Lunar iron and titanium abundance algorithms based on final processing of Clementine ultraviolet‐visible images

Abstract

The Clementine mission to the Moon returned global imaging data collected by the ultraviolet visible (UVVIS) camera. This data set is now in a final state of calibration, and a five‐band multispectral digital image model (DIM) of the lunar surface will soon be available to the science community. We have used observations of the lunar sample‐return sites and stations extracted from the final DIM in conjunction with compositional information for returned lunar soils to revise our previously published algorithms for the spectral determination of the FeO and TiO 2 content of the lunar surface. The algorithms successfully normalize the effects of space weathering so that composition may be determined without regard to a surface's state of maturity. These algorithms permit anyone with access to the standard archived DIM to construct high spatial resolution maps of FeO and TiO 2 abundance. Such maps will be of great utility in a variety of lunar geologic studies.