Comparing Radar and Optical Data Sets of Lunar Impact Crater Ejecta

Abstract:

Impact cratering is a primary weathering process of airless bodies and is the dominant method of redistributing material across the lunar surface. Crater ejecta blankets are a window into the impact cratering process and can provide important information on the properties of subsurface materials as well as surface evolution. Radar scattering information, in particular the circular polarization ratio (CPR), provides a useful means of investigating these properties. Using data returned from the Mini-RF instrument onboard NASA’s LRO, we observe significant diversity in the CPR around young mare craters as a function of distance from the crater rim, regardless of crater size or relative age. Some commonalities in the scattering profiles are observed for all crater diameters: higher CPR values occur near the crater rim that decay with radial distance outward, larger craters have a higher CPR than smaller craters, and the overall shapes of the profiles are similar such that the main scattering characteristics of the studied craters can generally be grouped into three main categories.

Comparing CPR profiles with data at other wavelengths provides additional insights and suggests two interesting results. The first is that comparisons of radar and optical data imply relationships between mare subsurface stratigraphy and structure and the relative size of the material found within the ejecta blanket. Of the examined craters, twelve have shelves of approximately constant CPR as well as discrete layers outcropping in the subsurface, and nine fall along a trend line when comparing shelf-width with thickness of subsurface layers. The second is that comparisons of radar data with other wavelengths may provide insights into the maturity of the surface. For example, some examined craters have laterally extensive, optically bright ejecta blankets suggesting that a region of rough, high-CPR material should be present near the crater rim, though this is not observed. Radar data is sensitive to distributions of larger scatterers than optical data, thus differences in optical versus radar data may be related to maturity of the surface materials. Comparisons across wavelengths, and with established techniques such as the optical maturity parameter (OMAT), may provide further insights into the evolution of crater ejecta with time.