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American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Research Letters, 7(37), p. n/a-n/a, 2010

DOI: 10.1029/2010gl042891

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Acceleration of scattered solar wind protons at the polar terminator of the Moon: Results from Chang'E-1/SWIDs: ACCELERATED PROTONS AT LUNAR TERMINATOR

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We report accelerated particles observed by Solar Wind Ion Detectors (SWIDs) on Chang'E-1 spacecraft close to terminator regions of the Moon. As the spacecraft crosses the terminator, a stream of ions with energy of ∼200eV/q are detected. As the spacecraft moves to the anti-subsolar point of the Moon, the energy of these ions increase by 600 ∼ 1500eV. This phenomenon occurs at north/south pole when IMF By component is dominant and negative/positive. It is proposed these particles are scattered solar wind protons, accelerated by the convection electric field of the solar wind and E × B drift in the ambipolar electric field at the flank of the lunar wake. This mechanism allows a new portion of solar wind protons to enter the central lunar wake, and provides a possibility to study the property of proton scattering at the dayside of the Moon.