Abstract
Abstract. The effect of solar wind implanted volatiles into the top 100 nm of the lunar regolith plays a significant role in quantitatively assessing the lunar surface isotopic composition. In essence, these volatiles can either quickly sputter out of the surface or be retained. The implantation processes exhibit a functional dependency on the surface temperature, ilmenite abundance and the activation energy associated with the optical maturity of the lunar soil. The prime focus of this study is to simulate the implication of these incident volatiles in characterizing the regolith for a better insight into the modeling of lunar exosphere during both Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection (ICME) and usual cases. Additionally, the proposed model quantifies the total lunar oxygen repository along with determining the associated textural and frequency domain measures for probable future lunar 3He mining sites. In this 30-day simulation, the particles bombard the reconstructed lunar grid wherein each cell displays varying particle density at a given local time. Moreover, both the activation energy and TiO2 content are assumed to be in a Gaussian distribution having (μ, σ) of (0.96, 0.025) and (12.52, 3.44) respectively. It has been found that the surfaces characterized by high activation energy tend to retain solar wind implants due to the large numbers of crystal defects. However, for H and heavy trace ions, intermediate activation energy range demonstrates diurnal behavior with the diffusive loss at local noon time. The study also finds an intriguing relationship between the lunar O2 and retained H sites (frequency domain). Furthermore, this could be utilized as a generic exospheric modeling paradigm for airless bodies and contribute to the understanding of the physical processes associated with solar astronomy.
Highlights
The interaction of solar wind with the local planetary surfaces provides an insight into the implantation processes of the volatiles carried out by the wind
In order to evaluate the rate of maturation of the lunar regolith, the distribution of activation energy for each grid cell has been randomly generated
In real time, the existing crystallographic defects tend to follow a more complicated distribution which may be exhibited in a combination of Gaussians as used here. The spread of these activation energies determines the true nature of the soil for carrying out the implantation process when the solar wind ions interact with the surface
Summary
The interaction of solar wind with the local planetary surfaces provides an insight into the implantation processes of the volatiles carried out by the wind. The lunar exosphere serves as a source of neutrals which are subjected to ionization by protons, electrons and photons (Cladis, Francis, & Vondrak, 1994; Winske, Wu, Li, Mou, & Guo, 1985). These ionized particles influence the interaction of solar wind with the lunar surface through momentum transfer while they get accelerated by the motional electric field. During the interaction of the solar wind with the surface, the volatiles impacts the regolith based on the nature of lunar soil grains at the molecular level
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