Journal article
Evidence for small‐scale collisionless shocks at the Moon from ARTEMIS
Geophysical research letters, Vol.41(21), pp.7436-7443
11/16/2014
DOI: 10.1002/2014GL061973
Abstract
ARTEMIS observes structures near the Moon that display many properties commonly associated with collisionless shocks, including a discontinuity with downstream compression of magnetic field and density, heating and wave activity, and velocity deflections away from the Moon. The two‐probe ARTEMIS measurements show that these features do not exist in the pristine solar wind and thus must result from lunar influences. Discontinuity analyses indicate mass flux and heating across the boundary, with the normal velocity dropping from supermagnetosonic to submagnetosonic across the discontinuity. The shock location with respect to crustal magnetic fields suggests a causal relationship, implying that solar wind protons reflected from crustal fields may produce the observed structures. These observations may indicate some of the smallest shocks in the solar system (in terms of plasma scales), driven by solar wind interaction with magnetic fields on the order of the ion gyroradius and inertial length.
Key Points
ARTEMIS observes structures that have the properties of collisionless shocksLunar shocks may be driven by solar wind reflection from crustal magnetic fieldsLunar shocks may represent the smallest collisionless shocks in the solar system
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Evidence for small‐scale collisionless shocks at the Moon from ARTEMIS
- Creators
- J. S Halekas - University of IowaA. R Poppe - University of California, BerkeleyJ. P McFadden - University of California, BerkeleyV Angelopoulos - University of California, Los AngelesK.‐H Glassmeier - Technische Universität BraunschweigD. A Brain - University of Colorado Boulder
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Geophysical research letters, Vol.41(21), pp.7436-7443
- DOI
- 10.1002/2014GL061973
- ISSN
- 0094-8276
- eISSN
- 1944-8007
- Number of pages
- 8
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000104, name: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/16/2014
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984199770502771
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