Abnormal phenomena of lunar dust transport near a light/dark junction region on the lunar surface

DONG Tailang; FENG Yulong; HUANG Wei; REN Depeng; WANG Zhihao; WANG Jianshan; CUI Yuhong

doi:10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2022.26.052

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Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology) ›› 2023, Vol. 63 ›› Issue (3) : 433-448. DOI: 10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2022.26.052

Research Article

Abnormal phenomena of lunar dust transport near a light/dark junction region on the lunar surface

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Abstract

[Significance] Neither a global atmosphere nor a magnetic field exists above the lunar surface. The lunar surface is exposed to high-energy ultraviolet radiation and solar wind, which charge a large amount of lunar dust to form high-potential, local electric fields. The lunar mountains, with a length of more than ten kilometers and a vertical height of several kilometers, block ultraviolet radiation from the sun, creating a whole light-dark junction region with a shadow region on the lunar surface. Meanwhile, the occlusion of the lunar surface by a detector or a rover also forms a local light/dark junction region under sunlight. Under the lunar environment, complex electric fields exist at the whole and local light-dark junction regions, which leads to the abnormal phenomenon of charged lunar dust transport. In this paper, the whole and local light-dark interface models were proposed, and the particle-in-cell method and leap-frog method were used to study the lunar dust transport anomalies of the two models based on measured data of the Apollo lunar dust samples. The results showed that a very significant abnormal phenomenon of lunar dust transport occurred in the whole and local light-dark interface models. First, the lunar dust transport path was bell-shaped or parabolic, and a large amount of lunar dust accumulated above the boundary in the whole light-dark interface model. Moreover, the lunar dust transport phenomenon had an obvious horizontal transport characteristic, and the horizontal transport velocity was approximately two to ten times that of the vertical direction. Particularly, the abnormal phenomenon of lunar dust transport at the junction between light and dark was more severe and more likely to occur in the whole light-dark interface model. Second, in the local light/dark interface model, significant anomalies of lunar dust transport were found on both the left and right side of the detector, where a large amount of lunar dust was transported bidirectionally from one side to another side, passing through the detector in the horizontal direction. In particular, a large or small lunar dust vortex rotated around both sides of the left and right detector, resulting in a local "moondust storm" around the detector with a number density of approximately 1.4×10⁵ particles per cubic meter. This paper predicts the abnormal phenomenon of lunar dust transport for the whole light-dark junction region caused by mountain occlusion, which can indirectly verify the observed occurrence of the "horizontal glow" phenomenon. Abnormal transport of lunar dust in the local light-dark junction region may be one of the main reasons for the deposition of much lunar dust on the detector/rover and so on. The abnormal phenomenon of lunar dust transport is not only potentially harmful to the current lunar detector/rover and so on, but also a key problem that human exploration activities cannot avoid. The results of this study have not only an important reference value for selecting the landing site of a lunar detector and the traveling route of a rover but also helpful to reduce the lunar dust pollution caused by the detector/rover and so on.

Key words

lunar dust transport / light/dark junction region / abnormal phenomena / detector and rover / particle-in-cell method / leap-frog method

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DONG Tailang, FENG Yulong, HUANG Wei, REN Depeng, WANG Zhihao, WANG Jianshan, CUI Yuhong. Abnormal phenomena of lunar dust transport near a light/dark junction region on the lunar surface[J]. Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology). 2023, 63(3): 433-448 https://doi.org/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2022.26.052

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