Energetic neutral atom imaging of the moon: Observation of a mini-magnetosphere above a lunar magnetic anomaly
Abstract
The Sub-keV Atom Reecting Analyzer (SARA) instrument on the Indian Chandrayaan-1 space-craft has resulted in a comprehensive data set about interaction of solar wind with the lunar surface. When solar wind hits the lunar surface, it is partly backscattered as energetic neutral atoms. The intensity of the backscattered energetic neutral atoms is a measure of the intensity of the solar wind reaching the surface. We report on the imaging of a lunar magnetic anomalies in backscattered neutral hydrogen atoms. At the example of the strong magnetic anomaly near the Crisium antipode on the lunar farside we show that a partial void of the solar wind, a mini-magnetosphere, is formed above the magnetic anomaly. The mini-magnetosphere is 360 km across at the surface and surrounded by a 300-km-thick region of enhanced plasma ux that results from the solar wind owing around the mini-magnetosphere. These observations demonstrate a new observational technique to study airless bodies, imaging in ackscattered neutral atoms, and its application to a new class of objects, mini-magnetospheres.
- Publication:
-
38th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010cosp...38..424W