Detectability Factors for Earth-based Imaging of the LCROSS Ejecta Plume
Abstract
NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission delivered a kinetic impactor into Cabeus Crater on 9 October 2009 [1, 2]. Observing campaigns from Earth-based telescopes at multiple facilities attempted to obtain temporally-resolved imaging of the ejecta plume [3], but no Earth-based imaging detections were reported until 2013 after processing images with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) filtering [4]. Subsequently, PCA filtering has revealed plume detections in two additional cameras and also confirmed a non-detection from one telescope [5, 6]. This combination of detection and non-detection data is useful in determining the criteria for detectability in future observations of transient events. The goal of this work is to identify factors contributing to detectability and to establish thresholds applicable to the LCROSS event. We take the data containing detections and then degrade a specific factor in them until the plume is no longer detectable. These derived thresholds for factors (e.g., scattered light, temporal resolution, spatial resolution, field of view, and signal-to-noise of the illuminated foreground of Cabeus) can be compared to the properties of the actual non-detection data to identify problems specific to its observing conditions or observational setup. The percent differences between the thresholds and both the detection data and non-detection data may also reveal the relative importance of these detectability factors. This work was supported by NASA’s Lunar Data Analysis Program through grant number NNX15AP92G. Observations reported here were obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.References: [1] Colaprete, A. et al. (2010) Science, 330, 463-468. [2] Schultz, P. H. et al. (2010) Science, 330, 468-472. [3] Heldmann, J. L. et al. (2012) Space Sci. Rev., 167:93-140, doi:10.1007/s11214-011-9759-y. [4] Strycker, P. D. et al. (2013) Nat. Commun., 4:2620, doi:10.1038/ncomms3620. [5] Temme, R. L. et al. (2016) LPS XLVII, Abstract #1166. [6] Schotte, J. M. et al. (2017) LPS XLVIII, Abstract #1503.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #49
- Pub Date:
- October 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017DPS....4941714S