Implications of Surface Roughness in Models of Water Desorption on the Moon

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that surface roughness significantly affects water retention and desorption on the Moon, challenging previous models that assumed flat surfaces and highlighting the importance of including topography in lunar water models.

Contribution

The paper introduces a thermophysical model that explicitly incorporates surface roughness, revealing its critical role in lunar water stability and distribution.

Findings

Surface roughness increases water retention on the lunar sunlit surface.

Roughness effects extend to regions within 45° of lunar poles.

Accurate water modeling requires considering surface topography.

Abstract

The observed presence of water molecules in the dayside lunar regolith was an unexpected discovery and remains poorly understood. Standard thermophysical models predict temperatures that are too high for adsorbed water to be stable. We propose that this problem can be caused by the assumption of locally flat surfaces that is common in such models. Here we apply a model that explicitly considers surface roughness, and accounts for solar illumination, shadows cast by topography, self-heating, thermal reradiation, and heat conduction. We couple the thermophysical model to a model of first-order desorption of lunar surface water and demonstrate that surface roughness substantially increases the capability of the Moon to retain water on its sunlit hemisphere at any latitude, and within $45^{\circ}$ of the poles, at any time of the lunar day. Hence, we show that lunar surface roughness has a strong influence on lunar water adsorption and desorption. Therefore, it is of critical importance to take account of surface roughness to get an accurate picture of the amount of water on the Moon's surface and in its exosphere.