CesiumGS / cesium

An open-source JavaScript library for world-class 3D globes and maps :earth_americas:
https://cesium.com/cesiumjs/
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Verify moon ellipsoid radii #12117

Open javagl opened 2 months ago

javagl commented 2 months ago

The Ellipsoid.MOON radii are currently all equal, with LUNAR_RADIUS = 1737400.0. The comment for the LUNAR_RADIUS refers to the "Report of the IAU/IAG Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements of the Planets and satellites: 2000" (PDF link: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10569-007-9072-y.pdf ). This says in Table 5:

Mean radius (km) Subplanetary equatorial radius (km) Along orbit equatorial radius (km) Polar radius (km)
Moon 1737.4 ± 1 Same Same Same

The IAU 2015 moon datum also seems to assume the moon to be a sphere, with a fixed radius of 1737400.

In contrast to that, the NASA Moon Fact Sheet lists the radii as

(Other sources list slightly different and seemingly more precise values, e.g. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023AcGG...58..139C/abstract talks about 1,737,576.6 m for the semi-major axis - but ... I don't have a measuring tape at hand, so cannot confirm this - it might, in fact, be 1,737,576.61 m ...)

We should check which are the "right" radii to use for the moon ellipsoid.

GatorScott commented 2 months ago

We've only seen 1737400.0 used in practice, though I wouldn't be surprised if some study used the ellipsoid. I read somewhere that the effective difference between using the ellipsoid and sphere is on the order of 2-3 meters which isn't noticeable for most purpose.

malaretv commented 2 months ago

Seconding @GatorScott.

Moon as a 1737400m sphere is pretty ubiquitous across lunar datasets and maps. It makes sense to me as the default.