPACECRAFT IN CHINA'S CHANG'E (CE) PROGRAM HAVE RETURNED A VARIETY OF DATASETS SEVERAL OF WHICH ARE UNIQUE MEASUREMENTS NOT MADE BY SPACECRAFT FROM ANY OTHER NATION. THE CE-3 LANDER AND ROVER OBTAINED THE FIRST NEW DATA FROM THE LUNAR SURFACE SINCE LUNA 24 IN 1976 AND THE FIRST MODERN DIGITAL IMAGES FROM THE LUNAR SURFACE. THESE CAMERAS FEATURE A BAYER COLOR FILTER ARRAY COVERING A CMOS SENSOR. WE WILL PERFORM CALIBRATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE 3-COLOR IMAGES IN ORDER TO ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: (A) PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS HAS IDENTIFIED A FEW ROCKS THAT HAVE DIFFERENT COLOR THAN THE MAJORITY. WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE COLOR/COMPOSITION AND GEOLOGIC SETTING OF ANOMALOUS ROCKS. (B) ANALYSIS SHOWS THAT ROCKS CAN EASILY BE EASILY DISTINGUISHED FROM SOILS IN COLOR RATIO IMAGES. WE WILL USE THIS CHARACTERISTIC TO EXPLORE THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF ROCKS THAT ARE COVERED WITH SOIL VS. THOSE THAT ARE NOT COVERED WITH SOIL. (C) ROCKS EXHIBIT BRIGHT SPOTS. ARE THESE LARGE MINERAL GRAINS OR IMPACT "ZAP PITS"? COLOR ANALYSIS PERMITS US TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN MINERAL GRAINS AND MICRO-CRATERS AND THE SIZE-FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS WILL PROVIDE INFORMATION ON PETROLOGY OF THE BASALTS OR THE MICROMETEOROID FLUX. THE RESULTS WILL SHED LIGHT ON THE PROCESS OF REGOLITH EVOLUTION IN MARE IMBRIUM. THE CE-1 AND CE-2 ORBITAL MICROWAVE RADIOMETER (MRM) INSTRUMENTS MEASURED THE PASSIVE EMISSION FROM THE MOON IN FOUR FREQUENCY CHANNELS 3 7.8 19.35 AND 37 GHZ (10 3.8 1.6 AND 0.8 CM WAVELENGTH). THE CE-2 DATA WAS OBTAINED FROM A LOWER ORBIT AND THUS HAS HIGHER SPATIAL RESOLUTION. CO-INVESTIGATOR YONG-CHUN ZHENG HAS CALIBRATED THE MRM DATASET AND PRODUCED GLOBAL MAPS OF BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE (TB) FOR DAY AND NIGHT IN EACH OF THE FOUR BANDS. THE TB MAPS EXHIBIT NUMEROUS ANOMALIES (FEATURES THAT ARE COLDER OR HOTTER THAN THE SURROUNDINGS). THESE ANOMALIES OFTEN DIFFER FROM ANOMALIES IN LRO DIVINER NIGHTTIME TEMPERATURE MAPS. BECAUSE THE MICROWAVE EMISSIONS COME FROM DIFFERING DEPTHS BENEATH THE SURFACE COMPARISON WITH DIVINER (SURFACE INFRARED EMISSION) AND MINI-RF RADAR (SURFACE/IMMEDIATE SUBSURFACE ROUGHNESS AND SCATTERING) WILL PROVIDE KEY INFORMATION ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE REGOLITH. FURTHER INTRIGUING LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE IS FOUND IN THE MRM MAPS SUCH AS THE AREA AROUND THE ORIENTALE BASIN WHICH IS ANOMALOUS IN MINI-RF RADAR IMAGES AND LP HYDROGEN-ABUNDANCE MAPS. IN ADDITION TO ORIENTALE FEATURES WHERE MRM DATA WILL CONTRIBUTE INCLUDE CRYPTOMARIA PYROCLASTIC DEPOSITS BURIED LAVA FLOWS AND IMPACT CRATERS WITH RADAR-DARK HALOES. WE WILL COMPARE THE MRM MAPS FOR NON-POLAR REGIONS WITH OTHER DATASETS INCLUDING DIVINER ROCK ABUNDANCE MINI-RF AND EARTH-BASED RADAR LOLA ROUGHNESS AT SCALES ~100-1000 M AS WELL AS COMPOSITIONAL MAPS (CLEMENTINE FEO AND TIO2 DIVINER CHRISTIANSEN FREQUENCY LP FE AND H). THE GOAL IS TO INTERPRET THE MRM MAPS BASED ON THE PHYSICS OF MICROWAVE EMISSION INFORMED BY THE OTHER REMOTE-SENSING DATASETS IN ORDER TO CHARACTERIZE THE STRUCTURE OF THE REGOLITH. THE THEME OF OUR MULTI-NATIONAL WORK WITH THE LANDER/ROVER IMAGES AND THE ORBITAL MRM MAPS IS TO ADDRESS IMPORTANT QUESTIONS IN LUNAR GEOSCIENCE THROUGH THE LENS OF THE REGOLITH.RELEVANCE: THE PROPOSED EFFORT IS RELEVANT TO THE STATED SCOPE OF LDAP: "LDAP FUNDS RESEARCH ON THE ANALYSIS OF RECENT LUNAR MISSIONS IN ORDER TO ENHANCE THEIR SCIENTIFIC RETURN . . . USING PUBLICLY AVAILABLE (RELEASED) DATA. THESE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING MISSIONS: . . . CHANG E 1 CHANG E 2 . . . CHANG E 3." OUR WORK WILL FURTHER THE ANALYSIS OF CHANG'E-1 AND -2 MRM DATA AND COLOR IMAGES FROM CHANG'E-3. THE CE DATA IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE FROM WEBSITES MAINTAINED BY THE NATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES OF CHINA. MULTILATERAL PROJECTS INVOLVING CHINA ARE ELIGIBLE FOR NASA FUNDING. THE PI HAS ASSEMBLED A MULTINATIONAL PROPOSAL TEAM (U.S. CANADA CHINA) HENCE IT IS A MULTI-LATERAL ENDEAVOR. $0 6/23/21