DREAM releases 2D simulations of the solar wind flowing into a shadowed lunar crater        September 19, 2011

DREAM team members Mike Zimmerman, Bill Farrell, Tim Stubbs, Jasper Halekas, and Telana Jackson recently performed two-dimensional computer simulations of plasma "mini-wake" formation in polar lunar craters. The results shed new light on the interplay between surface charging and secondary emission that can critically affect wake structure. Perhaps most importantly, this work demonstrated that solar wind protons access shadowed crater floors, comprising a proton flux that may play an important role in accumulation and depletion of volatiles such as water ice. The article is in press in Geophysical Research Letters, see http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/pip/2011GL048880.shtml.