The Thermal Moon
Thermophysical surface equilibrium modeling across the 14-day lunar day/night cycle, regolith thermal inertia, and permanently shadowed polar cold traps (PSRs).
RADIOMETRIA THERMALIS · GUIDED SUNLINE
The Moon keeps the Sun’s ledger.
Follow one illumination vector from direct heating to the coldest shadows in the Solar System.
01 · SOLAR VECTOR
On the Moon, the Sun is a moving instrument.
With no atmosphere to distribute heat, the local solar angle becomes the first variable. Move the sub-solar longitude and the illumination vector sweeps across the selected site.
Thermal reading
Extreme Noon Heating
Surface 117.3°C · subsurface damping 119.4 K.
The selected site and illumination vector drive the entire thermal trace.
The Thermal Moon: LRO Diviner Radiometry Engine
Real-time thermophysical surface modeling across 14-day lunar day/night transitions and polar volatile cold-traps.
At temperatures below 110 Kelvin, water ice sublimation rate is < 1 meter per billion years. Temperatures above 150 Kelvin cause rapid explosive degassing to vacuum.