IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY OF THE MOON - DATA REDUCTION-ANALYSIS TECHNIQUESAND COMPOSITIONAL VARIABILITY OF THE MARE SERENITATIS-TRANQUILLITATISREGION

In this paper we present some data concerning the lunar surface, obtai ned using a 0.4-1.1 mu m imaging spectrometer at the Institute of Astr ophysics of Andalucia 1.5m telescope in the Sierra Nevada Observatory. The data set consists of 16 image cubes (approximately 500,000 spectr a) covering different lunar regions. Most of the areas imaged concern zones where red spots have been reported by previous authors (Whitaker , 1972; Bruno et al., 1991). They include Aristarchus plateau, Alphons us, Gambart and Plate craters; Mare Serenitatis was also observed in o rder to calculate the spectral reflectance from the raw data. In this work we present the procedures we applied to analyze this set of data and we compare our results with those obtained by means of traditional techniques. In particular, we have studied the Mare Serenitatis-Mare Tranquillitatis region using statistical procedures with the objective of obtaining compositional maps. Using the principal component techni que, the different composition of maria and highlands is revealed, and fresh crater? against the underlying soil become apparent. A clusteri ng technique allowed us to distinguish Spectrally different areas with in the study region. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.