Logo image
Moon's Plasma Wake
Book chapter

Moon's Plasma Wake

J. S Halekas, D. A Brain and M Holmström
Magnetotails in the Solar System, pp.149-167
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
02/06/2015
DOI: 10.1002/9781118842324.ch9

View Online

Abstract

The first observations of the lunar wake, early in the space age, came from Explorer 35 and the Apollo subsatellites, as reviewed in detail by Schubert and Lichtenstein and Ness. The refilling of plasma along the magnetic field complicates the wake structure and dynamics significantly, since these processes supply plasma to regions that would otherwise never refill. This chapter briefly discusses the importance of finite ion temperature on the parallel refilling process. It describes some models used to study the plasma wake of the Moon. The wake problem is closely related to that of expansion of plasma into vacuum, often modeled with an initial condition of a half space with no plasma adjoining a half space containing plasma. The chapter discusses analytical 1D models of this plasma expansion process. Finally, it describes some of the particular numerical issues that arise for global models of the lunar wake.
lunar wake moon plasma expansion process refilling process

Details

Metrics

16 Record Views
Logo image