Lunar deflections of the vertical and their distribution

Jinyun Guo, Yu Sun, Xiaotao Chang, Fanlin Yang

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DOI: 10.4236/ns.2011.35045                

Abstract

The deflection of the vertical reflects the mass distribution and density anomaly of celestial bodies. Lunar deflections of the vertical include directional information of the Moon’s gravity field. SGM90d, recovered from SELENE mission, revealed the lunar far side gravity field for the first time in history owes to 4-way Doppler data. Lunar deflections of the vertical and their meridional and prime vertical components are calculated from SGM90d, and then their global distributions are also given in the paper. The gradients of lunar deflections of the vertical are defined and computed as well. The correlations between the lunar deflections of the vertical and the lunar terrain have been fully discussed. Many different characteristics of lunar deflections of vertical have been found between the near side and the far side of the Moon, which may be caused from the lithospheric compensation and the uplifting of mantle.

Keywords

Lunar Deflections of the Vertical; Lunar Gravity Field; Lunar Topography; Gradient of Vertical Deflection

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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