EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-729, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2018 Mini-RF S- and X-band Bistatic Observations of South Polar Craters on the Moon G. W. Patterson (1), P. Prem (1), A. M. Stickle (1), J. T. S. Cahill (1), Land the Mini-RF Team (1) Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD (
[email protected]). Abstract Laboratory data and analog experiments at optical wavelengths have shown that the scattering Mini-RF S-band bistatic observations of Cabeus properties of lunar materials (e.g., CPR) can be crater floor materials display a clear opposition sensitive to variations in phase angle [6-8]. This response consistent with the presence of water ice. sensitivity manifests as an opposition effect and Initial X-band bistatic observations of Cabeus and likely involves contributions from shadow hiding at Amundsen crater floor materials do not show a low angles and coherent backscatter near 0°. Analog similar response. This could indicate that, if water ice experiments and theoretical work have shown that is present in Cabeus crater floor materials, it is buried the scattering properties of water ice are also beneath ~0.5 m of regolith that does not include sensitive to variations in phase angle, with an radar-detectible deposits of water ice. opposition effect that it is tied primarily to coherent backscatter [9-11]. Differences in the character of the opposition response of these materials offer an 1. Introduction opportunity to differentiate between them, an issue Mini-RF aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance that has been problematic for radar studies of the Orbiter (LRO) is a hybrid dual-polarized synthetic Moon that use a monostatic architecture [12,13].