Lunar dayside current in the terrestrial lobe: ARTEMIS observationsShow others and affiliations
2014 (English)In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics, ISSN 2169-9380, E-ISSN 2169-9402, Vol. 119, no 5, p. 3381-3391Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
We report Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) dual-probe observations of two events in the terrestrial magnetotail lobe, both characterized by upward moving heavy ions of lunar origin at one of the probes that is magnetically connected with the dayside lunar surface. By treating magnetic measurements at the other probe as the unperturbed lobe fields, we obtain background-subtracted magnetic perturbations (most significantly in Bz) when the first probe moved in the dawn-dusk direction across flux tubes magnetically connected to the Moon. These magnetic perturbations indicate the presence of field-aligned current above the lunar surface. By examining possible carriers of field-aligned current, we find that lunar heavy ions and accompanying electrons both contribute considerably to the current. Observations of the field-aligned current also suggest that the charging process at the dayside lunar surface and the associated lobe plasma environment, which have traditionally been viewed as a one-dimensional current balance problem, are actually more complicated. These observations give the first insights into how heavy ions affect the lunar dayside environment in terms of multispecies plasma dynamics.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2014. Vol. 119, no 5, p. 3381-3391
Keywords [en]
current balance problem, current carriers, field-aligned currents, lunar dayside environment, lunar heavy ions, magnetotail lobe
National Category
Aerospace Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-2852DOI: 10.1002/2014JA019842ISI: 000337622100014Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84902438105Local ID: 090fd891-cd56-4f1f-8907-044d2456aa50OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-2852DiVA, id: diva2:975706
Note
Validerad; 2014; 20140513 (shafat)
2016-09-292016-09-292022-04-02Bibliographically approved