Global 3D Kinetic Simulations of the Solar Wind Interaction with the Moon and the Formation of the Lunar Wake-Tail

Details Global 3D Kinetic Simulations of the Solar Wind Interaction with the Moon and the Formation of the Lunar Wake-Tail Global 3D Kinetic Simulations of the Solar Wind Interaction with the Moon and the Formation of the Lunar Wake-Tail

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufmsh12a0862s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SH12A-0862

Physics

2753 Numerical Modeling, 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities (2471), 2780 Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies, 6025 Interactions With Solar Wind Plasma And Fields, 6250 Moon (1221)

Scientific paper

When the solar wind interacts with the Moon, the lunar surface acts as a diamagnetic obstacle removing plasma from the solar wind and a density depletion region is formed on the nightside. To examine the refilling of the density depletion region and the formation of the Moon's wake-tail, a high resolution 3D global hybrid simulation is used. The hybrid simulation (particle ions, fluid electrons) uses realistic spatial scales for the lunar obstacle and the system size. The Moon's tail refilling process can be described approximately by a plasma expansion into a vacuum driven by the thermal motion of particles along the interplanetary magnetic field lines. Parallel electric fields created due to the pressure gradient at the edge of the density cavity further accelerate ions into the density depletion region and highly anisotropic distribution functions are formed. These anisotropic ion distribution functions lead to the generation of electromagnetic waves near the ion cyclotron frequency along the length of the wake-tail further downstream. A density increase at the center of the plasma depletion region also tends to form downstream where the ions beams from either side of the cavity meet and interact. Results will be compared with data from Wind when the satellite made flybys through the Moon's wake tail.

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