Abstract
As introduced in Chap. 1, the lunar atmosphere is too tenuous to stand off the solar wind plasma and magnetic field by inducing currents in its ionosphere. Therefore, the Moon is often called an “airless” body and thought of as a passive plasma absorber. This chapter presents the dual-probe ARTEMIS observations in the Earth’s magnetotail lobes to demonstrate that plasma of lunar origin can be dominant and have a significant impact on the ambient plasma. The two-point measurements reveal that the plasma density on the lunar dayside sometimes becomes several times higher than the ambient lobe plasma density. Meanwhile, the electron pitch-angle distributions show \({\sim }90^{\circ }\) electron dropouts coexisting with the plasma of lunar origin, suggesting that the velocity distributions of lobe electrons are modified in association with the lunar plasma. The accurate electron measurements by ARTEMIS with knowledge of the spacecraft potential also suggest the existence of a high-energy tail population of lunar surface photoelectrons. The high-energy photoelectron emission results in large positive potentials on the dayside lunar surface in the tail lobes, accelerating lunar ions upward from the Moon.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, K.A., Lin, R.P.: Observation of interplanetary field lines in the magnetotail. J. Geophys. Res. 74(16), 3953–3968 (1969). doi:10.1029/JA074i016p03953, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JA074i016p03953
Anderson, K.A., Lin, R.P., McGuire, R.E., McCoy, J.E.: Measurement of lunar and planetary magnetic fields by reflection of low energy electrons. Space Sci. Instrum. 1, 439–470 (1975)
Angelopoulos, V.: The ARTEMIS mission. Space Sci. Rev. 165(1–4), 3–25 (2011). doi:10.1007/s11214-010-9687-2
Auster, H.U., Glassmeier, K.H., Magnes, W., Aydogar, O., Baumjohann, W., Constantinescu, D., Fischer, D., Fornacon, K.H., Georgescu, E., Harvey, P., Hillenmaier, O., Kroth, R., Ludlam, M., Narita, Y., Nakamura, R., Okrafka, K., Plaschke, F., Richter, I., Schwarzl, H., Stoll, B., Valavanoglou, A., Wiedemann, M.: The THEMIS fluxgate magnetometer. Space Sci. Rev. 141(1–4), 235–264 (2008). doi:10.1007/s11214-008-9365-9
Bonnell, J.W., Mozer, F.S., Delory, G.T., Hull, A.J., Ergun, R.E., Cully, C.M., Angelopoulos, V., Harvey, P.R.: The electric field instrument (EFI) for THEMIS. Space Sci. Rev. 141(1–4), 303–341 (2008). doi:10.1007/s11214-008-9469-2
Goertz, C.K.: Dusty plasmas in the solar system. Rev. Geophys. 27(2), 271–292 (1989). doi:10.1029/RG027i002p00271
Halekas, J.S., Delory, G.T., Farrell, W.M., Angelopoulos, V., McFadden, J.P., Bonnell, J.W., Fillingim, M.O., Plaschke, F.: First remote measurements of lunar surface charging from ARTEMIS: evidence for nonmonotonic sheath potentials above the dayside surface. J. Geophys. Res. 116, A07103 (2011). doi:10.1029/2011JA016542
Halekas, J.S., Lillis, R.J., Lin, R.P., Manga, M., Purucker, M.E., Carley, R.A.: How strong are lunar crustal magnetic fields at the surface?: considerations from a reexamination of the electron reflectometry technique. J. Geophys. Res. 115, E03006 (2010). doi:10.1029/2009JE003516
Halekas, J.S., Mitchell, D.L., Lin, R.P., Frey, S., Hood, L.L., Acuña, M.H., Binder, A.B.: Mapping of crustal magnetic anomalies on the lunar near side by the Lunar prospector electron reflectometer. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 27841–27852 (2001). doi:10.1029/2000JE001380
Kieffer, L.J., Dunn, G.H.: Electron impact ionization cross-section data for atoms, atomic ions, and diatomic molecules: I. experimental data. Rev. Mod. Phys. 38, 1–35 (1966). doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.38.1, http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.38.1
Lin, R.P.: Observations of Lunar shadowing of energetic particles. J. Geophys. Res. 73, 3066–3071 (1968). doi:10.1029/JA073i009p03066
McCoy, J.E., Criswell, D.R.: Evidence for a high altitude distribution of lunar dust. In: Proceedings of Lunar sciience conference, 5th, pp. 2991–3005 (1974)
McCoy, J.E., Lin, R.P., McGuire, R.E., Chase, L.M., Anderson, K.A.: Magnetotail electric fields observed from Lunar orbit. J. Geophys. Res. 80, 3217–3224 (1975). doi:10.1029/JA080i022p03217
McFadden, J.P., Carlson, C.W., Larson, D., Bonnell, J., Mozer, F., Angelopoulos, V., Glassmeier, K.H., Auster, U.: THEMIS ESA first science results and performance issues. Space Sci. Rev. 141(1–4), 477–508 (2008). doi:10.1007/s11214-008-9433-1
McFadden, J.P., Carlson, C.W., Larson, D., Ludlam, M., Abiad, R., Elliott, B., Turin, P., Marckwordt, M., Angelopoulos, V.: The THEMIS ESA plasma instrument and in-flight calibration. Space Sci. Rev. 141(1–4), 277–302 (2008). doi:10.1007/s11214-008-9440-2
Poppe, A., Halekas, J.S., Horányi, M.: Negative potentials above the day-side lunar surface in the terrestrial plasma sheet: evidence of non-monotonic potentials. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L02103 (2011). doi:10.1029/2010GL046119
Poppe, A., Horányi, M.: Simulations of the photoelectron sheath and dust levitation on the lunar surface. J. Geophys. Res. 115, A08106 (2010). doi:10.1029/2010JA015286
Poppe, A.R., Halekas, J.S., Delory, G.T., Farrell, W.M., Angelopoulos, V., McFadden, J.P., Bonnell, J.W., Ergun, R.E.: A comparison of ARTEMIS observations and particle-in-cell modeling of the lunar photoelectron sheath in the terrestrial magnetotail. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L01102 (2012). doi:10.1029/2011GL050321
Poppe, A.R., Halekas, J.S., Samad, R., Sarantos, M., Delory, G.T.: Model-based constraints on the lunar exosphere derived from ARTEMIS pickup ion observations in the terrestrial magnetotail. J. Geophys. Res. 118(5), 1135–1147 (2013). doi:10.1002/jgre.20090, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgre.20090
Poppe, A.R., Samad, R., Halekas, J.S., Sarantos, M., Delory, G.T., Farrell, W.M., Angelopoulos, V., McFadden, J.P.: ARTEMIS observations of lunar pick-up ions in the terrestrial magnetotail lobes. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L17104 (2012). doi:10.1029/2012GL052909
Reiff, P.H.: Magnetic shadowing of charged particles by an extended surface. J. Geophys. Res. 81(19), 3423–3427 (1976). doi:10.1029/JA081i019p03423
Roux, A., Le Contel, O., Coillot, C., Bouabdellah, A., de la Porte, B., Alison, D., Ruocco, S., Vassal, M.C.: The search coil magnetometer for THEMIS. Space Sci. Rev. 141(1–4), 265–275 (2008). doi:10.1007/s11214-008-9455-8
Sauer, K., Dubinin, E., Baumgartel, K., Tarasov, V.: Low-frequency electromagnetic waves and instabilities within the Martian bi-ion plasma. Earth Planets Space 50(3), 269–278 (1998)
Stern, S.: The lunar atmosphere: History, status, current problems, and context. Rev. Geophys. 37(4), 453–491 (1999). doi:10.1029/1999RG900005
Stubbs, T., Vondrak, R., Farrell, W.: A dynamic fountain model for lunar dust. Adv. Space Res. 37(1), 59–66 (2006). doi:10.1016/j.asr.2005.04.048
Tanaka, T., Saito, Y., Yokota, S., Asamura, K., Nishino, M.N., Tsunakawa, H., Shibuya, H., Matsushima, M., Shimizu, H., Takahashi, F., Fujimoto, M., Mukai, T., Terasawa, T.: First in situ observation of the Moon-originating ions in the Earth’s Magnetosphere by MAP-PACE on SELENE (KAGUYA). Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L22106 (2009). doi:10.1029/2009GL040682
Tsurutani, B.T.: Comets: a laboratory for plasma waves and instabilities. Geophys. Monogr. Ser. 61, 189–209 (1991). doi:10.1029/GM061p0189
Whipple, E.C.: Potentials of Surfaces in Space. Rep. Prog. Phys. 44(11), 1197–1250 (1981). doi:10.1088/0034-4885/44/11/002, http://stacks.iop.org/0034-4885/44/i=11/a=002
Zhou, X.Z., Angelopoulos, V., Poppe, A.R., Halekas, J.S.: Artemis observations of lunar pick-up ions: mass constraints on ion species. J. Geophys. Res. 118, 1766–1774 (2013). doi:10.1002/jgre.20125, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgre.20125
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Japan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Harada, Y. (2015). Lunar Dayside Plasma in the Earth’s Magnetotail Lobes. In: Interactions of Earth’s Magnetotail Plasma with the Surface, Plasma, and Magnetic Anomalies of the Moon. Springer Theses. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55084-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55084-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-55083-9
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-55084-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)