Moon's northern hemisphere

During the one-year mapping period, the measurement laser was fired from the LRO more than 600,000 times, taking more than 3 billion measurements of the moon's surface.

The short pulses from a single laser burst produced a five-beam pattern that achieved the accurate measurements.

With each of the five beams, LOLA measures the time of flight, pulse spreading (which measures the surface roughness), and the transmit versus return of energy (denoting the reflective qualities of the location).

Here, we see the representation of LOLA's data collected from the moon's northern hemisphere. The false colors indicate elevation: red areas are highest and blue lowest.