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Evidence of currents and unstable particle distributions in an extended region around the lunar plasma wake
Author(s) -
Bale S. D.,
Owen C. J.,
Bougeret J.L.,
Goetz K.,
Kellogg P. J.,
Lepping R. P.,
Manning R.,
Monson S. J.
Publication year - 1997
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 - 10.1029/97gl01193
Subject(s) - wake , physics , solar wind , spacecraft , plasma , context (archaeology) , geophysics , computational physics , atmospheric sciences , mechanics , astronomy , geology , paleontology , quantum mechanics
We report observations of electrostatic ion acoustic waves and Langmuir waves during a recent lunar encounter by the Wind spacecraft. These waves are observed when Wind is magnetically connected to the nominal wake and at distances greater than 8 lunar radii from the wake. When interpreted in the context of a simple time‐of‐flight model, these observations imply the existence of a system of currents and disturbed particle distributions that extends far into solar wind.