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Lunar collapse pits may provide access to subsurface lava tubes of unknown extent. We present Diviner Lunar Radiometer measurements showing that the Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Ingenii pits exhibit elevated thermal emission during the night, ∼100 K warmer than the surrounding surface. Using these data, along with computational thermophysical models, we characterize the thermal environment inside pits and potential caves. Near the equator, peak day‐time temperatures on regolith‐covered pit floors can potentially reach >420 K, whereas temperatures beyond the opening in permanent shadow would maintain a nearly constant temperature of ∼290 K, similar to that of a blackbody cavity in radiative equilibrium. Thermal IR measurements such as those of Diviner can readily detect pit thermal signatures but would be insensitive to the existence of caves they may host, as the latter would only induce a 0.1 K increase to night‐time temperatures of the overlying surface. Plain Language Summary: Since the discovery of pits on the Moon by JAXA's SELENE spacecraft in 2009, there has been interest in whether they provide access to caves that could be explored by rovers and astronauts. These features are likely created by the ceiling of a lava tube (or more generally, cave) collapsing. Using data from the Diviner instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been continuously measuring the temperature of the lunar surface for over 11 years, we thoroughly characterized the environment of one prominent pit. Located in Mare Tranquillitatis, the pit's thermal environment is more hospitable compared to anywhere else on the Moon, with temperatures varying minimally around a comfortable 17°C (or 63° F) wherever the Sun does not shine directly. If a cave extends from a pit such as this, it too would maintain this comfortable temperature throughout its length, varying by less than 1°C over an entire lunar day. Although we cannot be completely certain of a cave's existence through remote observations, such features would open the door for future exploration and habitation on the Moon: they could provide shelter from dramatic temperature variations present elsewhere on the lunar surface. Key Points: Lunar pits stay warmer than the surface during the night, with the floor maintaining temperatures >230 K according to computational modelsCaves stemming from lunar pits would behave like blackbody cavities at ∼290 K and have nearly invariable temperatures far from the openingLunar caves would provide a temperate, stable, and safe thermal environment for long term exploration and habitation of the Moon [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese meteorological satellite Himawari-8 has captured the Earth's atmosphere and stars, planets, and the Moon in its field of view, enabling us to capture their spectroscopy with 16 bands from visible to mid-infrared wavelengths. The nine infrared bands in the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) onboard Himawari-8 are unique in spaceborne observations and are potentially useful for lunar science. In addition, infrared bands of AHI cover wavelengths similar to those of other interplanetary instruments and thus are useful for calibrations. However, infrared AHI data have not yet been investigated in planetary science. To confirm the utility of AHI for planetary science, we develop a procedure to retrieve the lunar infrared spectrum and compare it with thermal conduction simulations. Our analysis shows that lunar brightness temperature curves can be obtained in the morning, evening, and nighttime for all nine bands. Particularly at 8.5 μm, they show a good agreement with previous observations by the Diviner radiometer onboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. As pointed out previously, the brightness temperatures differ between the bands, indicating temperature mixing within a pixel. Our simulation suggests that surface roughness as steep as those measured at the Apollo landing sites significantly contributes to the observed brightness temperature differences in the morning and evening; however, nighttime brightness temperatures are greatly affected by rocks with higher thermal inertia than the regolith. The rock abundances are estimated to be 0.18–0.48% and 6.1–10.3% at the equator and within Tycho crater, respectively. Our estimations from AHI data are consistent with those of Diviner. These results support the idea that AHI potentially serves as a space telescope for future lunar and planetary sciences, for example, for constraining water content on the lunar surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave emission is influenced by regolith thermophysical properties that can reveal the geological evolution of the Moon. Lunar near-surface microwave emission has been systematically investigated by the microwave radiometer (MRM) onboard Chinese Chang’E-2 (CE-2) lunar satellite. However, recent work showed that global calibration issues were causing discrepancies between CE-2 observations and theoretical simulations at 3.0- and 7.8-GHz channels, which influences data interpretations and applications. In this study, we use a new method to improve thermal models by employing the bolometric brightness temperature and thermophysical property of subsurface structure derived from high quality and repeated coverage Diviner data. The derived subsurface temperatures make it possible for us to improve the accuracy of microwave brightness temperature ($T_{B}$) simulation within 70°N/S latitudes. We evaluate the MRM data quantitatively by comparing the global $T_{B}$ between modeled values and CE-2 observations (i.e., offset values) at different local times (LTs) and latitudes. The results show that offset values of the two channels vary significantly with LT, especially near 06:00 and 18:00. However, the 7.8-GHz channel presents greater (~12k in average) calibration uncertainties than the 3.0-GHz channel. In addition, the offset of both the two channels becomes complex at high latitudes but presents an obvious north–south asymmetry. Finally, we modify the MRM data according to different offsets at different LTs and latitudes. The modified global $T_{B}$ maps provide us a new view to characterize the lunar near-surface thermal environment, especially for low- $T_{B}$ spots that are related to the elevated rock abundance and crater degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water ice is expected to be trapped in permanently cold regions near the lunar poles. Other ices ("super‐volatiles") are trapped at lower temperatures, close to the lowest temperatures measured within the lunar permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). Here, the thermal stability of solid carbon dioxide in the south polar region is determined by analysis of 11 years of temperature measurements by Diviner, a radiometer onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Sublimation rates averaged over a draconic year are far lower than peak sublimation rates. Small spatially contiguous pockets of CO2 ice stability are found in the craters Amundsen, Haworth, de Gerlache, and others, over a cumulative area of roughly 200 km2. The LCROSS probe impacted one of those pockets and released CO2, serving as validation of the thermal stability calculations. Future surface missions can utilize this highly localized resource for the production of fuel, steel, and biological materials. Plain Language Summary: Carbon‐bearing species would be essential for sustained robotic or human presence on the Moon, for use in rocket fuel and biological materials. Various volatiles can be cold‐trapped in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles. The existence of carbon dioxide cold traps has previously been surmised, but the required temperatures are near the lowest surface temperatures that have been reliably measured. Extensive and improved analysis of 11 years of orbital surface temperature measurements establishes the existence of carbon dioxide cold traps on the Moon, which potentially host high concentrations of solid carbon dioxide. Large CO2 cold traps are rare, however, and the geographic concentration of the resource will have policy implications. Key Points: Time‐dependent sublimation rates for CO2 are calculated based on 11 years of Diviner temperature measurementsExtensive data analysis establishes the existence of carbon dioxide cold traps in the south polar region of the MoonSolid carbon dioxide is expected to be highly localized [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lunar surface temperature (LST) derived from thermal infrared (TIR) measurements can aid in understanding the physical properties of the lunar surface. The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (herein, Diviner) sensor provides global lunar surface observation in seven TIR channels. However, its retrieval of LST constantly uses a single emissivity value (i.e., 0.95) by ignoring the spatial variation of lunar surface, thereby reducing the accuracy of temperature and day–night temperature difference. To overcome this problem, this study developed a physical method called temperature–emissivity separation (TES) algorithm to retrieve LST and lunar surface emissivity from the daytime observation in three Christiansen Feature (CF) channels (7.55–8.05, 8.10–8.40, and 8.38–8.60 μm) of the Diviner, and then used the emissivity from daytime observation to inverse LST at nighttime observation. Findings showed that the TES algorithm could retrieve LST and emissivity with an error of less than 0.8 K and 0.008, respectively. However, observation noise significantly affected the retrieval accuracy, particularly for the low‐temperature pixels; moreover, high retrieval accuracy requires a surface temperature higher than 240 K. The new algorithm was applied to obtain the daytime and nighttime LST and emissivity from the Diviner images. Results showed that the LST retrieved from the algorithm differed approximately 3.9 K from that calculated from a single emissivity 0.95. Finally, an example of global surface temperature and emissivity were obtained. Consequently, the CF pixels were found to distribute in the latitude range from −60° to 60°; however, they did not have a large distribution in high‐latitude and near‐polar regions. Key Points: A physical algorithm was proposed to estimate lunar surface temperature and emissivity from Diviner daytime and nighttime observationsLunar surface temperature retrieved from the new algorithm differed 3.9 K from that calculated from a fixed emissivity 0.95Global lunar Christiansen Feature pixels were identified and found to mainly distribute in the latitude range from −60° to 60° [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basin‐forming impacts expose material from deep within the interior of the Moon. Given the number of lunar basins, one would expect to find samples of the lunar mantle among those returned by the Apollo or Luna missions or within the lunar meteorite collection. However, only a few candidate mantle samples have been identified. Some remotely detected locations have been postulated to contain mantle‐derived material, but none are mineralogically consistent upon study with multiple techniques. To locate potential remnants of the lunar mantle, we searched for early‐crystallizing minerals using data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) and the Diviner Lunar Radiometer (Diviner). While the lunar crust is largely composed of plagioclase, the mantle should contain almost none. M3 spectra were used to identify massifs bearing mafic minerals and Diviner was used to constrain the relative abundance of plagioclase. Of the sites analyzed, only Mons Wolff was found to potentially contain mantle material. Plain Language Summary: During the Moon's early development, minerals such as olivine and pyroxene would have crystallized first, sinking toward the lunar interior and becoming the primary components of the mantle. After approximately 70–80% of the magma ocean solidified, plagioclase began to crystallize and floated on the iron‐rich residual melt. The lunar highland crust is characterized by an abundance of plagioclase, whereas samples of the mantle should contain very little plagioclase. Considering the size and number of large impact basins on the Moon, one would expect that some of these dug through the lunar crust, exposing lunar mantle. However, very few candidates for mantle material have been identified among the lunar samples on Earth. This study uses near‐infrared data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper to identify sites on the surface that contain early‐crystallizing minerals (olivine and pyroxene), which are indicative of mantle material. These sites were then analyzed using data from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer, which is able to constrain the abundance of these minerals relative to the amount of plagioclase present. Based on our analysis, the Imbrium Basin contains only one instance of rocks that are mineralogically consistent with being sourced from the mantle. Key Points: Lunar rocks exhibiting mafic signatures in the near infrared are inconsistent with ultramafic compositions when viewed in the mid‐infraredCombining data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper and Diviner Lunar Radiometer enabled bulk and mafic mineralogy to be robustly interpretedA near‐ and mid‐infrared survey of the inner and outer rings of Imbrium Basin reveals only Mons Wolff as potential exposed mantle [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach is presented to efficiently produce high quality gridded data records from the large, global point-based dataset returned by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The need to minimize data volume and processing time in production of science-ready map products is increasingly important with the growth in data volume of planetary datasets. Diviner makes on average >1400 observations per second of radiance that is reflected and emitted from the lunar surface, using 189 detectors divided into 9 spectral channels. Data management and processing bottlenecks are amplified by modeling every observation as a probability distribution function over the field of view, which can increase the required processing time by 2–3 orders of magnitude. Geometric corrections, such as projection of data points onto a digital elevation model, are numerically intensive and therefore it is desirable to perform them only once. Our approach reduces bottlenecks through parallel binning and efficient storage of a pre-processed database of observations. Database construction is via subdivision of a geodesic icosahedral grid, with a spatial resolution that can be tailored to suit the field of view of the observing instrument. Global geodesic grids with high spatial resolution are normally impractically memory intensive. We therefore demonstrate a minimum storage and highly parallel method to bin very large numbers of data points onto such a grid. A database of the pre-processed and binned points is then used for production of mapped data products that is significantly faster than if unprocessed points were used. We explore quality controls in the production of gridded data records by conditional interpolation, allowed only where data density is sufficient. The resultant effects on the spatial continuity and uncertainty in maps of lunar brightness temperatures is illustrated. We identify four binning regimes based on trades between the spatial resolution of the grid, the size of the FOV and the on-target spacing of observations. Our approach may be applicable and beneficial for many existing and future point-based planetary datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the significance of the vocation to divinership (ukuthwasa) for a contemporary Xhosa Afro-soul artist. We explore the singer's calling and the way in which she blurs the boundaries between what it means to be a traditional Xhosa healer and what it means to be a contemporary singer who chooses to sing in Xhosa about Xhosa cultural practices. The healing power of the vernacular is not explicitly declared, although her lyrics suggest that it is through singing in Xhosa that she can best realize her potential as a healer. We demonstrate that the singer's choice of a culturally specific non-secular lexicon firmly situates her within an ideological framework that underscores a commitment to, and belief in, a social experience specific to Xhosa healers. We further examine the disjuncture created by the absence of a traditional divination musical style in songs which nevertheless overtly declare an allegiance to a spiritual journey marked by a particular musical tradition. Finally we question the relevance and significance of the diviner calling to young, urban Xhosa speakers and their reaction to a popular singer making her calling public through her music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be the first instrument to systematically map the global thermal state of the Moon and its diurnal and seasonal variability. Diviner will measure reflected solar and emitted infrared radiation in nine spectral channels with wavelengths ranging from 0.3 to 400 microns. The resulting measurements will enable characterization of the lunar thermal environment, mapping surface properties such as thermal inertia, rock abundance and silicate mineralogy, and determination of the locations and temperatures of volatile cold traps in the lunar polar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is one of the biggest country in terms of diversity and northeast is heart of its wildlife diversity. Northeast region of the India comprising states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur,Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura still follow the age old traditional healing systemsbased on their tribal method & practices. People living the tribal life style in these regions they live long & are healthier they are using plant of these regions and thriving on medicinal aspects. Each state is having its own dialect, plant and resources for meeting out the requirement of community including health facilities they are important to region due the terrain of the area. They all adaptherbs, animal parts, mantras for keeping them healthy. During various studies it was observed that thetraditional healers in this region belong to different categories like herbalist, diviners and birth attendantsetc. Their method of treatment, ethics and significance of traditional healing practices are discussed inthis abstract. Now, scientific validation and recognition of traditional healing medicines are urgentlyrequired for revitalizing this loosing traditional knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]