Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 1971
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1971pepi....4..197n&link_type=abstract
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 4, Issue 3, p. 197-198.
Physics
Scientific paper
During its orbit about the Earth, the Moon is located in the interplanetary medium or the geomagnetosheath-geomagnetotail formed by the solar wind interaction with Earth. In the tail, no evidence is found for a lunar magnetic field limiting the magnetic moment to 1020 G . cm3 (< 10-6 of that of the Earth). In the interplanetary medium, no evidence exists for a bow hock sor a trailing shock although a well defined plasma wake region is observed in the anti-solar wind direction. The Moon absorbs the solar wind plasma which strikes its surface and creates a void region or cavity in the flow. Small perturbations of the interplanetary magnetic field magnitude (<~ 30%) and direction (<~ 20°) are observed to be correlated with the location of the solar wind plasma umbra and penumbra. Characteristic perturbations in magnitude are + - + - + as a satellite traverses the wake region. The magnitude of the anomalies is correlated principally with the diamagnetic properties of the solar wind, as measured by β, and less with the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. The observed lunar Mach cone gives evidence for the anisotropic propagation of waves in the magnetized collisionless warm solar wind plasma. Neither the Gold-Tozer-Wilson mechanism of accretion of field lines or the Sonett-Colburn-Hollweg mechanism of unipolar induction is significant in the interaction. The transmission of microstructural discontinuities in the interplanetary medium past the Moon show little distortion, indicating a low effective electrical conductivity (<10-4ω-1m-1) which implies a relatively cool interior (<~ 103 °K) of the lunar body. Fluctuations of the interplanetary magnetic field upstream from the plasma wake are stimulated by the disturbed conditions in that region. The Moon behaves like a cold, nonmagnetic fully absorbing dielectric sphere in the solar wind flow (see fig. 1). Presently at C.N.R., University of Rome, Laboratory for Space Plasmas.
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