Search Publications
Empirical energy spectra of neutralized solar wind protons from the lunar regolith
Barabash, S.; Holmström, M.; Futaana, Y. +7 more
We present an empirical model of the energy spectra for hydrogen energetic neutral atoms (ENA) backscattered from the lunar surface based on Chandrayaan-1 Energetic Neutral Atom (CENA) observations. The observed energy spectra of the backscattered ENAs are well reproduced by Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution functions. The backscatter fraction is con…
Energetic neutral atom observations of magnetic anomalies on the lunar surface
Barabash, S.; Holmström, M.; Futaana, Y. +5 more
SARA, the Sub-KeV Atom Analyzer, on board Chandrayaan-1 recorded the first image of a minimagnetosphere above a lunar magnetic anomaly using energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). It was shown that this magnetosphere, which is located near the Gerasimovich crater, is able to reduce the solar wind ion flux impinging onto the lunar surface by more than 50%…
Kinetic simulations of finite gyroradius effects in the lunar plasma environment on global, meso, and microscales
Barabash, Stas; Jarvinen, Riku; Kallio, Esa +12 more
The recent in situ particle measurements near the Moon by Chandrayaan-1 and Kaguya missions as well as the earlier observation by the Lunar Prospector have shown that the Moon-solar wind interaction is more complicated than believed earlier. The new observations have arisen the need for a detailed modelling of the near surface plasma-surface proce…
Geochemical and mineralogical analysis of Gruithuisen region on Moon using M3 and DIVINER images
Murty, S. V. S.; Kusuma, K. N.; Sebastian, N.
Spectral information from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) onboard Chandrayaan-1 and DIVINER Lunar Radiometer onboard LRO have been used for geochemical and mineralogical characterisation of the Gruithuisen region on Moon along with morphometrical information from LOLA Digital elevation model. The apparent reflectance of M3 on global mode is used f…
Detection of Mg spinel lithologies on central peak of crater Theophilus using Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data from Chandrayaan-1
Bhattacharya, S.; Kiran Kumar, A. S.; Chauhan, P. +3 more
Spectral reflectance data derived from Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) onboard India's Chandrayaan-1 has revealed Fe bearing Mg-spinel-rich lithology on central peaks of the crater Theophilus. These newly identified Fe bearing Mg-spinel-rich rock types are defined by their strong 2-µm absorption and lack of 1-µm absorptions in s…
Lunar iron abundance determination using the 2-µm absorption band parameters
Bhatt, Megha; Mall, Urs; Bugiolacchi, Roberto +4 more
In this work we report the first employment of the 2-µm absorption band parameters to estimate FeO weight percentage (wt.%) abundances from high-resolution Near-Infrared (NIR) lunar data, as measured by the SIR-2 instrument on board Chandrayaan-1. Our method is based on the algorithm originally developed by Le Mouélic et al. (Le Mouélic, S.,…
The Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer: First results
Grande, M.; Koschny, D.; Rothery, D. A. +30 more
We present X-ray fluorescence observations of the lunar surface, made by the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer during two solar flare events early in the mission (12th December 2008 and 10th January 2009). Modelling of the X-ray spectra with an abundance algorithm allows quantitative estimates of the MgO/SiO2 and Al2O3
Study of scattering characteristics of lunar equatorial region using Chandrayaan-1 Mini-SAR polarimetric data
Saran, Sriram; Das, Anup; Mohan, Shiv +1 more
The miniaturized synthetic aperture radar Mini-SAR onboard Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission was the first ever lunar orbiting SAR that acquired several data strips covering a wide variety of geological units over lunar equatorial and low latitude regions, some of which were not studied earlier at radar wavelengths. The Mini-SAR observations, complemen…
The effect of protons on the performance of second generation Swept Charge Devices
Gow, Jason P. D.; Holland, Andrew D.; Pool, Peter J. +1 more
The e2v technologies Swept Charge Device (SCD) was developed as a large area detector for X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis, achieving near Fano-limited spectroscopy at -15 °C. The SCD was flown in the XRF instruments onboard the European Space Agency's SMART-1 and the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 lunar missions. The second g…
India sets its sights on the red planet
Bagla, Pallava
Four years after India's maiden mission to the Moon - Chandrayaan-1 - the country has announced its first mission to Mars.