Reflection and Neutralization of Solar Wind Ions from the Moon: IBEX Observations

Details Reflection and Neutralization of Solar Wind Ions from the Moon: IBEX Observations Reflection and Neutralization of Solar Wind Ions from the Moon: IBEX Observations

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p31e..05j&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P31E-05

Physics

[2780] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

The solar wind continuously flows out from the Sun, filling interplanetary space and directly interacting with the surfaces of small planetary bodies and other objects throughout the solar system. A significant fraction of these ions reflect from the surface as energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). The first ever observations of ENA emission from the Moon was recently made by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft on Dec. 3, 2008 [McComas et al., Geophys Res. Lett. 36 (2009) L12104]. These observations yielded a lunar ENA albedo of ~10% and showed that the Moon reflects ~150 metric tons of neutral hydrogen per year. Here, we present the analysis of 5 additional lunar observation periods from IBEX for different solar wind and lunar viewing conditions. While the kinematics of reflection at the atomic and microstructural scales are complex, simulations indicate that the ENA albedo and energy distributions of reflected hydrogen are largely insensitive to the regolith composition. These observations and simulations are important for understanding the universal processes of backscattering and neutralization from complex surfaces, which occur wherever space plasmas interact with dust and other small bodies throughout and beyond our solar system.

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