Lunar Remote Sensing and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

The exploration of the Moon has generated a large volume of various datasets for addressing scientifically important questions on lunar geology, including the origin of the Moon, the origin and evolution of the lunar crust and mantle, the compositional structure of the lunar interior, lunar volcanism and impact cratering processes, regolith evolution and mixing dynamics, space weathering, as well as searching for and utilizing resources for a human future presence on the Moon. Analysis of the rock samples returned by the Apollo and Luna missions has resulted in numerous important discoveries and observations revolving around these scientific questions. However, the lunar samples returned to Earth so far have very limited spatial coverage, and extrapolation of the sample-based geological context to the global or regional scale surface setting of the Moon heavily relies on remote sensing datasets acquired by lunar spacecraft.

Lunar remote sensing images are mainly composed of multi- and hyper-spectral datasets in the visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR), and shortwave infrared (SWIR), which are sensitive to the mineralogical composition of the lunar surface because of the spectrally diagnostic absorption features of major minerals (e.g. olivine, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, ilmenite, plagioclase) and different glasses on the Moon. On the other hand, thermal infrared (TIR) and passive microwave data are definitely necessary for mapping substrate physical properties (temperature, regolith size, thickness and layering) and chemical compositions, which are helpful for refining the classification of the substrate regolith and mare basaltic units and for mapping lunar faults and tectonic units.

Over the past decades, a wealth of remotely-sensed photographic and spectroscopic data have been collected by various lunar missions such as Clementine, Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-1 (SMART-1), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, SELENE, Chang’E I-III, and Chandrayaan-1. Additionally, a large fleet of new lunar missions will be launched in next few years by different countries and private sectors. These previously and newly acquired remote sensing data provide unprecedented opportunities to study the Moon by the examination of new ideas and testing data analysis algorithms.

This Special Issue invites manuscripts resulting from the analysis of remote sensing datasets acquired by the latest lunar missions, as well as from lab-measured spectral data with the aim of highlighting the importance of lab spectroscopic and imaging remote sensing in studies of the Moon. The Special Issue also welcomes to manuscripts reporting research results from various observations and measurements by use of photography, X-ray, gamma-ray, gravitational, magnetic, and topographic data, which advance our current knowledge of the Moon. The topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• Optical remote sensing and data analysis techniques for the identification and mapping of lunar regolith, mineralogy, and lithology;
• Thermal remote sensing of physical and compositional properties of the lunar surface;
• Microwave remote sensing of lunar subsurface structure;
• Radiative transfer models for lunar remote sensing;
• Integration of remote sensing data with laboratory spectral and compositional measurements;
• Photogeological analysis of lunar terrains;
• Photogeological analysis of lunar faults and tectonic units;
• Photogeological analysis of lunar volcanism;
• Photogeological analysis of impact craters, South Pole-Aitken (SPA) and other basins;
• Remote sensing of lunar polar regions and space weathering

Prof. Dr. Shengbo Chen
Prof. Dr. Lin Li
Prof. Dr. Yuanzhi Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.