Laser altimetry data of Chang'E-1 and the global lunar DEM model

The Laser AltiMeter (LAM), as one of the main payloads of Chang'E-1 probe, is used to measure the topography of the lunar surface. It performed the first measurement at 02:22 on November 28th, 2007. Up to December 4th 2008, the total number of measurements was approximately 9.12 million, covering the whole surface of the Moon. Using the LAM data, we constructed a global lunar Digtal Elevation Model (DEM) with 3 km spatial resolution. The model shows pronounced morphological characteristics, legible and vivid details of the lunar surface. The plane positioning accuracy of the DEM is 445 m (1 sigma), and the vertical accuracy is 60 m (1 sigma). From this DEM model, we measured the full range of the altitude difference on the lunar surface, which is about 19.807 km. The highest point is 10.629 km high, on a peak between crater Korolev and crater Dirichlet-Jackson at (158.656A degrees W, 5.441A degrees N) and the lowest point is -9.178 km in height, inside crater Antoniadi (172.413A degrees W, 70.368A degrees S) in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. By comparison, the DEM model of Chang'E-1 is better than the USA ULCN2005 in accuracy and resolution and is probably identical to the DEM of Japan SELENE, but the DEM of Chang'E-1 reveals a new lowest point, clearly lower than that of SELENE.