Study on regolith modeling and lunar penetrating radar simulation

Abstract

Lunar penetrating radar (LPR) is an important way to carry out lunar probing. The detection result of Rabbit lunar radar carried by Chang'E 3 provides a reliable scientific foundation for studying the underground structure and depth distribution of the Moon. The regolith modeling and numerical simulation can provide a reliable reference for lunar detection and data interpretation. In this abstract, we try to build a lunar near-surface model according to previous research result which is as far as possible simulating a realistic situation of the regolith layer. We use a finite difference time domain (FDTD) numerical simulation tool and analyze the electromagnetic response characteristics of the model. Simple processing was performed including migration and topographic correction. Our study does not only show a reliable method to establish a lunar near-surface model, but also provide a reference to process and interpret LPR data.