Abstract
The results of the photometric and polarimetric observation of the Moon's surface with high resolution from October 1969 to March 1971 are discussed. It is found that, for a wide part of the Moon's illuminated surface, the brightnessm, expressed by visual magnitude per square second of arc, can be expressed as
whereH is the variable part of Hapke's formula,P v is the observed polarization degree, andP(α) is a function of the phase angleα. The color shows a tendency to reddening at the enhancement of the lunar brightness, and this is expressed by the relation
where Δm =m + 2.5 logH which is a sort of residual from the brightness calculated by Hapke's formula. Remarkable enhancements of the lunar brightness correspond to solar flares which appeared just before the observations. Because of this the above formula for the observed brightness can be interpreted by assuming the luminescence on the lunar surface stimulated by the solar activity.
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References
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Sekiguchi, N. A photometric and polarimetric study of the moon's surface. The Moon 5, 368–389 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00563089
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00563089