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Lunar Plasma Environment

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The Dynamic Magnetosphere

Part of the book series: IAGA Special Sopron Book Series ((IAGA,volume 3))

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Abstract

The Moon has no global intrinsic magnetic field and thick atmosphere. These properties of the Moon significantly affect the interaction between the solar wind and the Moon. Recent in-situ measurements of low energy ions around the Moon by Kaguya (SELENE) have revealed dynamic aspect of the lunar plasma environment. Besides the solar wind, there exist four clearly distinguishable ion populations on the dayside of the Moon: (1) solar wind protons backscattered at the lunar surface, (2) solar wind protons reflected by magnetic anomalies on the lunar surface, (3) reflected/backscattered protons picked-up by the solar wind, 4) ions originating from the lunar surface/lunar exosphere. In the lunar wake region, two types of ion entry into the lunar wake (Type-I entry and Type-II entry) are observed. The newly obtained knowledge about the lunar plasma environment by Kaguya can be applied to the understanding of the plasma environment around non-magnetized solar system objects.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to all the team members of MAP for their great support in processing and analyzing the MAP data. The authors also wish to express their grateful thanks to all system members of the Kaguya project. Kaguya-MAP-PACE sensors were manufactured by Mitaka Kohki Co. Ltd., Meisei Elec. Co., Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., and Kyocera Co.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan

    Yoshifumi Saito, Masaki N. Nishino, Shoichiro Yokota, Takaaki Tanaka, Tadateru Yamamoto & Kazushi Asamura

  2. Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Hideo Tsunakawa, Futoshi Takahashi & Masaki Matsushima

  3. Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

    Hidetoshi Shibuya

  4. Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Hisayoshi Shimizu

Authors
  1. Yoshifumi Saito
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  2. Masaki N. Nishino
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  3. Shoichiro Yokota
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  4. Takaaki Tanaka
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  5. Tadateru Yamamoto
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  6. Kazushi Asamura
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  7. Hideo Tsunakawa
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  8. Hidetoshi Shibuya
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  9. Hisayoshi Shimizu
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  10. Futoshi Takahashi
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  11. Masaki Matsushima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoshifumi Saito .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Spacecraft Engineering, Canadian Space Agency, route de l'Aeroport 6767, St.-Hubert, J3Y 8Y9, Québec, Canada

    William Liu

  2. Astronautical Science (ISAS), Institute of Space &, Yoshinodai 3-1-1, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, 229-8510, Japan

    Masaki Fujimoto

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Saito, Y. et al. (2011). Lunar Plasma Environment. In: Liu, W., Fujimoto, M. (eds) The Dynamic Magnetosphere. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0501-2_20

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