Trajectory Retrieval and Component Investigations of Southern Polar Stratosphere Based on High Resolution Spectroscopy of Totally Eclipsed Moon Surface

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopy during a lunar eclipse to analyze the southern polar stratosphere's composition and trajectory effects, revealing atmospheric gas abundances and scattering contributions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using lunar eclipse spectral data to investigate stratospheric composition and trajectory effects with high resolution.

Findings

Detected absorption bands of atmospheric gases like O2, O3, O4, NO2, H2O.

Analyzed O2 and O4 bands to trace solar emission trajectory through the stratosphere.

Measured abundances of various gases along the observed trajectory.

Abstract

In this paper we present the high resolution spectral observations of the fragment of lunar surface during the total lunar eclipse of December 10, 2011. The observations were carried out with the fiber-fed echelle spectrograph at 1.2-m telescope in Kourovka Astronomical observatory (Ural mountains, central Russia). The observed radiation is transferred by tangent trajectory through the southern polar stratosphere before the reflection from the Moon and spectra contain a number of absorption bands of atmospheric gases (O2, O3, O4, NO2, H2O). High resolution analysis of three O2 bands and O4 absorption effects is used to trace the effective trajectory of solar emission through the stratosphere and to detect the contribution of scattered light. Bands of other gases allow us to measure their abundances along the trajectory.