Particle‐in‐cell simulations of the solar wind interaction with lunar crustal magnetic anomalies: Magnetic cusp regions

Abstract

As the solar wind is incident upon the lunar surface, it will occasionally encounter lunar crustal remanent magnetic fields. These magnetic fields are small‐scale, highly non‐dipolar, have strengths up to hundreds of nanotesla, and typically interact with the solar wind in a kinetic fashion. Simulations, theoretical analyses, and spacecraft observations have shown that crustal fields can reflect solar wind protons via a combination of magnetic and electrostatic reflection; however, analyses of surface properties have suggested that protons may still access the lunar surface in the cusp regions of crustal magnetic fields. In this first report from a planned series of studies, we use a 11/2‐dimensional, electrostatic particle‐in‐cell code to model the self‐consistent interaction between the solar wind, the cusp regions of lunar crustal remanent magnetic fields, and the lunar surface. We describe the self‐consistent electrostatic environment within crustal cusp regions and discuss the implications of this work for the role that crustal fields may play regulating space weathering of the lunar surface via proton bombardment.