Earth observations from the Moon's surface: dependence on lunar libration
<p>Observing the Earth from the Moon's surface has important scientific advantages. The angular diameter of the Earth as seen from the Moon's surface is 1.8–2.0<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> (the angular size varies due to the chang...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques |
| Online Access: | https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/16/1527/2023/amt-16-1527-2023.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Observing the Earth from the Moon's surface has important
scientific advantages. The angular diameter of the Earth as seen from the
Moon's surface is 1.8–2.0<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> (the angular size varies due
to the change in the Earth–Moon distance). The libration of the Moon in
latitude reaches an amplitude of 6.68<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> and has a main period of
27.21 d (or 653.1 h). The libration of the Moon in longitude,
reaching an amplitude of 7.9<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span>, has a period of 27.55 d (or
661.3 h). This causes the center of the Earth to move in the Moon's sky
in a rectangle measuring 13.4<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span> <span class="inline-formula">×</span> 15.8<span class="inline-formula"><sup>∘</sup></span>. The
trajectory of the Earth's motion in this rectangle changes its shape within a
period of 6 years. This apparent librational movement of the Earth in the
Moon's sky complicates observations of the Earth. This paper proposes that this disadvantage be turned into an advantage and that a multi-slit spectrometer be placed on the Moon's surface on a fixed platform. The libration motion and the daily rotation of the Earth will act as a natural replacement for the scanning mechanism.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1867-1381 1867-8548 |