地月空间粒子辐射环境及其对月表物质的影响研究进展

由于没有全球磁场和稠密大气保护,月球直接受宇宙线、太阳风和地球风粒子的轰击.了解月球空间粒子辐射的特性、粒子的来源和传输等过程,本身是亟待解决的空间科学基础问题,同时还可帮助更好地提供预报和预警,为保障探月和载人登月等活动的安全提供理论参考;此外,月球空间辐射环境中的粒子与月表作用产生的水等物质对载人登月和月球基地意义重大,且月表物质保存了空间环境较为完整的信息和演化历史,对研究地月系统及太阳系其他天体(乃至系外行星)的宜居性与演化,也具有重要的科学价值.本文在简要总结地月空间粒子辐射环境研究现状的基础上,重点分析了近月粒子辐射环境及其对月表物质所产生的影响,梳理了宇宙线、太阳能量粒子事件、太阳风、地球风以及月源粒子等不同辐射的来源和传输机制,这些粒子与月表作用产生水、赤铁矿、中性原子等物质的过程,以及相关过程对月球空间环境的影响、对地月系统演化的启示等关键科学问题,并提出了解决问题所面临的技术难点,最后对未来可能的重点研究内容进行了展望,可为后续月球探测任务(例如嫦娥四期和国际月球科研站等)相关领域科技规划提供一定的参考.

嫦娥四号能量中性原子观测揭示太阳风与月面相互作用新特征

与地球不同,月球暴露在太阳风中。太阳风注入到月面,与月壤相互作用,部分太阳风质子以能量中性原子(Energetic Neutral Atom, ENA)的形式被月表散射。另外,月球局部地区的磁异常能阻挡太阳风到达月面,并形成微磁层,成为月面天然的保护屏障。然而以往相关的观测数据都来自轨道器,月面的真实情况无从知晓。嫦娥四号任务搭载的中性原子探测仪首次在月面就位测量ENA,为研究月面和太阳风相互作用提供了新的视角。本文综述了嫦娥四号的ENA探测,重点介绍了一些不同于以往遥感观测的新现象,包括月面ENA反射率较高,ENA通量向低能段聚集,以及除了氢ENA还有其他重成分ENA等。分析上游太阳风观测数据发现,月面对太阳风的作用主要体现在105~523 eV能量段,且在磁异常下游时ENA通量整体偏低。利用全球Hall MHD数值模拟,证明了微磁层是造成ENA通量降低的原因。同时,还发现月球微磁层的形成与太阳风动压以及离子惯性长度有关,微磁层内的静电场使得太阳风减速和偏转,对应的电势差为50~260 V。

月表太阳风和粒子辐射环境--“嫦娥四号”观测新结果

太阳风、太阳高能粒子、银河宇宙线几乎可以无阻碍地到达月面,与月表发生相互作用。太阳风粒子以能量中性原子的形式被月壤散射,其过程与太阳风状态、月表电磁环境、局部地形、月壤特性等因素均有关系;银河宇宙射线、太阳高能粒子与月壤相互作用,产生以中子和伽马射线为主的反照辐射,形成特殊的月表粒子辐射环境。文章介绍了“嫦娥四号”首次在月球背面原位所测量的能量中性原子、粒子辐射环境,分析了月面ENA的能谱等特性、月球微磁层存在的观测证据及月面辐射环境的构成及其随时间的变化。结果表明,月表能量中性原子观测为认识太阳风与月球的相互作用,这为研究月球微磁层内部结构及成因提供了新的视角;而月面辐射环境的测量为未来月球探测中航天员和设备的安全保障提供了重要依据。

冷而密的等离子体片及其对磁尾等离子体片分布特性的影响

地球磁尾等离子体片在太阳风-磁层耦合过程中起着重要的作用,其中冷而密的等离子体片是地磁活动平静期太阳风等离子体进入磁层的重要区域.以往的研究通常没有利用局地探测数据针对冷而密的等离子体片发生率在地心太阳磁层坐标系(GSM)中xy平面分布的统计分析.本文利用GEOTAIL卫星1996-2016年的局地测量数据,给出了等离子体片密度、温度及冷而密的等离子体片发生率的二维分布.与温度具有晨昏对称分布不同,等离子体片数密度呈现明显的晨昏不对称性,并且冷而密的等离子体片发生率在晨侧较高.

High-speed flowing plasmas in the Earth’s plasma sheet

A research topic of great interest to the space physics community is the observation of plasmas flowing at hundreds of kilometers per second in the Earth’s plasma sheet. Although considerable effort has been made to understand the source of fast-flowing plasmas, many questions remain unanswered about the mechanisms that produce high-speed flows and the effects they have on magnetospheric disturbances, especially their contributions to magnetospheric convection and substorms. In this paper, we discuss briefly the history of high-speed flows and review the proposed mechanisms, signatures of high-speed flows in auroras and their interaction with the background plasma. We then summarize the relationships between high-speed flows and magnetic structures, discuss questions associated with substorms, and finally pose several important scientific questions that need to be addressed.

Enhanced anti-sunward flow near local noon during a period of horizontal IMF and high solar wind velocity V_Y

It is believed that a southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is mainly responsible for the energy input from solar wind into the magnetosphere.This paper presents an unusual case of strong anti-sunward plasma flow (up to 2 km/s) in the polar cap ionosphere and large cross-polar cap potential (CPCP) during a period of horizontal IMF (|BZ| < 2 nT) observed by both ACE (at the L1 point) and Geotail (on the dusk flank of the magnetosheath).The CPCP is even higher than that under preceding BZ ≈-23 nT.Furthermore,GOES8 observed that the magnetosheath field turns northward as the anti-sunward plasma flow and CPCP start to increase,which implies that the magnetosheath field interacting with the Earth's magnetopause has significantly rotated and differs from the IMF observed by ACE and Geotail.In accordance with previous theoretical work,we suggest that the magnetic field line draping produces a southward magnetosheath field and enhances anti-sunward plasma flow and the CPCP.

Analysis of magnetotail flux rope events by ARTEMIS observations

Three earthward flowing magnetic flux ropes observed in the duskside plasma sheet at geocentric solar magnetospheric coordinate X~–55 Re by P1 and P2 of acceleration,reconnection,turbulence and electrodynamics of moon’s interaction with the sun mission during 13:00–15:00 UT on July 3,2012,were studied.The morphologies of the flux ropes were studied in detail based on Grad-Shfranov reconstruction method and electronic pitch angle distribution data.It is found that(1)the flux rope cross-sectional dimensions are 1.0 Re×0.78 Re,1.3 Re×0.78 Re,and 2.5 Re×1.25 Re,respectively.The magnetic field lines were asymmetric about the center with field line compression on both sides of the current sheet at the leading region;(2)the electron energy flux data presented asymmetry with larger electron flux and lower temperature in the precursor region.The flux ropes were blocked by the resistance of compressed particle density in the front central plasma sheet and the enhanced magnetic field on its sides;and(3)it is found that the flux rope has a layered structure.From inside out,event 1 can be divided into three regions,namely electronic depletion core region,closed field line region,and the caudal area possible with fields connected with the ionosphere.It suggests that the flux ropes cannot merge with the tail magnetic field lines near the lunar orbit.Especially,the flux rope asymmetrical shape reflects the different reconnection processes that caused it on both sides of the magnetic structure.The events shown in this paper support the multiple X-line magnetic reconnection model for flux ropes with in situ observations.

Reconstruction of morningside plasma sheet compressional ULF Pc5 wave

We studied the compressional wave event in Pc5 frequency range observed in the dawn-side magnetic equator on 9 March 1998 by Grad-Shafranov(GS) reconstruction method for the first time. To test the effectiveness of application of GS method on Pc5 compressional wave, we benchmarked our procedure by applying it to a one-dimensional current sheet model first. Excluding the left-hand corners, the average error magnitude was less than 10%. The reconstruction of actual data showed that we obtained the 2-D map of compressional wave without suffering model constraints for the first time. The magnetic filed lines density cyclical changed, and the wavelength was about 2-4 times earth radius. The reconstructed magnetic topology had a shape very similar to the empirical 2-dimensional standing wave model proposed by the former workers. Besides, we also recovered the plasma thermal pressure and current density of the wave quantitatively.

Discrete energetic(～50-200 keV) electron events in the high-altitude cusp/polar cap/lobe

We identified 28 discrete electron events(DEEs) with enhanced fluxes at ~50-200 keV in the high-altitude cusp/polar cap/lobe,using the electron measurements by the BeiDa Image Electron Spectrometer(BD-IES) instrument onboard an inclined(55°)geosynchronous orbit(IGSO) satellite from October 2015 to January 2016. We find that among the 28 DEEs, 22 occur in the nightside and mostly in the northern cusp/polar cap/lobe, while 6 occur in the dayside and all in the southern cusp; 24 events correspond to an average interplanetary magnetic field(IMF) component B_z>0, 3 correspond to an average IMF B_z<0, and 1 has no OMNI IMF data. In these DEEs, the observed average omnidirectional electron differential flux generally fits well to a power-law spectrum, J^E^(-γ), with the spectral index y ranging from 2.6 to 4.6, while the average electron flux varies over three orders of magnitude from event to event. The spectral index of these cusp DEEs are(strongly) larger than the spectral index of solar wind superhalo electrons(radiation belt electrons) observed by the WIND 3 D Plasma & Energetic Particle instrument(the BD-IES). At^110 keV,the electron flux of DEEs in the cusp/polar cap/lobe shows a weak positive correlation with the solar wind superhalo electron flux but no obvious correlation with the radiation belt electron flux. These results suggest that these DEEs probably originate from transient processes acting on the solar wind superhalo electrons, e.g., the mid/high-latitude reconnection.

Shape and position of Earth's bow shock near-lunar orbit based on ARTEMIS data

Earth's bow shock is the result of interaction between the supersonic solar wind and Earth's magnetopause. However, data limitations mean the model of the shape and position of the bow shock are based largely on near-Earth satellite data. The model of the bow shock in the distant magnetotail and other factors that affect the bow shock, such as the interplanetary magnetic field(IMF) B_y, remain unclear. Here, based on the bow shock crossings of ARTEMIS from January 2011 to January 2015, new coefficients of the tail-flaring angle a of the Chao model(one of the most accurate models currently available) were obtained by fitting data from the middle-distance magnetotail(near-lunar orbit, geocentric distance -20R_E>X>-50R_E). In addition, the effects of the IMF B_y on the flaring angle a were analyzed. Our results showed that:(1) the new fitting coefficients of the Chao model in the middle-distance magnetotail are more consistent with the observed results;(2) the tail-flaring angle a of the bow shock increases as the absolute value of the IMF B_y increases. Moreover, positive IMF B_y has a greater effect than negative IMF B_y on flaring angle. These results provide a reference for bow shock modeling that includes the IMF B_y.

Analytical model test of methods to find the geometry and velocity of magnetic structures

It is important to determine the dimensionality and velocity information in the study of spatial magnetic structures. Many data analysis theories/techniques are based on the assumption of one or two dimensions. For example, the Grad-Shafranov(GS)reconstruction method assumes a dimensionality of two or less. The Minimum Direction Derivative(MDD) method provides an indication of the dimensionality. For the structure velocity, the components in each dimensionality can be calculated by SpatioTemporal Difference analysis(STD). In order to improve the convenience of use of MDD method, a new parameter Dm quantifying the dimensionality based on MDD eigenvalues is introduced in this paper. The influences of noise/turbulence,separation distance and tetrahedron configuration on MDD and the evaluation of Dmare systematically tested using two analytical models for magnetic structures, representing a magnetic mirror and magnetic flux rope. We tested and gave the threshold values of three quality indicators for MDD results using the flux rope model. We also show that the error induced by turbulence is comparable to that of random noise when the turbulence scales are less than the spacecraft separation. Besides, the accuracy of STD velocity estimation will also be influenced by turbulence for cases with excessively high data time resolution.By using Dm, we show that an ideal model of a mirror-like structure can be divided into one dimension(1-D) and three dimension(3-D) regions. This restricts the applicability of the GS method in mirror-like structures. For example, in a given reconstruction range, the GS error increased from less than 7% to more than 15% by using the data along trajectories in 1-D and 3-D regions as predicated by Dm. Thus, it is important to estimate the structure dimensionality, which can be further used to estimate the reliability of the GS reconstruction map.

Propagation properties of foreshock cavitons: Cluster observations

Foreshock cavitons are transient phenomena observed in the terrestrial foreshock region.They are characterized by a simultaneous depression of magnetic field magnitude and plasma density,which are bounded with enhancements of these two parameters and surrounded by ultralow frequency(ULF)waves.Previous studies focused on the interplanetary magnetic field(IMF)conditions,solar wind(SW)conditions,and the growth of the foreshock waves related to the generation of foreshock cavitons.Previously,a multipoint spacecraft analysis method using Cluster data was applied to analyze only two foreshock cavitons,and this method did not consider uncertainties.In this study,multipoint spacecraft analysis methods,including the timing method,the minimum directional derivative(MDD)method,and the spatiotemporal difference(STD)method are applied to determine the velocity in both spacecraft and solar wind frames.The propagation properties show good agreement with previous results from simulations and observations that most cavitons move sunward in the solar wind frame,with the velocities larger than the Alfvén speed.The propagation properties of foreshock cavitons support the formation mechanism of cavitons in previous simulations,which suggested that cavitons are formed due to the nonlinear evolution of compressive ULF waves.We find that there is clear decreasing trend between the size of cavitons and their velocity in the solar wind frame.In addition,the timing method considering errors has been applied to study the evolution properties by comparing the velocities with errors of the leading and trailing edges,and we identify three stable cavitons and one contracting caviton,which has not been studied before.Most cavitons should remain stable when they travel toward the Earth’s bow shock.The relationship between the size of foreshock cavitons and their distance from the bow shock is also discussed.