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Updated: May 23, 2025
Simulating Imaging of Large Scale Radio Arrays on the Lunar Surface
Published on: July 30, 2020
Upper limit of ice content at the lunar south pole as revealed by the Earth-based SYISR-FAST bistatic radar system
Mingyuan Li1, Jinghai Sun2, Xinan Yue3
1Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; Beijing National Observatory of Space Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
Abstract:
An increasing amount of evidence indicates that lunar water ice exists in permanently shadowed regions at the poles and will soon become an important resource for lunar exploration. However, the water ice content and distribution are still uncertain. We report a new 70-cm-wavelength radar image of the lunar south pole obtained by an Earth-based bistatic radar system consisting of the Sanya incoherent scatter radar (SYISR) and the five-hundred-meter aperture spherical radio telescope (FAST). The upper limit of water ice content (0 wt.%-6 wt.%) and its potential distribution are determined from a radar circular polarization ratio (CPR) map by considering the coherent backscatter opposition effect (CBOE) of water ice and ignoring the contribution of roughness to the CPR. This result is advantageous for future lunar exploration missions.
