Moon‐based EUV imaging of the Earth's Plasmasphere: Model simulations

Abstract

[1] The EUV imager on board the Chang'E-3 lunar lander will image the Earth's plasmasphere from a lunar perspective to focus on some of the open questions in plasmaspheric researches (i.e., global structures, erosion, and refilling of plasmasphere). In order to achieve the understanding of the plasmaspheric dynamics in relation to these EUV images in lunar perspective, the He + 30.4 nm emission intensities and global structures of the plasmasphere viewed from the moon are investigated using a dynamic global core plasma model embedded with TS07 magnetic field model and W05 electric field model. Two typical storms observed by the IMAGE EUV imager are systematically simulated from the perspectives of the moon. It is found from the simulations that the maximum emission intensity of the plasmasphere is~12.3 R which is greater than that detected from polar orbit, and the global shapes and temporal evolutions of large-scale plasmaspheric structures (plasmapause, shoulder, and plume) also have different patterns in moon-based simulated images. It is also shown that the plasmaspheric structures extracted from moon-based EUV images are in agreement with those from IMAGE EUV images. Systematic simulations demonstrate that specific latitudinal distribution of the plasmaspheric structures can only be imaged at specific positions in lunar orbit. It is expected that this investigation provides us with an overall understanding on moon-based EUV images and helps to identify the plasmaspheric structures and evolution patterns in future moon-based EUV imaging.

The story of plumes: the development of a new conceptual framework for understanding magnetosphere and ionosphere coupling

“…Many recent simple and sophisticated models of the innermagnetosphere plasma distribution have had success in explaining the formation, dynamics and complex structure of plasmasphere plumes (e.g., Goldstein et al, 2005bGoldstein et al, , 2014He et al, 2013;Ridley et al, 2014;Nakano et al, 2014). These models all show plume formation though they take a variety of approaches by either modeling the ionosphereplasmasphere system or the inner magnetosphere.…”

Development of a 3‐D Plasmapause Model With a Back‐Propagation Neural Network

“…The plasmapause is identified from the radial steep gradient in the density profiles of the dynamic global core plasma model (Ober et al, 1997;Liemohn et al, 2004;He et al, 2013), which is based on a fluid approach. The plasmapause is identified from the radial steep gradient in the density profiles of the dynamic global core plasma model (Ober et al, 1997;Liemohn et al, 2004;He et al, 2013), which is based on a fluid approach.…”

Geocentric position preliminary detection from the extreme ultraviolet images of Chang’E-3

“…A EUV Camera (EUVC) of 15 degrees field-of-view was installed in the lander, with angular resolution of 0.095°. The spacecraft successfully landed in the east of Sinus Iridum area of lunar surface on December 14, 2013 (Feng et al 2014;He et al 2013;Wu et al 2014). This EUVC is operated at a centre wavelength of 30.2 nm and the band width of 4.6 nm.…”

“…This EUVC is operated at a centre wavelength of 30.2 nm and the band width of 4.6 nm. Compared with previous EUVCs, this moon-based EUVC can continuously observe the plasmasphere during the day time of lunar revolution circling the Earth except for the period that sunlight comes into the EUVC directly (He et al 2013). It gives us a nice chance to image the Earths plasmasphere at 30.4 nm from side perspectives at different positions of lunar orbit during a relatively long period to monitor the structure and variation of the plasmaspheric density.…”