10/20/2025
By Lynne Schaufenbil
Abstract: The sources and transport pathways of heavy ions significantly impact Earth's response to solar wind. While previous studies have mainly focused on the ionosphere as a source, this 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 out of the solar wind and into the magnetosphere during its orbit around the Earth. 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.
Bio: Mei-Yun is an assistant professor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Massachusetts Lowell. 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. 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 was the NASA Jack Eddy Postdoc Fellow [2023-2025] hosted by Dr. Andrew Poppe in Space Sciences Lab, University of California Berkeley.
To attend or for the Zoom link, please contact Lynne_Schaufenbil@uml.edu