Skip to main content

Volume 60 Supplement 4

Special Issue: Lunar Science with the SELENE “Kaguya” Mission-Prelaunch Studies-

The possibility of studying the lunar ionosphere with the SELENE radio science experiment

Abstract

The electron density profiles above the lunar surface will be observed by the radio occultation technique during the SELENE mission using the Vstar sub-satellite. Previous radio occultation observations have indicated the existence of an ionosphere with densities of up to 1000 cm−3 above the dayside lunar surface. The measured densities are difficult to explain theoretically when the removal of plasma by the solar wind is considered, and thus the generation mechanism of the lunar ionosphere is a major issue, with even the validity of previous observations still under debate. The SELENE radio science experiment will establish the morphology of the lunar ionosphere and will reveal its relationship with various physical conditions to provide possible clues to the mechanism.

References

  • Andrew, B. H., N. J. B. A. Branson, and D. Wills, Radio observations of the Crab nebula during a lunar occultation, Nature, 203, 171–173, 1964.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, S. J., Limits to a lunar ionosphere, Anzeiger Abt. II, 133, 17–21, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daily, W. D., W. A. Barker, C. W. Parkin, M. Clark, and P. Dyal, Ionosphere and atmosphere of the moon in the geomagnetic tail, J. Geophys. Res., 82, 5441–5451, 1977.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elsmore, B., Radio observations of the lunar atmosphere, Phil. Mag., 2, 1040–1046, 1957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Futaana, Y., S. Machida, Y. Saito, A. Matsuoka, and H. Hayakawa, Moonrelated nonthermal ions observed by NOZOMI—species, sources, and generation mechanisms, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 1025, doi:10.1029/2002JA009366, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harnett, E. and R. Winglee, Two dimensional MHD simulation of the solar wind interaction with magnetic field anomalies on the surface of the Moon, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 24997–25007, 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodges, R. R., Jr., J. H. Hoffman, and F. S. Johnson, The lunar atmosphere, Icarus, 21, 415–426, 1974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imamura, T., K. Noguchi, A. Nabatov, K.-I. Oyama, Z. Yamamoto, and M. Tokumaru, Phase scintillation observation during coronal sounding experiments with NOZOMI spacecraft, Astron. Astrophys., 439, 1165–1169, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, F. S., Lunar atmosphere, Rev. Geophys. And Space Phys., 9, 813–823, 1971.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, R. P., K. A. Anderson, and L. L. Hood, Lunar surface magnetic field concentrations antipodal to young large impact basins, Icarus, 74, 529–541, 1988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, R. P., D. L. Mitchell, D. W. Curtis, K. A. Anderson, C. W. Carlson, J. McFadden, M. H. Acuna, L. L. Hood, and A. Binder, Lunar Surface Magnetic Fields and Their Interaction with the SolarWind: Results from Lunar Prospector, Science, 281, 1480–1484, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipa, B. and L. Tyler, Statistical and computational uncertainties in atmospheric profiles from radio occultation: Mariner 10 at Venus, Icarus, 39, 192–208, 1979.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mizuno, E., N. Kawashima, T. Takano, and P. A. Rosen, Voyager radio science: observations and analysis of Neptune’s atmosphere, IEICE Trans. Commun., E75-B, 665–672, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nabatov, A. S., T. Imamura, N. A. Savich, K.-I. Oyama, and K. Noguchi, Detectability of lunar plasma clouds from Selene radio occultations, Adv. Space Res., 31(11), 2369–2375, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noguchi, K., T. Imamura, K.-I. Oyama, and A. Saito, Application of the GPS network to estimate the effect of the terrestrial ionosphere on the radio occultation measurements of planetary ionospheres, Radio Sci., 36, 1607–1614, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oyama, K.-I., A. Nabatov, N. Savich, Z. Yamamoto, T. Imamura, T. Ichikawa, and K. Noguchi, First test of the Nozomi radio science system in actual space flight, Adv. Space Res., 27(11), 1847–1850, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oyama, K.-I., A. Nabatov, N. Savich, T. Imamura, Z. Yamamoto, and K. Noguchi, Cislunar plasma exploration with the Selene radio science system, Adv. Space Res., 30(8), 1915–1919, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reasoner, D. L. and W. J. Burke, Characteristics of the lunar photoelectron layer in the geomagnetic tail, J. Geophys. Res., 77, 6671–6687, 1972.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savich, N. A., Cislunar plasma model, Space Res., 16, 941–943, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern, S. A., The lunar atmosphere: History, status, current problems, and context, Rev. Geophys., 37, 453–492, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stubbs, T. J., R. R. Vondrak, and W. M. Farrell, A dynamic fountain model for lunar dust, Adv. Space Res., 37, 59–66, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vasilyev, M. B., V. A. Vinogradov, A. S. Vyshlov, O. G. Ivanovskii, M. A. Kolosov, N. A. Savich, V. A. Samovol, L. N. Samoznaev, A. I. Sidorenko, A. I. Sheikhet, and D. Ya. Shtern, Radio transparency of circumlunar space using the Luna-19 station, Cosmic Res., 12, 102–107, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vyshlov, A. S., Preliminary results of circumlunar plasma research by the Luna 22. spacecraft, Space Res., 16, 945–949, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vyshlov, A. S. and N. A. Savich, Observations of radio source occultations by the moon and the nature of the plasma near the moon, Cosmic Res., 16, 450–454, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vyshlov, A. S., N. A. Savich, M. B. Vasilyev, L. N. Samoznaev, A. I. Sidorenko, and D. Y. Shtern, Some results of cislunar plasma research, Solar-Wind Interaction with the Planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars, NASA, 81–85, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walbridge, E., Lunar photoelectron layer, J. Geophys. Res., 78, 3668–3687, 1973.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takeshi Imamura.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Imamura, T., Oyama, KI., Iwata, T. et al. The possibility of studying the lunar ionosphere with the SELENE radio science experiment. Earth Planet Sp 60, 387–390 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352803

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352803

Key words