CPAESS Discovery Seminar: Metals from the Moon? A Comprehensive Study of Metallic Ions in the Magnetosphere
Please join CPAESS for a virtual seminar talk with Mei-Yun Lin, NASA Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellow
Mei-Yun Lin, NASA Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellow
Metals from the Moon? A Comprehensive Study of Metallic Ions in the Magnetosphere
Wednesday, August 20 at 11:00 AM (MT) (Virtual)
About Mei-Yun Lin, Ph.D.
Mei-Yun is currently a NASA Jack Eddy Postdoc Fellow hosted by Dr. Andrew Poppe in Space Sciences Lab, University of California Berkeley. She obtained her Ph.D. (2023) and M.S. degree (2020) from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, advised by Prof. Raluca Ilie. She will join the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Massachusetts Lowell as a tenured-track Assistant Professor in Fall 2025. Her research focuses on understanding the variations of the near-Earth environment, including the Moon, in response to the space weather using numerical modeling and data analysis.
Description
The sources and transport pathways of heavy ions significantly impact Earth's response to solar wind, which is commonly referred to as "space weather." While previous studies have mainly focused on the ionosphere as a source, my presentation will investigate the Moon's plasma as a potential new contributor by tracing metallic ions. These metallic ions are commonly found in the lunar environment and originate from the lunar exosphere. They become particularly significant as the Moon moves in and out of the solar wind and magnetosphere during its orbit. Using data from the THEMIS-ARTEMIS mission, we derive the production and ionization rates of these metallic ions. Our findings suggest that the rates of metallic ions are more influenced by the Moon's location than by solar activity and that the Moon may supply more metallic ions to the magnetosphere than the ionosphere. Finally, a particle tracing model is employed to track the transport of metallic ions from the Moon into the magnetosphere. The simulations suggest that metallic ions from the Moon could reach the inner magnetosphere, indicating that some of the metallic ions observed may indeed originate from the Moon. Furthermore, the transport of these metallic ions is influenced by the Earthward flow in the magnetotail near the lunar distance and is more prevalent during northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions.
The talk will be recorded and published on the CPAESS YouTube Channel.
Questions? Contact Dawn Mullally
