Radio emission from mini-magnetospheres on the Moon

Abstract

[1] Small-scale, localized magnetic anomalies on the surface of planetary satellites effectively create “mini-magnetospheres”, which can lead to standoff shocks analogous to planetary bow shocks. This gives rise to the tantalizing possibility that radio emission can be produced in the vicinity of such mini-magnetospheres, since it is well known that radio emissions are directly associated with the foreshock regions of planetary bow shocks and travelling interplanetary shocks. In this letter, we generalize a theoretical model for foreshock radio emissions in order to determine whether observable radio fluxes can also be generated near mini-magnetospheres. We show that, when applied specifically to the Moon, this model predicts that mini-magnetospheres should produce radio fluxes above current instrument sensitivity limits. Moreover, the predicted strong dependence of the radio emission on the upstream plasma properties may have important implications for the model's applicability to other planetary satellites.