Thermal infrared spectra of the Moon: Results from the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations

Repository:

Calibrated radiance and derived surface emissivity data presented in “Thermal infrared spectra of the Moon: Results from the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations” by Christensen, Hamilton, Anwar, Mehall, Spencer, Sunshine, and Levison (2025).

Overview:

This file archive contains data collected by the NASA Lucy Discovery mission’s Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) instrument. A description of the Lucy mission can be found in Levison et al. [2021] and a detailed description of L’TES can be found in Christensen [2024], which included in this archive. L’TES is a Fourier Transform interferometer covering the spectral range 100-1750 cm–1 (100-5.71 µm) in 192 spectral samples using a 15.2-cm diameter Cassegrain telescope and a single uncooled pyroelectric detector [Christensen et al., 2023]. L’TES collected 208 spectra of the Moon during the Earth gravity assist flyby in Oct. 2022 using a two-axis raster scan of the Lucy Instrument Pointing Platform [IPP, Levison et al., 2021] Two data sets are provided in this archive; 1) the 90 high quality calibrated radiance spectra of the Moon; and 2) the emissivity of the surface surface derived from the highest-quality L’TES spectra. The data processing and modeling performed to produce these data sets are described in [Christensen et al., 2025].

Contents:

1)    Calibrated radiance acquired by the L’TES instrument of the lunar surface:

Filename: ltes_wavenumber_and_radiance.ascii

Description: Ascii file containing 91 columns and 186 rows. Each row represents one spectral band. Column 1 is the wavenumber; Columns 2-91 are the calibrated radiances for the 90 spectra given in Fig. 4.

2)    Surface emissivity of the lunar surface derived from the highest quality L’TES lunar observations.

Filename: ltes_wavenumber_and_emissivity.ascii

Description: Ascii file containing 17 columns and 163 rows. Each row represents one spectral band. Column 1 is the wavenumber; Columns 2-17 are the derived emissivities for the spectra given in Fig. 13.

References:

Christensen, P., V. Hamilton, G. Mehall, S. Anwar, H. Bowles, S. Chase, Z. Farkas, T. Fisher, A. Holmes, and I. Kubik (2024), The Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) Instrument, Space Science Reviews, 220(1), 1.

Christensen, P. R., V. E. Hamilton, S. Anwar, G. Mehall, J. R. Spencer, J. M. Sunshine, and H. F. Levison (2025), Thermal infrared spectra of the Moon: Results from the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations, Journal of Geophyisical Research.

Christensen, P. R., et al. (2023), The Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) Instrument, Space Sci. Rev., doi:10.1007/s11214-023-01029-y.

Levison, H. F., C. B. Olkin, K. S. Noll, S. Marchi, J. F. Bell III, E. Bierhaus, R. Binzel, W. Bottke, D. Britt, and M. Brown (2021), Lucy Mission to the Trojan Asteroids: Science Goals, The Planetary Science Journal, 2(5), 171.