Expected characterization of Mercury’s surface from global to local scales by the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) |
Auteur | Szczech Claudia Camila |
Institution | Technical University of Berlin |
Theme | Theme2 |
| Auteur(s) supplémentaire(s) | Gaku Nishiyama 2,3, Alexander Stark 3, Christian Hüttig 3, Hauke Hussmann 3, Klaus Gwinner 3, Ernst Hauber 3, Kai Wickhusen 3, Fabian Lüdicke 3, Luisa M. Lara 4 and Nicolas Thomas 5 |
| Institution(s) supplémentaire(s) | 2 Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 3 Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany 4 Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain 5 Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland |
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Abstract | The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) is on route to Mercury as payload of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO). After orbit insertion at Mercury the instrument will characterize the surface of Mercury by obtaining topographic profiles consisting of highly accurate height measurements (range errors are mostly below 1 m). With the natural evolution of MPO’s orbit (drift of pericenter latitude) and the ranging capabilities of BELA, reaching up to 1400 km above the surface, the complete surface of Mercury can be observed with gaps in coverage not larger than a few km. However, as a consequence of the polar orbit of MPO the density of BELA measurements is strongly varying with latitude, with highest density at the polar regions where the profiles converge. Local features at the polar regions, e.g. craters in permanent shadow, can be characterized with lateral resolutions below 100 m. Moreover, in contrast to previous laser altimeter measurements at Mercury, BELA will extend the analysis of the surface down to the meter scale by performing a detailed analysis of the return pulse shape. Besides the measurement of the exact arrival time of the return pulse, the pulse shape analysis also provides estimates on the surface albedo and roughness within the BELA footprint (diameter from 20 to 80 m depending on altitude). We present the expected coverage of Mercury’s surface by BELA by taking the latest ranging performance assessments based on ground and cruise tests. Furthermore, we will generate realistic return pulse shapes from different surface landforms. The generated data will be analyzed and the results will be checked against the data used for simulation. This will allow us to demonstrate the expected capabilities of BELA and their potential use for detailed geomorphological and geologic analysis of Mercury’s surface. |
