Electric potential of the moon in the magnetosheath and in the geomagnetic tail
- Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Troitsk (Russian Federation)
A layer of charged particles near the lunar surface is investigated. It is shown that in the magnetosheath and in the tail lobes, where secondary electronic emission of lunar soil in the plasma sheet is low, the electrostatic potential as a function of the height over the subsolar region of the surface is nonmonotone. As the terminator is approached, the potential becomes a negative monotone function. For most temperatures of the primary electrons that exist in the plasma sheet, secondary electron emission is high. In the case of high secondary electron emission, the electric potential is nonmonotone, and the variation of the potential in the double layer is determined by the secondary electron emission and varies weakly in the passage from the dark side to the bright side.
- OSTI ID:
- 79171
- Journal Information:
- Solar System Research, Vol. 28, Issue 4-5; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1995; TN: Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik; 28: No. 4-5, 201-210(Jul-Oct 1994)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
New plasma regime in the distant geomagnetic tail
Energetic (>0.2 MeV) electron bursts observed by ISEE 3 in the deep (<240 R{sub E}) geomagnetic tail