Korean Journal of Remote Sensing (대한원격탐사학회지)

Korean Society of Remote Sensing (대한원격탐사학회)
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Investigation of a possible lunar lava tube in the north of the Rima Galilaei using the surface range of Kaguya Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) data

Kaguya Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) 표면 레인지 데이터를 이용한 Rima Galilaei의 북쪽 달 용암 동굴 후보지 조사

  • Sun, Changwan (Department of Geophysical Exploration, University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Takao, Kobayashi (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources) ;
  • Kim, Kyeong Ja (Department of Geophysical Exploration, University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Choi, Young-Jun (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology)
  • 선창완 (과학기술연합대학원대학교, 물리탐사공학과) ;
  • 고바야시 타카오 (한국지질자원연구원) ;
  • 김경자 (과학기술연합대학원대학교, 물리탐사공학과) ;
  • 최영준 (과학기술연합대학원대학교, 천문우주과학과)
  • Received : 2017.05.04
  • Accepted : 2017.06.22
  • Published : 2017.06.30
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Abstract

A lava tube is one of the hot issues of lunar science because it is regarded as a good candidate place for setting a lunar base. Recently much effort has been made to find lunar lava tubes. However, preceding works mainly made use of high-resolution lunar surface image data in conjunction with geomorphological consideration to present some lava tube candidates. Yet, those candidates stay no more than indirect indications. We propose a new data analysis technique of High Frequency (HF) radar observation data to find lunar lava tubes of which location depth is smaller than the range resolution of the radar pulse. Such shallow target echoes cannot be resolved from surface echoes, which presents the different location of the lunar surface compared to that of real lunar surface. The proposed technique instead finds the surface range (distance from LRS to the reflector of the most intense signal) anomaly which occurs as a result of the low range resolution of LRS pulse. We applied this technique to the surface range of Kaguya Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) data. The surface range was deduced to make LRS surface elevation which was compared with the average surface elevation of Kaguya Digital Terrain Model (DTM). An anomalous discrepancy of the surface elevation was found in the Rima Galilaei area, which suggests the existence of a shallow lava tube.

미래 인류의 달 기지 설치 후보인 달 용암 동굴은 지형 카메라의 관측 자료를 통해 탐사가 수행되었지만 이는 달 용암 동굴의 존재에 대한 확실한 증거를 제시하지 못한다. 본 연구에서는 지표 투과가 가능한 High Frequency (HF) 레이더의 달 관측 자료를 이용하여 달 용암 동굴 탐사를 시도하였다. 이를 위해 일본 달 탐사선 Kaguya의 Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS)의 관측 자료에서 LRS에서 가장 강한 반사파 펄스가 나발생되는 지점까지의 거리인 LRS 표면 레인지가 추출되었다. 달 용암 동굴은 얕은 지하에 분포하고 LRS의 거리 분해능은 얕은 지하에 있는 목표물의 반사파와 표면 반사파는 분리 할 수 없다. 이로 인하여 달 얕은 지하에 구조물이 있는 경우 일반적인 달 표면의 위치가 실제 달 표면과 다르게 나타난다. 이에 따라 LRS 펄스의 낮은 거리 분해능을 이용하여 LRS 표면 레인지로부터 얕은 지하에 존재하는 달 용암 동굴 검출이 가능하다. LRS 표면 레인지에서 Kaguya의 궤도 고도를 제하면 달 표면 고도가 나타나고 이를 달 지형 고도를 나타내는 Kaguya Digital Terrain Model (DTM) 데이터로부터 도출된 DTM 평균 지형 고도와 비교 분석하여 달 용암 동굴을 검출한다. 이러한 분석 방법을 Rima Galilaei의 북쪽에 위치한 달 용암 동굴 후보지에 적용하여 LRS 지형 고도 값과 DTM 평균 지형 고도 값의 차이를 발견하였고 검출된 차이가 천부 지하에 존재하는 달 용암 동굴의 반사파로 인하여 생긴 것으로 추정하였다.

Keywords

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