Lunar photoelectron sheath and levitation of dust

The decision to launch Luna Glob and Luna Resus satellites, carrying instrumentation to investigate the structure of photoelectron sheath and levitation of dust particles in the sheath, adjacent to the surface of the moon has intensified interest in this exciting area. The present analysis incorporates the following novel features: (i) In contrast to intuitive half Maxwellian (M) distribution of velocities of the photoelectrons, emitted from the surface of the moon, which corresponds to an arbitrary temperature, a well-established half Fermi Dirac (F-D) distribution [R. H. Fowler, Phys. Rev. 38, 45 (1931)] has been used, (ii) the profiles for electric potential, electric field, and electron density have been derived (not a priori assumed), (iii) an expression for the rate of electron accretion on a positively charged dust particle, which takes account of the anisotropic flux of electrons has been derived and used in the analysis, and (iv) a derived (rather than intuitive) expression for the rate of photoelectron emission from a positively charged dust particle has been used for the first time in such analyses. The profiles of the electric potential, electric field, and electron density in the photoelectric sheath have been evaluated for typical lunar environment and used to obtain the profile of the radius of a dust particle for levitation. The dependence of the electric potential on the surface of the moon on the parameters of the solar wind and photo-efficiency of the material of moon's surface has also been discussed. It is seen that the results based on half F-D distribution are significantly different from those obtained on the basis of M-distribution. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.