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ARTEMIS observations of extreme diamagnetic fields in the lunar wake
Author(s) -
Poppe A. R.,
Fatemi S.,
Halekas J. S.,
Holmström M.,
Delory G. T.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl060280
Subject(s) - wake , solar wind , physics , magnetosheath , diamagnetism , geophysics , plasma , magnetic field , mercury's magnetic field , magnetopause , atmospheric sciences , astrobiology , computational physics , interplanetary magnetic field , mechanics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
We present two Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) observations of diamagnetic fields in the lunar wake at strengths exceeding twice the ambient magnetic field during high plasma beta conditions. The first observation was 350 km from the lunar surface while the Moon was located in the terrestrial magnetosheath with elevated particle temperatures. The second observation was in the solar wind ranging from 500 to 2000 km downstream, with a relatively low magnetic field strength of approximately 1.6 nT. In both cases, the plasma beta exceeded 10. We discuss the observations and compare the data to hybrid plasma simulations in order to validate the model under such extreme conditions and to elucidate the global structure of the lunar wake during these observations. The extreme nature of the diamagnetic field in the lunar wake provides an important end‐member test case for theoretical and modeling studies of the various plasma processes operating in the lunar wake.