Lunar Surface Charging in the Magnetotail

Details Lunar Surface Charging in the Magnetotail Lunar Surface Charging in the Magnetotail

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p31b1390s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P31B-1390

Physics

2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2744 Magnetotail, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 6250 Moon (1221), 7815 Electrostatic Structures

Scientific paper

The Moon spends most its orbit immersed in the solar wind plasma flow, where the resulting interaction has been relatively well studied. However, for about five days a month the Moon passes through the Earth's magnetotail, where it encounters the much hotter, more tenuous, and slower-moving plasma environments in the tail lobes (e.g., n = 0.02 cc, Te = 5.0e5 K, and V = -170 km/s) and plasma sheet (e.g., n = 0.2 cc, Te = 2.0e6 K, and V = -100 km/s). The lunar surface is electrically charged by the collection of charged particles from these various plasma environments, as well as by the photoemission of electrons from solar ultraviolet incident on the dayside. Photoemission often dominates on the dayside, where surface potentials are typically about 10 V positive. In contrast, on the nightside and near the terminator the electrons from the surrounding plasma tend to dominate surface charging - this results in a much greater variability in surface potentials, which can range anywhere from 10s to 1000s V negative. The most negative surface potentials on the nightside are usually found when the Moon traverses the hot plasma sheet region (typically about 500 V negative). The plasma sheet can be highly dynamic, especially during periods of enhanced geomagnetic activity. Therefore, encounters between the Moon and the plasma sheet can last anywhere from minutes to even days, and be extremely difficult to anticipate. Here we predict lunar surface charging during traversals of the magnetotail using spacecraft plasma observations as inputs to the model. We also investigate the dynamics of the magnetopause and plasma sheet boundaries at the orbit of the Moon using the OpenCGCM MHD global magnetosphere model.

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