1,- 1Planetary Science Institute, Tucson AZ, USA
- 2NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville AL, USA
- 3Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel MD, USA
Introduction: Observations from the MESSENGER mission has shown us that Mercury is a volatile-rich planet, beginning with the detection of such volatile species as sodium and chloride (Evans et al. 2015), potassium (Peplowski et al. 2012), and sulphur (Nittler et al. 2011; Evans et al. 2012). Several landforms associated with the presence or interactions with volailtes include hollows (Blewett et al. 2011. 2013, 2016a), pyroclastic vents (Strom et al. 1975; Head wet al. 2008; Goudge et al. 2014; Byrne et al. 2018; Galiano et al. 2022), chaotic terrains (Rodriguez et al. 2020), and glacier-like flow features (Rodriguez et al. 2023). Here we present the photometric analyses of examples of these landforms, and the implications for the regolith properties.
Figure 1. Location of one of the regions examined in Raditladi basin that includes both hollows and glacier-like flows. The bottom panel of four images, clockwise from upper left, are the single scattering albedo, surface roughness, scattering function amplitude parameter, and scattering function partition parameter.
Data and methods: Images acquired by MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) were used in these analyses. The techniques of stereophotoclinometry (SPC) were used to create digital terrain models (DTMs) of the study areas. The result is a set of images, each tied to the regional DTM, that includes information about the incidence, emission, and phase angle values that account for topography in addition to reflectance values for each pixel in the image. The Hapke set of equations were used to model the photometric properties of each region.
Results: Examples of the some of the regions examined include the hollows and glacier-like flows in Raditladi (Fig. 1) and the Nathair Facula pyroclastic vent (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Nathair facula vent region examined. The four panel, clockwise from upper left, are the single scattering albedo, surface roughness, scattering function amplitude parameter, and scattering function partition parameter.
Conclusions: The results from these analyses show distinct regolith properties between the basin floor, the glacier-like flow, and the hollows within Raditladi. The regolith properties near the Nathair Facula vent indicate distinctive textures for the vent deposit.
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Acknowledgments:
This project was supported by NASA’s Solar System Working’s program 80NSSC21K0165 and NASA’s Discovery Data Analysis program 80NSSC24K0066.
How to cite: Domingue, D., Weirich, J., Palmer, E., Chuang, F., Rodriguez, A., and Jozwiak, L.: Photometric properties of volatile associated landforms, EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-1025, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-1025, 2025.
