English

New surface composition and temperature maps of Pluto from New Horizons LEISA data

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2026-03-24 v1

Abstract

New Horizons RALPH/LEISA near-infrared spectra allow for regional mapping of Pluto's surface ices and their physical state; however, scan-to-scan artifacts and variable spatial resolution complicate quantitative interpretation. We extend previous LEISA compositional studies (Protopapa et al., 2017(arXiv:2110.00662); Schmitt et al., 2016; Emran et al., 2023(arXiv:2301.06027)) by combining five close-approach observations into co-registered equirectangular maps at 7 km/pixel and by jointly retrieving surface temperature, ice abundances, and grain sizes using a Hapke-based mixing model. We mitigate bad pixels and edge overexposure linked to flat-field uncertainties and correct for residual scan-to-scan spectral discrepancies using per-observation scale and offset terms. The resulting maps provide distributions of CH4-rich ice, N2-rich ice, H2O ice, and Titan tholins, alongside a corresponding temperature map.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.21860,
  title  = {New surface composition and temperature maps of Pluto from New Horizons LEISA data},
  author = {A. E. Drozdov and N. V. Emelyanov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.21860},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Icarus (2026)

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:33:08.957Z