A Hapke model implementation for compositional analysis of VNIR spectra of Mercury

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2009.11.037 Byline: J. Warell, B.J.R. Davidsson Keywords: Mercury, Surface; Mineralogy; Radiative transfer; Regoliths; Spectroscopy Abstract: An implementation of Hapke's radiative transfer-based photometric model for light scattering in semi-transparent porous media is presented with special emphasis on the analysis of reflectance spectra of Mercury. The model allows intimate mixing of an arbitrary number of regolith components with varying modal abundances, modal chemistries and grain sizes, matured by microphase iron. Reflectance spectra of suites of silicates of varying grain sizes and chemistries are used to calculate the imaginary coefficient of the complex index of refraction as a function of chemistry, thus limiting the modeling effects of chemically atypical laboratory samples, and allowing controlled modeling of minerals with varying chemical compositions. The performance of the model in the visual to near-infrared wavelength range is evaluated for a range of chemically characterized silicate mixtures of terrestrial powders, meteorite powders, matured lunar return samples, and remotely sensed lunar spectra. Author Affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden Article History: Received 16 August 2009; Revised 16 October 2009; Accepted 13 November 2009