Solar-wind interactions: Nature and composition of lunar atmosphere

The solar wind interacts directly with the lunar surface material resulting in an essentially complete absorption of the corpuscles producing no upstream bowshock but a cavity downstream from the Moon. The main source of most neutral species of the atmosphere, except probably⁴⁰Ar, is the solar-wind interaction products. The other sources which appear to be minor contributors to the atmosphere are the interaction products of cosmic rays, planetary degassing, effects of meteorite impacts and radioactive decays. Most of the hydrogen atoms derived from the solar-wind protons contribute to the atmosphere as hydrogen molecules rather than atoms. Only on the basis of the solar-wind protons, alpha particles and ions of oxygen and carbon, the atmospheric species concentration (cm^–3) near the lunar surface at 300K are as follows: H₂ 3.3 to 9.9 × 10³; He 2.4 to 4.7 × 10³; H 3.7; OH 0.25; H₂O 0.24; and O₂, O, CO, CO₂ and CH₄ in concentrations smaller than H₂. Whatever the source, the OH and H₂O concentrations in the atmosphere are about the same. The calculated concentrations are in good agreement with the observations by the Apollo 17 lunar surface mass spectrometer and the Apollo 17 orbital UV spectrometer. At the time of sample collection from the Moon, the hydrogen content in the trapped gas layer of the lunar surface material was partly as hydrogen atoms and partly as hydrogen molecules, but at the time of sample analysis hydrogen was mostly in molecular form. The H₂O content at the time of sample analysis was only a few parts per million by weight.Paper presented at the Conference on Interactions of the Interplanetary Plasma with the Modern and Ancient Moon, sponsored by the Lunar Science Institute, Houston, Texas and held at the Lake Geneva Campus of George Williams College, Wisconsin, between September 30 and October 4, 1974.     

Solar-wind interactions with the moon: Nature and composition of nitrogen compounds

The lunar atmosphere and magnetic field are very tenuous. The solar wind, therefore, interacts directly with the lunar surface material and the dominant nature of interaction is essentially complete absorption of solar-wind particles by the surface material resulting in no upstream bowshock, but a cavity downstream. The solar-wind nitrogen ion species induce and undergo a complex set of reactions with the elements of lunar material and the solar-wind-derived trapped elements. The nitrogen concentration indigeneous to the lunar surface material is practically nil. Therefore any nitrogen and nitrogen compounds found in the lunar surface material are due to the solar-wind implantation of nitrogen ions. The flux of the solar-wind nitrogen ion species is about 6×10³ cm^–2 s^–1. Since there is no evidence for accumulation of nitrogen species in the lunar surface material, the outflux of nitrogen species from the lunar material to the atmosphere is the same as the solar-wind nitrogen ion flux. The species of the outflux are primarily NO and NH₃, and their respective concentrations in the near surface lunar atmosphere are found by calculation to be 327 and 295 cm^–3. The calculated concentration of NH₃ seems to be consistent with the sunrise concentration results of the mass spectrometer implanted on the lunar surface. This is not the case for the concentration of NO. According to the presently calculated concentration value of NO, the mass spectrometer should have detected NO at sunrise, but no report was made for its detection. There is also discrepancy about the concentration of N₂ which is explained in this paper. The concentrations of nitrogen species in the lunar material at the time of sample collection on the Moon remained about the same when the samples were analyzed on the Earth. However, no specific experiment was planned to detect the nitrogen species in the lunar material samples.     

Cosmic ray anisotropy analysis with a full-sky observatory

A cosmic ray observatory with full-sky coverage can exploit standard anisotropy analysis methods that do not work if part of the celestial sphere is never seen. In particular, the distribution of arrival directions can be fully characterized by a list of spherical harmonic coefficients. The dipole vector and quadrupole tensor are of special interest, but the full set of harmonic coefficients constitutes the anisotropy fingerprint that may be needed to reveal the identity of the cosmic ray sources. The angular power spectrum is a coordinate-independent synopsis of that fingerprint. The true cosmic ray anisotropy can be measured despite non-uniformity in celestial exposure, provided the observatory is not blind to any region of the sky. This paper quantitatively examines how the accuracy of anisotropy measurement depends on the number of arrival directions in a data set.     

Cosmic ray modulation studies with Lead-Free Gulmarg Neutron Monitor

A lead-free neutron monitor operating at High Altitude Research Laboratory (HARL), Gulmarg optimized for detecting 2.45 MeV neutron bursts produced during the atmospheric lightning discharges is also concurrently used for studying background neutron component present in the atmosphere. These background neutrons are produced due to the interaction of primary cosmic rays with the atmospheric constituents. In order to study and extract the information about the yield of the neutron production during transient atmospheric lightning discharges, the system is continuously operated to monitor and record the cosmic ray produced background secondary neutrons in the atmosphere. The data analysis of the background neutrons recorded by Lead-Free Gulmarg Neutron Monitor (LFGNM) has convincingly established that the modulation effects due to solar activity phenomena compare very well with those monitored by the worldwide IGY or NM64 type neutron monitors which have optimum energy response relatively towards the higher energy regime of the cosmic rays. The data has revealed various types of modulation phenomena like diurnal variation, Forbush decrease etc. during its entire operational period. However, a new kind of a periodic/seasonal variation pattern is also revealed in the data from September 2007 to September 2012, which is seen to be significantly consistent with the data recorded by Emilio Segre observatory, Israel (ESOI) Neutron Monitor. Interestingly, both these neutron monitors have comparable latitude and altitude. However, the same type of consistency is not observed in the data recorded by the other conventional neutron monitors operating across the globe.     

Cosmic ray generation by quasar remnants: constraints and implications

We report the first detection of CO in the bulge of M31. The ¹²CO (1–0) and (2–1) lines are both detected in the dust complex D395A/393/384, at 1.3 arcmin (∼0.35 kpc) from the centre. From these data and from visual extinction data, we derive a CO luminosity to reddening ratio (and a CO luminosity to H₂ column density ratio) quite similar to that observed in the local Galactic clouds. The (2–1) to (1–0) line intensity ratio points to a CO rotational temperature and a gas kinetic temperature of >10 K. The molecular mass of the complex, inside a 25-arcsec (100 pc) region, is 1.5×10⁴ M_⊙.     

Cosmic ray ionization of the Jovian atmosphere

An approximate form of the Boltzmann equation has been used to obtain local ionization rates due to the absorption of galactic cosmic rays in the Jovian atmosphere. It is shown that the muon flux component of the cosmic ray-induced cascade may be especially importannt in ionizing the atmosphere at levels where the total number density exceeds 10¹⁹ cm^?3 (well below the ionospheric layers produced by solar euv). A model containing both positive and negative ion reactions has been employed to compute equilibrium electron and ion number densities. Peak electron number densities on the order of 10³ cm^?3 may be expected even at relatively low magnetic latitudes. The dominant positive ions are NH₄⁺ and C_nH_m⁺ cluster ions, with n ? 2; it is suggested that the absorption of galactic cosmic ray energy at such relatively high pressures in the Jovian atmosphere $\text{(M ? 10}{}^{18}\text{to}\text{10}{}^{20}\text{cm}{}^{\mathrm{?3}}\text{)}$ and the subsequent chemical reactions may be instrumental in the local formation of complex hydrocarbons.     

Cosmic ray ionization of lower Venus atmosphere

Cosmic ray particles passing through dense lower atmosphere of Venus decay giving rise to various charged and neutral particles. The flux and degradation of dominant cascade particles namely neutrinos and pions are computed and ionization contributions at lower altitudes are estimated. Using the height profile of pion flux, the muon flux is computed and used to estimate ionization at lower altitudes. It is shown that cosmic ray produced ionization descends to much lower altitudes intercepting the thickness of Venus cloud deck. The dynamical features of Venus cloud deck are used to allow the likely charging and charge separation processes resulting into cloud-to-cloud lightning discharges.     

Cosmic ray scintillations in random magnetic fields with non-zero helicity

The cosmic ray scintillation theory is modified for the case of non diagonal IMF correlation tensor. We introduce the term helicity of cosmic ray scintillation. It describes rotation of the cosmic ray distribution function.It is shown that the helicity of the cosmic ray scintillations and the IMF helicity are alike in nonresonant frequency band. The behaviour of the cosmic ray distribution function in resonant frequency band is considered.The algorithm for two-canal spectral analysis based on an autoregressional method is developed. Empirical functions of helicity of the cosmic ray scintillation and of IMF helicity are obtained for the same time intervals.Observational results are found to be in a good agreement with the theory.     

Cosmic ray modulation: Effects of high speed solar wind streams

Based on their source of origin, high speed streams detected in the solar wind plasma have been classified into two classes, coronal hole and solar flare associated streams. Observed heliospheric plasma and field parameters of these streams such as speed, field strength and its variance have been utilized in a systematic manner in order to see their effects in cosmic ray modulation. It is found that flare associated streams are much more effective in modulation than streams from coronal holes. Inspite of the possibility that solar wind structures during two types of streams might be different, the field variance appears to be the most cricial parameter responsible for this difference in their effectiveness in modulation.     

Cosmic influences on the early history of the lunar surface

It is pointed out that the observed random distribution of low-angle impact craters over the lunar surface rules out the possibility that particles initially responsible for the origin of such craters had, prior to impact, been in heliocentric orbits. The observed facts are more consistent with a view that particles responsible for most of large primary impact at the earliest stage of lunar history were moving with the Earth-Moon gravitational dipole, and may have represented leftovers from the formation of this pair of cosmic bodies. The application of a similar argument to an equally obvious lack of directional effects in Martian cratering is, however, invalidated by a relatively large inclination of the Martian equator to the orbital plane of this planet.Presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Lunar Studies in Patras, Greece, September 1971.Normally at the Department of Astronomy, University of Manchester, England.     

Time Evolution of low-Frequency Periodicities in Cosmic ray Intensity

The long-time series of daily means of cosmic-ray intensity observed by four neutron monitors at different cutoff rigidities (Calgary, Climax, Lomnický tít and Huancayo/Haleakala) were analyzed by means of the wavelet transform method in the period range 60 to 1000 days. The contributions of the time evolution of three quasi-periodic cosmic-ray signals (150 d, 1.3 yr and 1.7 yr) to the global one are obtained. While the 1.7-yr quasi-periodicity, the most remarkable one in the studied interval, strongly contributes to the cosmic ray intensity profile of solar cycle 21 (particularly in 1982), the 1.3-yr one, which is better correlated with the same periodicity of the interplanetary magnetic field strength, is present as a characteristic feature for the decreasing phases of the cycles 20 and 22. Transitions between these quasi-periodicities are seen in the wavelet power spectra plots. Obtained results support the claimed difference in the solar activity evolution during odd and even solar activity cycles.     

Cosmic ray propagation and the star formation history of NGC 1961

We present new radio continuum data at four frequencies for the supermassive, peculiar galaxy NGC 1961. These observations allow us to separate the thermal and non-thermal radio emission and to determine the non-thermal spectral index distribution. This spectral index distribution in the galactic disc is unusual: at the maxima of the radio emission the synchrotron spectrum is very steep, indicating aged cosmic ray electrons. Away from the maxima the spectrum is much flatter. The steep spectrum of the synchrotron emission at the maxima indicates that a strong decline of the star formation rate has taken place at these sites. The extended radio emission is a sign of recent cosmic ray acceleration, probably by recent star formation. We suggest that a violent event in the past, most likely a merger or a collision with an intergalactic gas cloud, has caused the various unusual features of the galaxy.     

Cosmic ray studies with a gas Cherenkov counter in association with an ionization spectrometer

The results from a ballon-borne gas Cherenkov counter (threshold 16.5 GeV nuc^–1) and an ionization spectrometer are presented. The gas Cherenkov counter provides an absolute energy calibration for the response of the calorimeter for 5Z26 nuclei of cosmic rays. The contribution of scintillation to the gas Cherenkov pulse height has been obtained by independently selecting particles below the gas Cherenkov threshold using the ionization spectrometer. Energy spectra were derived by minimizing the ² between a Monte Carlo simulated data and flight data. Best fit power laws (dN/dE=AE ^–) were determined for C, N, O, Ne, Mg, and Si. The power laws, all consistent withE ^–2.7, are not good fits to the data. A better fit is obtained using the spectrum derived from the spectrometer. The data from the ionization calorimeter (Simonet al., 1979) and the gas Cherenkov are thus completely self-consistent.On sabbatical leave from the University of Maryland.     

Cosmic ray intensity variations and two types of high speed solar streams

This study deals with the short-term variations of cosmic ray intensity during the interval 1973–78. Daily means of high latitude neutron and meson monitors from the same station and those of a low latitude neutron monitor have been analysed using the Chree method of superposed epochs. The zero epoch for the Chree analyses corresponds to the day of a substantial increase (V 200 km s^–1) in the solar wind speed to values of 550 km s^–1 and which persists at such high values for an interval of at least three days. The investigation reveals the existence of two types of cosmic ray intensity variations with distinctly different spectral characteristics. During the interval 1973–76, relative changes in the neutron and meson monitor rates are nearly equal indicating an almost flat rigidity spectrum of variation. During 1977–78, however, the spectrum acquires a negative spectral character similar to that observed for Forbush decreases. We suggest that events of the interval 1973–76 are essentially due to high speed streams associated with solar coronal holes and that events of the interval 1977–78 are due to fast streams from solar active regions with flare activity.     

Cosmic ray and hydrogen distributions and cosmic gamma — rays

We calculate the spectrum of the diffuse cosmic gamma ray in the single and double leaky box models for several galactic distribution laws of cosmic rays and hdydrogen. The results show that LI Ti-pei's distribution law for the cosmic rays is the best and that the number of interstellar hydrogen molecules should be less than Gordon's value divided by 1.7. The observed spectrum of gamma rays can be reproduced by a suitable choice of the galactic distributions within certain ranges.     

Cosmic ray diffusion at energies of 1 MeV to 105 GeV

A supernova remnant accelerates cosmic rays to energies somewhat above 10⁵ GeV by the time that the free expansion phase of its evolution has come to an end. As the remnant's outer shock slows, these highest energy cosmic rays diffuse away from the shock along a magnetic flux tube with a radius comparable to that of the remnant at the end of its free expansion phase and which eventually (over a distance of the order of a kiloparsec) bends into the Galactic halo. A similarity solution exists for the temporal and spatial variations, in such a tube, of both the number density for these ～ 10⁵ GeV cosmic rays and the energy density of the waves on which they resonantly scatter. Wave-wave interactions probably do not dominate the evolution of the energy density of these lowest frequency waves, but we assume that they do establish a Kraichnan wave spectrum at higher wavenumber. Although we cannot rigorously justify this assumption, it does receive some support from the analysis of pulsar signals. There is a large body of observations to which such a model can be applied, yielding constraints that must be met. With the model that we develop here we obtain the following results:

1. The local intensity of ～ 10⁵ GeV cosmic rays implies that the flux tube which currently surrounds the Solar System last contained a remnant in the free expansion phase several times 10⁷ years ago. We comment on the rough agreement between this age and that inferred from Be¹⁰ data.
2. The theoretical value of the cosmic ray diffusion coefficient at ～ 1 GeV in the tube corresponding to that time is in harmony with the value of the diffusion coefficient inferred from cosmic ray composition and synchrotron measurements.

In the light of our inhomogeneous cosmic ray acceleration/propagation model we re-examine our earlier work on the evidence for second order acceleration in a very old remnant. Such evidence is provided by the molecular compositions along several lines of sight to the Perseus OB2 association. We find as a third significant result that the model value of the diffusion coefficient at energies in the range of 1 MeV agrees within about an order of magnitude with that which we infer from the molecular data.     

Cosmic ray exposure ages of features and events at the apollo landing sites

Cosmic ray exposure ages of lunar samples have been used to date surface features related to impact cratering and downslope movement of material. Only when multiple samples related to a feature have the same rare gas exposure age, or when a single sample has the same⁸¹Kr-Kr and track exposure age can a feature be considered reliably dated. Because any single lunar sample is likely to have had a complex exposure history, assignment of ages to features based upon only one determination by any method should be avoided. Based on the above criteria, there are only five well-dated lunar features: Cone Crater (Apollo 14) 26 m.y., North Ray Crater (Apollo 16) 50 m.y., South Ray Crater (Apollo 16) 2 m.y., the emplacement of the Station 6 boulders (Apollo 17) 22 m.y., and the emplacement of the Station 7 boulder (Apollo 17) 28 m.y. Other features are tentatively dated or have limits set on their ages: Bench Crater (Apollo 12) ?99 m.y., Baby Ray Crater (Apollo 16) ?2 m.y., Shorty Crater (Apollo 17) ≈ 30 m.y., Camelot Crater (Apollo 17) ?140 m.y., the emplacement of the Station 2 boulder 1 (Apollo 17) 45–55 m.y., and the slide which generated the light mantle (Apollo 17) ?50 m.y.     

Cosmic ray exposure history and compaction age of Boulder 1 from Station 2

Fossil track analyses of a ～ 3 cm section of boulder fragment 72255, collected at the base of the South Massif, yield a surface exposure age for this boulder in its present location of ～ 40 m.y. This age is in good agreement with the⁸¹Kr-Kr exposure age (Leichet al., 1975), suggesting that the boulder was either never exposed to cosmic radiation prior to its emplacement at the foot of the South Massif or that it was heavily shielded during any previous irradiation. High-voltage electron microscope observations reveal no evidence of solar flare irradiation prior to breccia compaction, indicating that the breccia components were never part of a pre-Serenitatis near-surface regolith. The fission track record of a whitlockite crystal from 72255 yields a fission track age of 3.96 _?0.07 ^+0.04 g.y. Comparison with the⁴⁰Ar-³⁹ Ar age of 4.00±0.03 g.y. suggests that this age represents the compaction age of the parent boulder.     

Spectroscopic remote sensing of lunar surface composition

The various regions of the electromagnetic spectrum currently being used to determine the composition of the lunar surface remotely are reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of using each region are pointed out, and limits are set on the kind and amount of information that can be obtained. It is concluded that it would be most useful to apply all of these techniques to the problem of remotely exploring the Moon because of the complementary nature of the data obtained.Paper presented to the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Lunar Studies, Patras, Greece, September 1971.