Current Systems of Inert Moons

Holmström, Mats; Fatemi, Shahab

doi:10.1002/9781119324522.ch29

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Physically, we interpret this as arising from two effects: (1) the presence of plasma‐induced fields in the lunar wake that add constructively to the field strength and (2) the compression of induced fields into the lunar nightside that emerge from the lunar interior near the terminators by the solar wind ram pressure. Wake plasma fields are typically on the order of 20–30% of the ambient interplanetary magnetic field strength (e.g., Fatemi et al, ; Holmström & Fatemi, ; Zhang et al, ) although in extreme cases (i.e., high plasma β ) can rise above 300–400% of the ambient field strength (Poppe et al, ). Compression of the induced fields near the lunar terminators by the solar wind ram pressure is also a significant cause of increased total fields observed in the hybrid model over the analytic solution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time‐Dependent Hybrid Plasma Simulations of Lunar Electromagnetic Induction in the Solar Wind

Haviland

Poppe

Fatemi

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Understanding the structure and composition of the lunar interior is fundamental to furthering our knowledge of the formation and subsequent evolution of the Earth‐Moon system. Among various methods, electromagnetic sounding is a valuable approach to constraining lunar interior structure. While Apollo‐era electromagnetic sounding analyses of lunar magnetometer observations reported constraints on the lunar interior structure, the presence of perturbing plasma currents and magnetic fields was often regarded as a second‐order correction. Here, we use AMITIS, a three‐dimensional, time‐dependent hybrid plasma model with a conducting lunar interior to demonstrate that electromagnetic fields from the lunar wake and from the lunar interior interact and thereby alter geophysically induced electromagnetic fields. Our results indicate that electromagnetic sounding of airless bodies interacting with a conductive plasma and exposed to a time‐varying magnetic field must be interpreted via plasma models in order to untangle plasma and induced field contributions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%