Spectral properties of whistler-mode waves in the vicinity of the Moon:
A statistical study with ARTEMIS
Abstract
We present statistical analyses of whistler-mode waves observed by
Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s
Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS). Although some observations showed
rising tone elements of the lunar whistler-mode waves similar to the
terrestrial chorus emissions, it remains unknown whether a banded
structure typically seen in chorus is common to the lunar waves. In this
study, we automatically detected whistler-mode waves from 9 years of
ARTEMIS data and classified them into four types of spectral shapes:
lower band only, upper band only, banded, and no-gap. We first show that
magnetic connection to the lunar surface is a dominant factor in the
wave generation; the occurrence rate of whistler mode waves is more than
10 times larger on magnetic field lines connected to the Moon than on
unconnected field lines. Then we compared the field line connected
events according to the position of the Moon and the condition of the
field-line foot point (day/night and existence of lunar magnetic
anomalies). The results show that (i) almost no banded event is observed
in any circumstances, suggesting that generation mechanisms for the two
band structure on the terrestrial chorus are largely ineffective around
the Moon, and (ii) the wave occurrence rate depends on the foot point
conditions, presumably affected by electrostatic/magnetic reflections
deforming the velocity distribution of the resonant electrons. Thus, our
results provide implications for the two band structure formation and
new insights to fundamental processes of the Moon-plasma interaction.