Bibcode
Näränen, Jyri; Parviainen, Hannu; Muinonen, Karri; Carpenter, James; Nygård, Kim; Peura, Marko
Referencia bibliográfica
Icarus, Volume 198, Issue 2, p. 408-419.
Fecha de publicación:
12
2008
Revista
Número de citas
23
Número de citas referidas
22
Descripción
In the analysis of X-ray fluorescence spectra from planetary surfaces,
it is traditionally assumed that the observed surface is a
plane-parallel, smooth, and homogeneous medium. The spectral and spatial
resolutions of the instruments that have been used to measure X-ray
emission from planetary surfaces to date have been such that this has
been a reasonable assumption, but a new generation of X-ray
spectrometers will provide enhanced spectral and spatial resolutions
when compared with previous instrumentation. In light of these
improvements in performance, it is important to assess how the
requirements on the methodology of analysis of spectra may change when
the surface is considered as a regolith. At other wavelengths, varying
physical properties of planetary regoliths, such as the packing density,
are known to have an effect on the observed signal as a function of
viewing geometry. In this paper, the results from laboratory X-ray
fluorescence measurements of regolith analogue materials at different
viewing geometries are presented. Characteristic properties of the
regolith such as particle sizes and packing density are found to affect
the measured elemental line ratios. A semiempirical function is
introduced as a tool for fitting fluorescent line intensity dependences
as a function of viewing geometry. The importance of the results is
discussed and recommendations are made for the future analysis of
planetary X-ray fluorescence data.