DREAM Lunar Extreme Workshop wraps up a spectacular week        June 24, 2011

A group of DREAM investigators along with students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Seton Keough High School and undergraduates participating in the Lunar Planetary Space Academy attended a 3-1/2 day workshop on the solar storm/lunar interaction, and the effect such storms may have at the Moon. We know that Earth's space environment responds to solar storms, but what would happen at our Moon? This body has with a very thin atmosphere and little magnetic field and thus is directly exposed to the storm's high energy radiation and heavy massed particles? DREAM models and data were analyzed and compared for the passage of the coronal mass ejection that occurred on 1-3 May 1998. During this time, Lunar Prospector was in orbit about the Moon and could remotely sense nightside surface potentials and magnetic fields. Key finds were in the areas of storm- related sputtering, surface charging, sputtered and reflected ion outflow, and polar crater resource loss. A set of papers will be published based on some very new and exciting results. Stay tuned to see these results in upcoming meetings.