Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsh11b1675k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SH11B-1675
Physics
[2780] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies, [5421] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Interactions With Particles And Fields, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon, [6984] Radio Science / Waves In Plasma
Scientific paper
The waveform capture (WFC) [1] is one of the subsystems of the Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) [2,3] on board the KAGUYA spacecraft. The WFC measures two components of electric wave signals detected by the two orthogonal 30 m tip-to-tip antennas from 100Hz to 1MHz. By taking advantage of a moon orbiter, the WFC is expected to measure plasma waves related to solar wind-moon interaction, mini-magnetospheres caused by magnetic anomaly on the lunar surface, and radio emissions to be observed from the moon. Because the moon is basically non-magnetized, the solar wind particles directly hit the lunar surface and a plasma cavity called the “lunar wake” is created behind the moon. Around the terminator of the moon, sudden density decrease derived from local plasma frequency was observed by WFC when the moon was in the solar wind. In addition, because of the difference of thermal speed between ions and electrons, electrons first attempt to refill the cavity, which causes an electric field at the boundary region of the wake and ions are assumed to be accelerated by the DC E-field. The wake boundary, therefore, could be a source region of plasma waves caused by this instability. On the other hand, there are numbers of magnetic anomalies on the lunar surface and it was suggested that a kind of mini-magnetosphere might be constructed as a result of interaction between the solar wind and these magnetic anomalies. According to our plasma wave observation, intense wave activities below several kHz were frequently observed over these magnetic anomalies. It was found that the spatial distribution of plasma wave clearly corresponds to the magnetic anomalies, especially around the South Pole Aitken basin, and also depends on the solar wind parameters; intense wave was observed over magnetic anomalies when the solar wind velocity was slow while wave originated from magnetic anomalies was not clearly recognized when the solar wind velocity was high. It was also found that the wave intensity was larger when the magnetic anomaly was located around the terminator of the moon, and that the spatial distribution of the wave was slightly shifted in the downstream region of the solar wind. In the presentation, we introduce detailed characteristics of these plasma waves which are closely related to the interaction between solar wind and lunar body. [1] Y. Kasahara et al., Earth, Planets and Space, 60, 341-351, 2008. [2] T. Ono et al., Earth Planets Space, 60, 321-332, 2008. [3] T. Ono et al., (in press), Space Science Review, 2010.
Goto Yasuhiro
Hashimoto Katsumi
Kanatani Kentaro
Kasahara Yasushi
Kitaguchi S.
No associations
LandOfFree
Plasma Waves Related to Solar Wind - Moon Interaction Observed by WFC onboard KAGUYA 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 Plasma Waves Related to Solar Wind - Moon Interaction Observed by WFC onboard KAGUYA, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Plasma Waves Related to Solar Wind - Moon Interaction Observed by WFC onboard KAGUYA will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1507507