Effect of the Earth's Magnetosphere on the Lunar Wake

Abstract

The main goal of this research is to investigate the physical structure of space plasma around the Moon. The moon, which is an obstacle in front of the solar wind, surrounds by solar wind plasma and this plasma displays different physical characteristics on the day and night sides of the Moon. The properties of this plasma surrounding the Moon, the behavior of the lunar wake, and how it depends on the solar wind parameters have not been revealed yet. For this purpose, ARTEMIS spacecraft have been placed in orbits to provide a more precise understanding of the physical structure of the plasma around the moon. In this study, we examined the similarities and differences of the lunar wake behavior when the Moon is inside and outside of the magnetosphere via ARTEMIS spacecraft, when one of the spacecraft takes measurements in the lunar wake while the other directly takes solar wind data.