Research on the lunar ionosphere using dual-frequency radio occultation with a small VLBI antenna

Abstract

The Vstar in the Japanese lunar SELENE Radio Science experiment was occulted by virtue of the lunar ionosphere. Using the single sub-satellite and the S/X band coherent radio waves, dual-frequency measurements were acquired at a ground receiving station. In order to investigate the variation of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) surrounding the moon, the TEC, including the terrestrial ionosphere, the interplanetary plasma and lunar ionosphere, can be derived from the phase information of the observational data. We update the observation equation and algorithms, calculate the linear fitting trend of the lunar ionosphere from 60 to 30 km above the surface of the moon. The fitting trend is extended from 30 to 0 km above the surface of the moon. The lunar ionosphere is obtained by using the short time trend extrapolation method.