| Issue |
A&A
Volume 684, April 2024
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A146 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202348876 | |
| Published online | 16 April 2024 | |
Energy spectra of energetic neutral hydrogen backscattered and sputtered from the lunar regolith by the solar wind★
1
Swedish Institute of Space Physics,
Kiruna, Sweden
e-mail: wieser@irf.se
2
National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing, PR China
3
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing, PR China
Received:
7
December
2023
Accepted:
6
February
2024
Context. The solar wind impinging on the lunar surface results in the emission of energetic neutral atoms. This particle population is one of the sources of the lunar exosphere.
Aims. We present a semi-empirical model to describe the energy spectra of the neutral emitted atoms.
Methods. We used data from the Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN) on board the Yutu-2 rover of the Chang’E-4 mission to calculate high-resolution average energy spectra of the energetic neutral hydrogen flux from the surface. We then constructed a semi-empirical model to describe these spectra.
Results. Excellent agreement between the model and the observed energetic neutral hydrogen data was achieved. The model is also suitable for describing heavier neutral species emitted from the surface.
Conclusions. A semi-analytical model describing the energy spectrum of energetic neutral atoms emitted from the lunar surface has been developed and validated by data obtained from the lunar surface.
Key words: plasmas / scattering / Moon / planets and satellites: surfaces
The ASAN data used in this study is available though the Data Release and Information Service System of China’s Lunar Exploration Program (https://moon.bao.ac.cn/ce5web/moonGisMap.search and https://moon.bao.ac.cn/ce5web/searchOrder_hyperSearchData.search?pid=CE4/ASAN) or through a reasonable request from the authors. We acknowledge use of NASA/GSFC’s Space Physics Data Facility’s OMNIWeb (or CDAWeb) service, and OMNI data.
© The Authors 2024
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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