Sputter Yields of the Lunar Surface: Experimental Validation and Numerical Modelling of Solar Wind Sputtering of Apollo 16 Soils

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Hauptverfasser: Brötzner, Johannes, Biber, Herbert, Szabo, Paul Stefan, Jäggi, Noah, Fuchs, Lea, Nenning, Andreas, Fellinger, Martina, Nagy, Gyula, Pitthan, Eduardo, Primetzhofer, Daniel, Mutzke, Andreas, Wilhelm, Richard Arthur, Wurz, Peter, Galli, André, Aumayr, Friedrich
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Brötzner, Johannes
Biber, Herbert
Szabo, Paul Stefan
Jäggi, Noah
Fuchs, Lea
Nenning, Andreas
Fellinger, Martina
Nagy, Gyula
Pitthan, Eduardo
Primetzhofer, Daniel
Mutzke, Andreas
Wilhelm, Richard Arthur
Wurz, Peter
Galli, André
Aumayr, Friedrich
author_facet Brötzner, Johannes
Biber, Herbert
Szabo, Paul Stefan
Jäggi, Noah
Fuchs, Lea
Nenning, Andreas
Fellinger, Martina
Nagy, Gyula
Pitthan, Eduardo
Primetzhofer, Daniel
Mutzke, Andreas
Wilhelm, Richard Arthur
Wurz, Peter
Galli, André
Aumayr, Friedrich
contents Sputtering by solar wind ions is a key process driving the ejection of high-energy particles into the exospheres of airless bodies like asteroids, Mercury and the Moon. In view of upcoming missions which will deliver new in-situ data on these exospheres like the Artemis program at the Moon and BepiColombo at Mercury, a deeper understanding of sputtering effects is crucial. In this work, we combine sensitive quartz crystal microbalance measurements and numerical simulations to quantify sputter yields of Apollo soil 68501 under solar wind relevant conditions. We find that none of the commonly used simulation codes can reliably predict laboratory sputter yields without experimental benchmarks. All of the employed packages significantly overestimate the sputter yields of flat samples by at least a factor of 2 for the case of hydrogen. When accounting for surface roughness and regolith-like porosity, sputter yields are decreased even further to 7.3E-3 atoms\ion and 7.6E-2 atoms\ion for H and He at solar wind energies of 1 keV\amu, respectively. The reduced yields of porous regolith structures are largely independent of the ion incidence angle, making them applicable across a wide range of lunar latitudes. This study highlights the need for experimental validation of sputtering models to ensure accurate predictions for space weathering and lunar exosphere composition.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_14450
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sputter Yields of the Lunar Surface: Experimental Validation and Numerical Modelling of Solar Wind Sputtering of Apollo 16 Soils
Brötzner, Johannes
Biber, Herbert
Szabo, Paul Stefan
Jäggi, Noah
Fuchs, Lea
Nenning, Andreas
Fellinger, Martina
Nagy, Gyula
Pitthan, Eduardo
Primetzhofer, Daniel
Mutzke, Andreas
Wilhelm, Richard Arthur
Wurz, Peter
Galli, André
Aumayr, Friedrich
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
Sputtering by solar wind ions is a key process driving the ejection of high-energy particles into the exospheres of airless bodies like asteroids, Mercury and the Moon. In view of upcoming missions which will deliver new in-situ data on these exospheres like the Artemis program at the Moon and BepiColombo at Mercury, a deeper understanding of sputtering effects is crucial. In this work, we combine sensitive quartz crystal microbalance measurements and numerical simulations to quantify sputter yields of Apollo soil 68501 under solar wind relevant conditions. We find that none of the commonly used simulation codes can reliably predict laboratory sputter yields without experimental benchmarks. All of the employed packages significantly overestimate the sputter yields of flat samples by at least a factor of 2 for the case of hydrogen. When accounting for surface roughness and regolith-like porosity, sputter yields are decreased even further to 7.3E-3 atoms\ion and 7.6E-2 atoms\ion for H and He at solar wind energies of 1 keV\amu, respectively. The reduced yields of porous regolith structures are largely independent of the ion incidence angle, making them applicable across a wide range of lunar latitudes. This study highlights the need for experimental validation of sputtering models to ensure accurate predictions for space weathering and lunar exosphere composition.
title Sputter Yields of the Lunar Surface: Experimental Validation and Numerical Modelling of Solar Wind Sputtering of Apollo 16 Soils
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.14450