On February 12, 2024, the research titled "Rover-Mounted Radar Observation of Discrete Layers Within the Top 4 Meters of Regolith at the Chang’E-3 Landing Site, the Moon" by the team led by Prof. Ding Chunyu was published in the journalIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Institute for Advanced Study served as the first completion unit; Prof. Ding Chunyu was both the first author and corresponding author. The co-authors of the paper included Dr. Chang Yiren from Shanghai Normal University, Prof. Su Yan from the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, undergraduate student Wang Jiawei from Institute for Advanced Study, and Associate Professor Xie Minggang from Guilin University of Technology.

The Chang'E-3 mission, a phase in China's lunar exploration project "Orbit, Landing, Return," carried a radar payload for the first time on the Yutu rover to observe the subsurface structure of the Moon. This provided an unparalleled opportunity for precise study of the internal structure of lunar regolith. Based on radar data from the Chang'E-3 mission, this study revealed the existence of multiple discrete layers within the regolith at a depth of 4 meters. To further investigate this phenomenon, we constructed a realistic stochastic medium model of lunar regolith and extensively compared simulated radar data with actual observation data. Through comprehensive analysis, we confirmed the presence of multiple discrete layers within the lunar regolith. By integrating the geological background of the Chang'E-3 landing site and the principles of crater formation, we speculate that these discrete layers may be the result of multiple depositions of ejecta from surrounding small craters. This finding not only suggests the widespread existence of multiple discrete layers within lunar regolith but also indicates the significant contribution of ejecta from small craters on the accumulation of local lunar regolith thickness.

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.42241139 and No.42004099), the Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. LDSE202005), and the Shenzhen Municipal Government Investment Project (No.2106-440300-04-03-901272).

Paper Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10433208