A Simulation Method for Thermal Infrared Imagery from Moon-Based Earth Observations

As a unique natural satellite of the Earth, the Moon has always attracted much attention, and one subject of interest is the establishment of an Earth observation platform on the Moon. Compared with the existing spaceborne and airborne observation platforms, a Moon-based Earth observation platform would have the unique advantage of the ability to obtain global and large-scale observation data. At present, the study on Moon-based Earth observations is in theory, so it is necessary to use simulation methods to understand the observation performance of a Moon-based Earth observation platform. In this study, a method for Moon-based Earth observation imaging simulation in the thermal infrared band is developed to study the Moon-based thermal infrared imaging process. The method comprises three parts, including the estimation of Moon-based imaging coverage, the acquisition of the radiation intensity at the entrance pupil, and the simulated image output from the Moon-based thermal infrared sensor. Then, the simulated results are validated with the existing spaceborne observation data. Results show that the absolute error of Moon-based thermal infrared simulations is between 1.3-5.7 K, the RMSE is between 1.38 - 3.12 K, and the relative error is between 0.44% - 2.12%, indicating that the thermal infrared imaging model can more realistically simulate the true conditions of ground surface and that a Moon-based Earth observation platform could observe the Earth in the thermal infrared band.