This is a mosaic made using a set of 429 controlled images with sub-solar longitudes ranging from 20 degrees to 30 degrees. These images are a subset of the images in a controlled mosaic consisting of 18323 NAC images of the lunar south polar region acquired between 2009 and 2013. Control solutions were performed using the ISIS jigsaw application using 1,677,811 points and over 14 million measures in the region from 90.0 to 85.0 degrees south. The network was constrained using points in images that were tied to Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) track data. The residuals from the bundle adjustment performed by ISIS jigsaw were (in pixels) a solution variance of 0.38, 0.27 at the first and third quartile, and 0.8 at 2-sigma. The mosaic was created by selecting images with similar sub-solar longitudes and layering the images such that the most representative image (closest sub-solar point) is on top. The mosaic provides an idea of what the surface looks like with varying degrees of sub-solar azimuths. The illumination mosaics only cover some of the polar region; therefore, blank tiles containing no NAC data and those with only a few NAC images are omitted from the archive. The images were map-projected using a polar digital elevation model derived from LOLA tracks.
While the control network only extends to 85 degrees south, the mosaic range is 84 to 90 degrees and is stored as 21 polar stereographic map tiles. The mosaic is tiled into with a scheme that includes four latitudinal bands of 1.5 degrees radiating from the pole. There are four tiles in the first band (88.5 to 90 degrees latitude), eight in the second (87 to 88.5 degrees latitude), twelve in the third (85.5 to 87 degrees latitude), and sixteen in the fourth band (84 to 85.5 degrees latitude). The mosaic is map projected in Stereographic projection at 1 meter/px centered at 90S, 0E with a radius of 1737400 m.
Each file is named with the following pattern:
NAC_POLE_SOUTH_CM_XXX_P###N????
where:
Low-resolution 8-bit browse products in PNG format for this product, along with full-resolution 8-bit GeoTIFFs, are available at the following location, with names matching those of the full-resolution IMG files: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/data/LRO-L-LROC-5-RDR-V1.0/LROLRC_2001/EXTRAS/BROWSE/NAC_POLE/NAC_POLE_SOUTH_CM_025
When citing this product, use the following reference:
B. Archinal, L. Weller, J. Richie, E. Lee, K. Bennett, E. Speyerer, and T. Tyburczy. (2023) Controlled High-Resolution LROC NAC Polar Mosaics. In Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (Vol. 54, abstract #2333). https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2023/pdf/2333.pdf
For more information on LROC Reduced Data Records (RDRs), please refer to the Software Interface Specification (SIS): http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/data/LRO-L-LROC-5-RDR-V1.0/LROLRC_2001/DOCUMENT/RDRSIS.PDF