Globes showing lunar elevation data from 2005 (ULCN) and 2010 (LOLA) rotate side-by-side for comparison.

This animation illustrates the dramatic improvement in our knowledge of the Moon's terrain made possible by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. A LOLA digital elevation map compiled in late 2009 is compared to the Unified Lunar Control Network (ULCN) 2005, a painstakingly constructed map based on the best available data at the time, including imagery from the Clementine, Apollo, Mariner 10, and Galileo missions as well as Earth-based observations.
The height of the terrain is color-coded, with blues and greens representing low altitudes and reds representing high altitudes. The LOLA data used to create this media is available to the public in the LOLA archive of the PDS Geosciences node.

Animation Number: 3730
Completed: 2010-06-11
Animator: Ernie Wright (UMBC) (Lead)
Producer: Andrew Freeberg (NASA/GSFC)
Scientist: John Keller (NASA/GSFC)
Platforms/Sensors/Data Sets: Unified Lunar Control Network 2005 (1970 to 2005)
LRO/LOLA/Digital Elevation Map (2009-07-13 to 2009-12-17)
Series: The Moon
LRO - Animations

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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