Observations of the lunar sodium exosphere

Details Observations of the lunar sodium exosphere Observations of the lunar sodium exosphere

Nov 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991georl..18.2089p&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 18, Nov. 1991, p. 2089-2092.

Physics

21

Abundance, Exosphere, Lunar Atmosphere, Lunar Composition, Random Walk, Sodium, Lunar Limb, Monte Carlo Method, Solar Planetary Interactions, Solar Wind, Spatial Distribution

Scientific paper

Measurements of sodium resonance emission showed that the sodium exosphere of the moon extends up to 1500 km altitude above the equatorial limb. The line-of-sight sodium atom densities at various altitudes were derived from the measured sodium emission intensities, using calibation based on brightness of the lunar limb. The data were fit to a simple two-parameter model of the exosphere. Above the equatorial limb, this yielded apparent temperatures of 950-1150 K, and surface densities of sodium atoms of 29-46 atoms/cu cm. Above the north pole, adjacent to the polar terminator, the temperature was much less, 450 K, and the surface density rose to 65 atoms/cu cm. Sodium emission could not be detected above the equatorial terminator, indicating a decrease to levels below about 200 Rayleighs, difficult to distinguish from the sodium nightglow.

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