ARTEMIS Observations of Lunar Nightside Surface Potentials in the Magnetotail Lobes: Evidence for Micrometeoroid Impact Charging

Abstract

Due to the Moon's lack of a thick, collisional neutral atmosphere, external plasmas can directly interact with the lunar surface and lunar crustal magnetic fields. Among various effects, the flux of external plasmas to the Moon causes the lunar surface to undergo electrostatic charging. Via the use of electron reflectometry (e.g., Anderson et al., 1976;Halekas et al., 2002), surface electrostatic potentials have been well-documented by missions such as Lunar Prospector (LP) (e.g.,