Julie Feldt
LASP
Mentors: Marty Snow and Greg Holsclaw

 

Abstract:
The Moon has been well studied from the ground and through samples taken during Apollo missions, but still lacks accurate ultraviolet observations.  Using the SOLar-Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) on the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE), far-ultraviolet data of the atmosphere, Moon, and Sun were taken to find the reflectance of the moon at the Lyman-a line (121.6nm). Since both solar and lunar irradiance is observed, the albedo measurement is independent of SOLSTICE’s absolute calibration. Knowing the lunar albedo at this wavelength can help us to better understand the lunar surface properties and can be used to calibrate other ultraviolet sensitive instruments. The SOLSTICE observations were used to calculate the disk integrated albedo of the Moon, a value found to be ~ 2%. The far-ultraviolet lunar albedo measurement can be improved with a more sophisticated airglow background model.