Large Negative Lunar Surface Potentials

Details Large Negative Lunar Surface Potentials Large Negative Lunar Surface Potentials

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufmsh51b0277h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #SH51B-0277

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

7815 Electrostatic Structures, 5421 Interactions With Particles And Fields, 6250 Moon (1221), 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2780 Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies

Scientific paper

Previous observations by Lunar Prospector (LP) revealed the presence of monoenergetic field-aligned upward-going electron beams of moderate energies (<100 eV) coming from the lunar night side, both in the solar wind wake and in the magnetotail. Simultaneous observations of energy-dependent loss cones established that these beams likely consisted of secondary electrons accelerated from the lunar surface by an electrostatic potential. Due to the moderate potentials implied and the rather large Debye lengths (and therefore electric field scale heights) of ˜100-1000 m in these low-density regions, these potentials were not considered hazardous. A recent re-examination of LP data, however, has shown that, in more energetic plasma environments like the magnetotail plasmasheet, upward-going electron beams sometimes reach energies as high as 1-2 keV. These more energetic beams are commonly seen above the lunar night side and (though less frequently) sometimes even forward of the terminator, implying that plasmasheet currents are sometimes high enough to charge the surface negative despite photoemission. Higher plasma densities in the plasmasheet mean Debye lengths and therefore scale heights as small as ˜1-20 m, which along with the large potentials implied, could lead to electric fields as high as ˜100-1000 V/m. These fields are large enough to present a serious hazard to astronauts and equipment on the lunar surface. Though we are unfortunately limited by the low time and therefore spatial resolution of the LP measurements, I present here a first-cut characterization of the global distribution of large negative lunar surface potentials.

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