VIS-NIR reflectance of water ice/regolith analogue mixtures and implications for the detectability of ice mixed within planetary regoliths

Publication

Reference: Yoldi Z., Pommerol A., Jost B., Poch O., Gouman J., Thomas N. (2015). VIS-NIR reflectance of water ice/regolith analogue mixtures and implications for the detectability of ice mixed within planetary regoliths. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 6205.

Names

Title: VIS-NIR reflectance of water ice/regolith analogue mixtures and implications for the detectability of ice mixed within planetary regoliths
Abstract: Permanently shadowed regions at the poles of the Moon and Mercury have been pointed out as candidates for hosting water ice at their surface. We have measured in the laboratory the visible and near infrared spectral range (VIS-NIR) bidirectional reflectance of intimate mixtures of water ice and the JSC-1AF lunar simulant for different ice concentrations, particle sizes, and measurement geometries. The nonlinearity between the measured reflectance and the amount of ice in the mixture can be reproduced to some extent by the mixing formulas of standard reflectance models, in particular, those of Hapke and Hiroi, which are tested here. Estimating ice concentrations from reflectance data without knowledge of the mixing coefficients—strongly dependent on the size/shape of the grains—can result in large errors. According to our results, it is possible that considerable amounts of water ice might be intimately mixed in the regolith of the Moon and Mercury without producing noticeable photometric signatures.
Keywords: planetary regoliths, water ice, photometry, gonio radiometer, bidirectional reflection, visible, near-IR, grain size, ice, mineral, H2O, JSC-1AF lunar simulant, surface, Solar System, Mercury, Moon
Content: numerical model, BRDF data, material-matter, planetary sciences, remote sensing

Document type: article
Publication state: published
Comments: The supplementary material document of this publication contains the description of the preparation of "SPIPA-B" water ice particles. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/2015GL064780/asset/supinfo/grl53248-sup-0001-SuppInfo.docx?v=1&s=9e944d45124d7acb39f80e226e8a5802ab5c8ade

Doi

10.1002/2015GL064780

Identifiers

Experiment/Spectra