TY - JOUR A1 - Gläser, Philipp A1 - Sanin, Anton A1 - Williams, Jean‐Pierre A1 - Mitrofanov, Igor A1 - Oberst, Jürgen T1 - Temperatures Near the Lunar Poles and Their Correlation With Hydrogen Predicted by LEND Y1 - 2021-08-30 VL - 126 IS - 9 JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets DO - 10.1029/2020JE006598 PB - N2 - The lunar polar regions offer permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) representing the only regions which are cold enough for water ice to accumulate on the surface. The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has mapped the polar regions for their hydrogen abundance which possibly resides there in the form of water ice. Neutron suppression regions (NSRs) are regions of excessive hydrogen concentrations and were previously identified using LEND data. At each pole, we applied thermal modeling to three NSRs and one unclassified region to evaluate the correlation between hydrogen concentrations and temperatures. Our thermal model delivers temperature estimates for the surface and for 29 layers in the sub‐surface down to 2 m depth. We compared our temperature maps at each layer to LEND neutron suppression maps to reveal the range of depths at which both maps correlate best. As anticipated, we find the three south polar NSRs which are coincident with PSRs in agreement with respective (near)‐surface temperatures that support the accumulation of water ice. Water ice is suspected to be present in the upper ≈19 cm layer of regolith. The three north polar NSRs however lie in non‐PSR areas and are counter‐intuitive as such that most surfaces reach temperatures that are too high for water ice to exist. However, we find that temperatures are cold enough in the shallow sub‐surface and suggest water ice to be present at depths down to ≈35–65 cm. Additionally we find ideal conditions for ice pumping into the sub‐surface at the north polar NSRs. The reported depths are observable by LEND and can, at least in part, explain the existence and shape of the observed hydrogen signal. Although we can substantiate the anticipated correlation between hydrogen abundance and temperature the converse argument cannot be made. N2 - Plain Language Summary: The lunar poles have quite unique illumination conditions. For instance, the Sun never shines on some crater floors. As a consequence, the floors of those craters are very cold and dark. Here, water ice can accumulate on the surface and can be preserved for long periods of time. One of the instruments mounted on the Moon‐orbiting satellite Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is capable of detecting areas where hydrogen is located, which is assumed to be present in the form of water ice. For instance, the instrument detected several areas at the lunar poles where a lot more water ice is found than at other locations. For these special locations, we calculated the temperatures at the surface and near sub‐surface to see whether they are indeed cold enough for water to freeze. At some of these locations, surface temperatures turn out to be too warm. However, we found that at these warm surfaces where no water ice can exist it can be transported into the sub‐surface and survive there. This mechanism is referred to as ice pumping. In summary, we could show that temperatures at all these special locations are usually cold enough for water ice, either right at the surface or within the first meter of soil. N2 - Key Points: Some neutron suppression regions (NSRs) form from surface ice deposits while others may form through ice pumping in the sub‐surface. NSRs identified by Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector correlate well with low surface temperatures in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and are in agreement with sub‐surface temperatures in non‐PSR. UR - http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/9756 ER -