Variation of lunar sodium during passage of the Moon through the Earth's magnetotail

Details Variation of lunar sodium during passage of the Moon through the Earth's magnetotail Variation of lunar sodium during passage of the Moon through the Earth's magnetotail

Jun 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000jgr...10515073p&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 105, Issue E6, p. 15073-15084

Physics

23

Interplanetary Physics: Solar Wind Plasma, Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Atmospheres-Composition And Chemistry, Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Atmospheres-Structure And Dynamics, Planetology: Comets And Small Bodies: Interactions With Solar Wind Plasma And Fields

Scientific paper

We measured sodium emission above the lunar equator over a range of lunar altitudes from 100 to 4000 km. The measurements were repeated approximately every 24 hours from June 7 to 16, 1998, covering the period during which the Moon passed through the Earth's magnetotail. Sodium temperatures derived from the altitude dependence of emission intensity ranged from 1200 to 2900 K. This result supports the view that photodesorption is a primary source of sodium in the exosphere since the most probable temperature of sodium from this source is in this range. Passage of the Moon through the Earth's magnetotail (where solar wind is essentially absent) affected the sodium density, such that it was higher before the Moon entered the Earth's magnetotail than after the Moon left it. This suggests that the solar wind plays a role in production of lunar sodium. We propose that its function is to mobilize sodium and bring it to the surface, where photodesorption can eject it into the exosphere. A two-step process such as this could help to explain the latitude dependence of sodium density, which varies as the second or higher power of cosine latitude.

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