Transport toward earth of ions sputtered from the moon's surface by the solar wind

Details Transport toward earth of ions sputtered from the moon's surface by the solar wind Transport toward earth of ions sputtered from the moon's surface by the solar wind

Jan 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994jgr....99...53c&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 99, no. A1, p. 53-64

Physics

13

Electric Fields, Ion Motion, Lunar Surface, Magnetic Fields, Particle Mass, Solar Wind, Calcium, Particle Trajectories, Plasma Drift, Plasma Turbulence, Silicon, Solar Wind Velocity, Moon, Transport, Ions, Sputtering, Surface, Solar Wind, Parameters, Model, Flux, Atmosphere, Calculations, Silicon, Calcium, Earth, Magnetosphere, Bowshock, Abundance, Production Rate, Magnetotail, Regolith, Interaction, Magnetic Field, Electrical Field, Trajectories

Scientific paper

The transport of typical ions from the surface of the Moon to the vicinity of Earth was calculated using a test particle approach. It was assumed that the ions were sputtered from the surface by the solar wind, with fluxes in the range determined experimentally by Elphic et al. (1991), and were accelerated initially to 10 eV by the potential of the Moon on its sunlit side. Si(+) and Ca(+) ions were selected for this transport analysis because their masses are within two prominent ion mass groups that have high sputtering yields. In the solar wind the ion trajectories were traced in the following superimposed fields: (1) a steady magnetic field B0 at an angle of 45 deg to the solar wind velocity VSW, (2) the motional electric field Ezero = -V(sub SW x B0, and (3) turbulent magnetic and electric fields generated by hydromagnetic waves with a k-space power spectrum of absolute value of k-5/3 propagating along both directions of the magnetic field B0. Interactions with Earth's bow shock and magnetosphere were included. Case histories of the ions were recorded in the XGSM, YGSM plane and in various planes perpendicular to the E0 x B0 drift direction of the ions between the Moon and Earth. The number density, energy and angular distributions, and directional and omnidirectional fluxes of the ions were constructed from the case histories. It was found that the diffusion of the ions increases rapidly as the amplitude of the turbulence delta Brms increases beyond the value 0.04 B0. Recent measurements of lunar ions upstream of the bow shock by Hilchenbach et al. (1992) generally confirm the predicted behavior of the ions.

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