Lunar digital elevation model and elevation distribution model based on Chang’E-1 LAM data

More than 8.2 million effective data samples were obtained by the Chang’E-1 Laser Altimeter (LAM). In order to produce a global topographic model of the moon with improved accuracy, a hierarchical many-knot spline method was proposed in this paper. This algorithm makes use of a hierarchy of control lattices to approximate or interpolate the LAM data. Based on the proposed algorithm, a 0.0625°×0.0625° grid of global lunar DEM was obtained and it was compared with ULCN2005, CLTM-s01 and Kaguya models, respectively. At the same time, this paper explored the elevation distribution law and established the elevation distribution model. It is shown that the global lunar and nearside elevation distribution is positively skewed and lep-tokurtic normal distribution, and the farside elevation distribution is a positively skewed and platykurtic normal distribution.