THE SURFACES OF AIRLESS BODIES CAN HAVE STRONG HORIZONTAL TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS DUE TO SHADOWS CAST BY LARGE-SCALE AND SMALL-SCALE TOPOGRAPHY. LUNAR COLD TRAPS ARE A RESULT OF TERRAIN SHADOWING AND DEFINED BY SURFACE TEMPERATURE REQUIRING MODELS THAT INCORPORATE NOT ONLY SHADOWS BUT ALSO LONG-WAVELENGTH AND SHORTWAVELENGTH RADIATION BETWEEN SURFACE ELEMENTS. EXISTING THERMOPHYSICAL MODELS ARE COMPUTATIONALLY LIMITED BECAUSE RADIATION BETWEEN MANY PAIRS OF SURFACE ELEMENTS NEEDS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT AND THEY ARE HENCE LIMITED EITHER TO SMALL DOMAIN SIZES OR COARSE SPATIAL RESOLUTION. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT NEW ALGORITHMS THAT WILL DRAMATICALLY ACCELERATE THIS TYPE OF COMPUTATIONS THUS ENABLING THERMAL MODELING AT UNPRECEDENTED SCALE. THESE METHODS WILL BE RELEVANT TO TEMPERATURE MAPPING AND RESOURCE PROSPECTING ON THE MOON MARS AND ASTEROIDS.

Planetary Science Institute, Tucson AZ

Investigators