EPSC Abstracts Vol. 10, EPSC2015-854, 2015 European Planetary Science Congress 2015 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2015 The Widespread Distribution of Swirls in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Images Brett W. Denevi (1), Mark S. Robinson (2), Aaron K. Boyd (2), and David T. Blewett (1) (1) The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA, (2) School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. Email:
[email protected]. 1. Introduction fresh plagioclase-rich materials from their shocked or glassy equivalent in the highlands. Lunar swirls are Lunar swirls, the sinuous high- and low-reflectance characterized by this steep UV slope [11], such that a features that cannot be mentioned without the WAC color composite (415 nm, 321/415 nm, and associated adjective “enigmatic,” are of interest 321/360 nm in red, green, and blue, respectively) because of their link to crustal magnetic anomalies reveals their locations (e.g., Fig. 1). We used this [1,2]. These localized magnetic anomalies create WAC composite sampled at 400 m/pixel as the basis mini-magnetospheres [3,4] and may alter the typical for our mapping, noting the locations and margins of surface modification processes or result in altogether the high-reflectance portions of swirls based on their distinct processes that form the swirls. One UV ratios and 415 nm reflectance values. hypothesis is that magnetic anomalies may provide some degree of shielding from the solar wind [1,2], 3. Distribution of Swirls which could impede space weathering due to solar The WAC-based map (Fig.