LRO Mini-RF Bistatic Reduced Data Record (BSRDR)

BSRDR – Bistatic Reduced Data Record

PDS Data Set ID: LRO-L-MRFLRO-2/3/5-BISTATIC-V2.0

For more information about Bistatic RDR products, see the Bistatic Data Set Description.

The Mini-RF (MRFLRO) Bistatic Reduced Data Record (BSRDR) data product represents the four Stokes parameters and the Circular Polarization Ratio of data acquired as bistatic radar data using the Arecibo Radar Observatory as a transmitter and the Mini-RF instrument on LRO as a receiver. The BSRDR products are calculated from Experiment Data Records (BSEDRs) that have been radiometrically and polarimetrically calibrated and are resampled such that the data can be presented as 100 meter square pixels.

Since December 26, 2010, the Mini-RF instrument has not transmitted the RF energy required to create radar images of the lunar surface. Instead, Arecibo transmits a lefthand circular polarized (LHCP) signal at S-band wavelength that is reflected off the lunar surface and received in orthogonal linear polarization at Mini-RF. The purpose of these measurements is to explore the radar backscatter characteristics as a function of bistatic angle, the angle between the transmitted and received angles. By using both Arecibo and Mini-RF, we have the capability to collect data of the Moon with bistatic angles other than zero.

The first Stokes parameter (S1) represents the total power or total intensity of the received field. The second Stokes parameter (S2) represents the difference between the horizontally polarized intensity and the vertically polarized intensity. The third (S3) and fourth Stokes parameters (S4) jointly represent the real and imaginary phase differences, respectively, between the horizontally and vertically polarized components of the received field. The Circular Polarization Ratio (CPR) is a dimensionless parameter represented by the ratio (S1-S4)/(S1+S4) and indicates the roughness of the surface.

MRFLRO BSRDR products have the following file names:

LST_nnnnn_1tt_XIU_aahddd_Vz.IMG (with detached PDS label)

where:

L = LRO

S = S-band

T = bistatic product

nnnnn = orbit number

1 = RDR

tt = product type

S1, S2, S3, S4 = Stokes parameters S1-S4

CP = circular polarization ratio

X = no map projection

I = pixel resolution of 118 m/pixel which is close to the 100 m/pixel resolution of the bistatic images

U = data type of regular real number

aa = lunar latitude of the center of the bistatic image, range 0 to 90 degrees

h = hemisphere of the latitude, N for northern latitude or S for southern latitude

ddd = lunar longitude of the center of the bistatic image, range 0 to 359 degrees

z = product version number

In ODE, BSRDR products have the following product IDs:

LST_NNNNN_1TT_XIU_AAHDDD_VZ