Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p51d1473p&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P51D-1473
Physics
Plasma Physics
[2780] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon, [7894] Space Plasma Physics / Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
The Moon does not have an intrinsic magnetic field and its conductivity is not sufficient to facilitate the development of an induced magnetosphere. The interaction of the Moon with the unperturbed solar wind (SW) is, hence, dominated by the absorption of SW particles on its surface and the consequent generation of a lunar wake on the night side. The SW magnetic field is basically convected through the Moon; the pressure imbalance in lunar wake, however, accounts for a slight increase in magnetic pressure in the lunar wake center. The wake is slowly filled up with SW particles due to their thermal motion, which generates a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) rarefaction wave propagating away from the wake in the SW frame of reference. Over the last 3 years the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms (THEMIS) mission provided excellent data helping the scientific community in drawing a detailed picture of the physical processes associated with the development of substorms in the terrestrial magnetotail. Two of the five THEMIS spacecraft are currently being sent into stationary orbits around the Moon in a follow-up mission called Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS). The ARTEMIS P1 spacecraft (formerly THEMIS-B) has recently passed through the lunar wake in a flyby maneuver on February 13, 2010. We show first results of two hybrid code simulations with static and, for the first time, dynamically changing SW input. Adapted SW monitor data of the NASA OMNI database is used as input for the simulations. During the wake crossing the spin stabilized spacecraft P1 was in lunar shadow and, hence, its spin period cannot be determined from sun sensor data. Therefore, an eclipse-spin model is applied to bridge the gap of missing spin period data in order to recover vector measurements. A comparison of the simulation results with correctly despun magnetic field and particle measurements of ARTEMIS P1 allows for a separation of static lunar wake and, due to SW variations, transient features in the observations.
Angelopoulos Vassilis
Auster H.
Georgescu Edita
Glassmeier K.-
Motschmann Uwe M.
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