Planets and Moons  ID: 5127

Lunar South Pole Terrain in Coded Color

Visualizations by Ernie Wright Released on July 22, 2023
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The camera flies toward and then around the Moon's South Pole as the natural surface color changes to colors that encode elevation. Thirty features at the South Pole are identified.
Three months after the launch of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009, the mission released its first batch of elevation measurements of the area around the lunar south pole. Fourteen years, 60,000 orbits, and over 10 billion laser shots later, LRO's picture of the south pole landscape has filled in nicely. LRO's detailed terrain maps will be vital for both human and robotic explorers scheduled to arrive at south pole locations in the coming years.
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An image of the Moon's South Pole colored by elevation, with labels for 29 craters and the recently named Mons Mouton.
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The colors used to show elevation at the South Pole of the Moon.
 

Older Version

The Moon's South Pole in 3D via LRO/LOLA First Light Data

Visualization Credits

Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Visualizer
David Ladd (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Producer
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Technical Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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Mission:
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)

Data Used:
LRO/LOLA/Digital Elevation Map also referred to as: DEM
view all stories where this data set is used
LRO/SELENE/LOLA/TC/DIgital Elevation Model also referred to as: SLDEM2015
Model
A digital elevation model of the Moon derived from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter and the SELENE Terrain Camera. See the description in Icarus. The data is here.
view all stories where this data set is used
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LRO Camera/Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic also referred to as: LROC WAC Color Mosaic
Mosaic - Arizona State University
This natural-color global mosaic is based on the 'Hapke normalized' mosaic from LRO's wide-angle camera. The data has been gamma corrected, white balanced, and range adjusted to more closely match human vision.
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
The Moon

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Moon
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> LRO
SVS >> Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
SVS >> LOLA
SVS >> Moon >> South Pole
SVS >> Topographical Map
SVS >> Solar System >> Moon >> Craters
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
SVS >> 4K