Permanent Darkness at the Lunar North Pole

The Clementine mission provided the first dynamic temporal look at the illumination conditions of both lunar poles. Data of the lunar north pole were collected during summer in the northern hemisphere and are therefore ideal for placing a constraint on the maximum amount of permanent shadowed regions that exist. An early estimate of permanent shadow using Clementine data by Nozette and coworkers, based on a conservative measurement of permanently shadowed small craters close to the pole, was 530 km². A later estimate, produced using Earth based radar topography data (by Margot et al), extended the area analyzed to lower latitudes (85^oN), and indicated an increased permanently shadowed area of 2650 km². By producing movies using Clementine UVVIS data it is possible to study dynamically how the illumination conditions vary during the length of a lunar day (708 hours). These movies show that small areas of permanent shadow possibly exist at lower latitudes than included in the Margot study, including regions of the farside that are inaccessible to Earth based study. An initial analysis shows that portions of north facing crater walls, as far out as 80^oN, appear to be permanently shadowed. A preliminary examination of such features has raised the value of the permanently shadowed terrain area to greater than 10,000km². A recent control network for the north pole will permit a more precise determination of the amount of permanently shadowed terrain. Comparison of this value, together with the data returned by Lunar Prospectors neutron spectrometer will place constraints on the amount of ice present at the lunar north pole as presented by Feldman and coworkers.