Abstract
During its orbit about the Earth, the Moon is located in the interplanetary medium or in the geomagnetosheath-geomagnetotail formed by the solar wind interaction with Earth. In the tail no evidence is found for a lunar magnetic field, which limits its magnetic moment to 1020 Gcm3.(~ 10−6 Earth). In the interplanetary medium, no evidence exists for a bow shock or a trailing shock, although a well defined plasma wake region is observed in the anti-solar wind direction (i.e., downstream). The Moon absorbs the solar wind plasma that strikes its surface and creates a void region or cavity in the flow. Small perturbations of the interplanetary magnetic field magnitude (< 30%) and direction (< 20°) are observed to be correlated with the location of the solar wind plasma umbra and penumbra. Characteristic perturbations in magnitude alternate in sign (+−+−+) as a satellite traverses the wake region. The magnitude of the anomalies is correlated principally with the diamagnetic properties of the solar wind, as measured by β, and less with the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. The observed lunar Mach cone gives evidence for the anisotropic propagation of waves in the magnetized collisionless warm plasma of the solar wind.
Neither the Gold-Tozer-Wilson mechanism of accretion of field lines or the Sonett-Colburn-Hollweg mechanism of unipolar induction is significant in the interaction. The transmission of microstructural discontinuities in the interplanetary medium past the Moon show little distortion, indicating a low effective electrical conductivity (⩽10−4 mho/m) which implies a relatively cool interior (~103K) of the lunar body. Fluctuations of the interplanetary magnetic field upstream from the plasma wake are stimulated by the disturbed conditions in that region. The Moon behaves like a cold, non-magnetic, fully absorbing dielectric sphere in the solar wind flow.
At the time of the Symposium the author was on leave of absence from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA to which he has since returned.
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Ness, N.F. (1972). Interaction of the Solar Wind with the Moon. In: Dyer, E.R. (eds) Solar-Terrestrial Physics/1970. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3693-5_21
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