The lunar exosphere

Details The lunar exosphere The lunar exosphere

Dec 1976

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1976phdt.........9b&link_type=abstract

Ph.D. Thesis Rice Univ., Houston, TX.

Computer Science

1

Exosphere, Lunar Atmosphere, Atmospheric Composition, Electric Fields, Energy Spectra, Ions, Lunar Surface, Neon, Solar Wind

Scientific paper

Lunar exospheric ions are accelerated by the solar wind electric field into the Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment (SIDE) which was deployed on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions. Analysis of simultaneous mass and energy spectra from the SIDE indicates that the dominant component of the exosphere at the lunar surface is neon. The energy spectra of the ions indicate that neutral neon follows an exponential height distribution in the lunar terminator regions with a surface concentration of approximately 100,000/cu cm. The solar wind electric field removes neon from the lunar exosphere at the rate of .25 gm/sec. This is consistent with the assumption that the solar wind is the only source of lunar exospheric neon. The ion spectra observed in the terminator regions also indicate that a surface potential on the order of -50 V exists when these spectra are observed. The effective screening length of this potential is of the order of 1 km.

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