Supercharging of the Lunar Surface by Solar Wind Halo Electrons

Details Supercharging of the Lunar Surface by Solar Wind Halo Electrons Supercharging of the Lunar Surface by Solar Wind Halo Electrons

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufmsh12a0861s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SH12A-0861

Physics

2164 Solar Wind Plasma, 5421 Interactions With Particles And Fields, 6025 Interactions With Solar Wind Plasma And Fields, 6250 Moon (1221), 7855 Spacecraft Sheaths, Wakes, Charging

Scientific paper

Lunar surface potentials can reach several kilovolts negative during Solar Energetic Particle (SEPs) events, as indicated by recent analysis of data from the Lunar Prospector Electron Reflectometer (LP/ER). The lunar surface- plasma interactions that result in such extreme surface potentials are poorly characterized and understood. Extreme lunar surface charging, and the associated electrostatic discharges and transport of charged dust, will likely present significant hazards to future human explorers. This is of particular concern near the terminator and polar regions, such as the South Pole/Aiken Basin site planned for NASA's manned outpost. It is the flux of electrons from the ambient plasma that charges the surface of the Moon to negative potentials. In the solar wind, the electron temperature is typically ~10 eV which tends to charge the lunar surface to ~100 V negative in shadow. However, during space weather events the solar wind electrons are often better described by the sum of two Maxwellian distributions, referred to as the "core" and "halo" components. The core electrons are relatively cool and dense (e.g., ~10 eV and ~10/cc), whereas the halo electrons are hot and tenuous (e.g., ~100 eV and ~0.1/cc). Despite, the tenuous nature of the halo electrons, our surface charging model - using core and halo electron data derived from the Solar Wind Experiment (SWE) aboard the Wind spacrcraft - predicts that they are capable of "supercharging" the lunar surface to kilovolt potentials during space weather events, which could explain the LP/ER observations.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Supercharging of the Lunar Surface by Solar Wind Halo Electrons does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Supercharging of the Lunar Surface by Solar Wind Halo Electrons, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Supercharging of the Lunar Surface by Solar Wind Halo Electrons will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1415319