A Microphysical Thermal Model for the Lunar Regolith: Investigating the Latitudinal Dependence of Regolith Properties

The microphysical structure of the lunar regolith provides information on the geologic history of the Moon. We used remote sensing measurements of thermal emission and a thermophysical model to determine the microphysical properties of the lunar regolith. We expand upon previous investigations by developing a microphysical thermal model, which more directly simulates regolith properties, such as grain size and volume filling factor. The modeled temperatures are matched with surface temperatures measured by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The maria and highlands are investigated separately and characterized in the model by a difference in albedo and grain density. We find similar regolith temperatures for both terrains, which can be well described by similar volume filling factor profiles and mean grain sizes obtained from returned Apollo samples. We also investigate a significantly lower thermal conductivity for highlands, which formally also gives a very good solution, but in a parameter range that is well outside the Apollo data. We then study the latitudinal dependence of regolith properties up to +/- 80 degrees latitude. When assuming constant regolith properties, we find that a variation of the solar incidence-dependent albedo can reduce the initially observed latitudinal gradient between model and Diviner measurements significantly. A better match between measurements and model can be achieved by a variation in intrinsic regolith properties with a decrease in bulk density with increasing latitude. We find that a variation in grain size alone cannot explain the Diviner measurements at higher latitudes. Plain Language Summary The Moon is covered by a layer of fine grained material called regolith. To extract information about the regolith, such as grain size or stratification, we used data from the Diviner instrument on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Diviner measures the surface temperature of the regolith for each location on the Moon and all times during day and night. To derive regolith properties, we developed a model and varied its model parameters until the simulated surface temperatures matched the measured ones. We applied the model up to a latitude of 80 degrees and find as the best solution a decrease in regolith packing density with increasing latitude. We also find that a variation of regolith grain size alone cannot explain the measurements. These predictions are valuable for planning future missions targeting higher latitudes and can be compared with future in situ measurements and returned samples. However, the fraction of sunlight that actually heats the regolith is quite unknown, especially at high latitudes. A variation of this fraction can explain the measured surface temperatures reasonably well even without a variation of the regolith properties with latitude.