Infrared
Observations of the Eclipsed
Moon From Space
Dr.
Stephan D. Price
Space Vehicles
Directorate
Air Force Research
Laboratory
| The disk resolved 4.3 µm
thermal emission profile of the Moon was measured during the eclipse of 26
September 1996 by the SPIRIT III sensor on the Midcourse Space Experiment
(MSX). This is the first experiment to
measure the thermal properties of the Moon after an almost 25 year hiatus in
a series of experiments that was sponsored or conducted by the Air Force
Research Laboratory and its component predecessor agencies the Air Force
Cambridge Research Laboratories (AFCRL) and the Air Force Office of
Scientific Research. Shorthill1
reviewed the thermal measurements in the 1960s conducted under the aegis of
AFRCL. Shorthill and colleagues, then
of the Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories and under contract to AFCRL,
observed the thermal time profile at ~11 µm during eclipses of 13 March 19602
and 19 December 19643; Salisbury’s group at AFCRL
obtained mid-infrared images of the 13 April 1968 eclipse4. Shorthill’s
group also imaged the full Moon in the mid-infrared and obtained
thermal profiles during several lunations (night and day). |
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| 1Shorthill,
R., 1972, The Infrared Moon: A Review.
In Thermal Characteristics of the Moon, J. Lucas (ed.) MIT
Press, Cambridge MA, 3 – 79. |
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| 2Shorthill,
R.W., H.C. Borough and J.M. Conley, 1960, Enhanced Lunar Thermal Radiation
During a Lunar Eclipse. Pub. Astron.
Soc. Pac. 72, 481 – 485. |
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| 3Saari,
J.M., R.W. Shorthill and T.K. Deaton, 1996, Infrared and Visible Images of
the Eclipsed Moon of December 19, 1964.
Icarus, 5, 635 – 659. |
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| 4Hunt,
G.R., J.W. Salisbury and R.K. Vincent, 1968 “Lunar Eclipse: Infrared Images
and an Anomaly of Possible Internal Origin,” Science, 162, 223 – 225. |