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Abstract: We study the scattering of solar wind protons off the lunar surface, using ion observations collected over 6 years by the ARTEMIS satellites at the Moon. We show the average scattered proton energy spectra, directional scattering distributions, and scattering efficiency, for different solar wind incidence angles and impact speeds. We find that the protons have a scattering distribution that is similar to existing empirical models for scattered hydrogen energetic neutral atoms, with a peak in the backward direction (toward the Sun). We provide a revised model for the scattered proton energy spectrum. We evaluate the positive to neutral charge state ratio by comparing the proton spectrum with existing models for scattered hydrogen. The positive to neutral ratio increases with increasing exit speed from the surface but decreases with increasing impact speed. Combined, these counteracting effects result in a scattering efficiency that decreases from ~0.5% at 300 km/s solar wind speed to ~0.3% at 600 km/s solar wind speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We investigate Kaguya observation of ion acceleration around a lunar crustal magnetic anomaly located in the South Pole-Aitken basin at an altitude of 100km. The accelerated ions in the 230eV to 1.5keV energy range were identified by a characteristic dispersion signature in the energy-time spectrogram that appeared repeatedly upon Kaguya׳s approach to the magnetic anomaly. The interplanetary magnetic field was almost parallel to the solar wind velocity and thus the electric field was very small. The results of our analysis show that ions with energies below 230eV were accelerated up to 1.5keV by an electric field produced by the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetic anomaly. We argue that the low-energy ions mainly originated from the solar wind ions with energies of 450eV that were backscattered on the lunar surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Our recent observations around the Moon revealed that so-called type-II (T2) entry of the solar wind protons into the near-Moon wake occurs when the IMF is dominated by the non-radial components (i.e. B Y and/or B Z ). Under this condition a part of the solar wind protons scattered/reflected at the lunar dayside surface subsequently enters the central region of the near-Moon wake after a large-scale cycloid motion, which accelerates electrons along the filed line into the wake. The situation handled in the previous studies is that the relevant magnetic field line is detached from the lunar surface, leaving a possibility of the T2 entry under magnetic connection left open. Here we report that the protons can access the central wake region that is magnetically connected to the lunar nightside surface, which we categorize into the T2 entry with magnetic connection to the lunar surface (T2MC). Furthermore we show that the energy of the electron beams induced by the proton entry into the wake depends on the magnetic connectivity. Strong electron acceleration (up to several hundred eV to 1keV) along the magnetic field associated with the T2 entry is prominent when the field line has its both ends in the solar wind, that is, when the magnetic field is detached from the lunar surface (i.e. the previously reported T2 entry that we rename to T2MD). On the other hand, no significant electron acceleration is found in the T2MC cases, although an enhancement of the electron flux associated with the T2 proton entry is evident. We also report that the T2 entry process takes place even under radial (B X -dominated) IMF condition. Our results indicate that, while the T2 entry of solar wind protons into the wake itself does not require a special IMF condition but is a rather general phenomenon, the characteristic energy of associated electrons does show a strong dependence on the magnetic connectivity to the lunar surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Detailed features of the near-Moon pickup ions under different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions are investigated using data obtained from the solar wind ion detector (SWID-B) onboard Chang'E-1. In the event studied, Chang'E-1 was on a noon-midnight meridian orbit and the field-of-view of the SWID-B was in the satellite orbital plane. The observations show that the pickup energy detected depends not only on where these particles are detected but also on their incident angles. As the spacecraft moved into the wake from the South Pole along the midnight meridian, wider incident angle distributions were measured. When IMF B x was significant, the pickup ions had a strong velocity component parallel to the magnetic field, and the efficiency of acceleration was reduced when the IMF B y decreased. The back tracking calculations show that the possible source of the pickup ions is solar wind ions scattered/reflected on the lunar surface in a wide area over the dayside of the Moon, from both magnetic and nonmagnetic anomaly regions. A three dimensional analysis performed on the asymmetric properties of the pick-up ions can explain most of the particle behavior observed near the Moon under different IMF conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We study an interaction between the solar wind and crustal magnetic fields on the lunar surface using SELENE (Kaguya) data. It has been known that magnetic enhancements are at times detected near the limb external to the lunar wake, which is thus called lunar external magnetic enhancement (LEME), as a result of direct interaction between the solar wind and lunar crustal fields. Although previous observational studies showed that LEMEs in the high solar zenith angle region favor stronger interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and higher solar wind density, the relation between the IMF and the crustal field orientation has not been taken into account. We show evidence that the relation between the IMF and crustal field orientation is also one of the key factors that control the extent of LEME, focusing on one-day observations at 100km altitude that include data above strong crustal fields around South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. Strong LEMEs are detected at 100km altitude around SPA basin under the stronger and northward IMF condition, while they weaken under southward IMF. All LEME''s peaks are located in the region where unperturbed crustal fields at 300km altitude are directed northward while they are less related to unperturbed crustal fields at 100km or lower, which suggests that lunar crustal fields are compressed by the solar wind dynamic pressure, and its large scale component parallel to the IMF is essential to the formation of the LEME. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Because the solar wind (SW) flow is usually super-sonic, a fast-mode bow shock (BS) is formed in front of the Earth''s magnetosphere, and the Moon crosses the BS at both dusk and dawn flanks. On the other hand, behind of the Moon along the SW flow forms a tenuous region called lunar wake, where the flow can be sub-Alfvénic (and thus sub-sonic) because of its low-density status. Here we report, with joint measurement by Chang’E-1 and SELENE, that the Earth''s BS surface is drastically deformed in the lunar wake. Despite the quasi-perpendicular shock configuration encountered at dusk flank under the Parker-spiral magnetic field, no clear shock surface can be found in the lunar wake, while instead gradual transition of the magnetic field from the upstream to downstream value was observed for a several-minute interval. This finding suggests that the ‘magnetic ramp’ is highly broadened in the wake where a fast-mode shock is no longer maintained due to the highly reduced density. On the other hand, observations at the 100km altitude on the dayside show that the fast-mode shock is maintained even when the width of the downstream region is smaller than a typical scale length of a perpendicular shock. Our results suggest that the Moon is not so large to eliminate the BS at 100km altitude on the dayside, while the magnetic field associated with the shock structure is drastically affected in the lunar wake. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]