Additional References:
Planetary Bow Shock
http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/ ... etbow(10)/
(See above – this is a good link although it does not work due to its length)
Does the Moon have a Wind?
http://uplink.space.com/printthread.php ... ype=thread
Does the moon receive significant Solar Wind? Would it also interact with earth's magnetotail depending on the time of the month?
Interaction of the Solar Wind with the Planets
http://www.apl.ucl.ac.uk/lectures/3c37/3c37-3.html
The solar wind impinges upon an Earth which is "protected" by its magnetic field. To a first approximation we can consider this a dipole field - angled slightly to the Earth's spin axis and somewhat offset from centre. The charged particles of the solar wind are deflected by this magnetic field, so that the earth's field effectively forms a barrier, and we can say that the Earth is insulated from the particles of the solar wind by this protective barrier. The outer limit of the Earth's field influence is known as the "magnetopause". The volume within, where the earth's field dominates, is the "magnetosphere."
Plasma Interactions
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?recor ... 93&page=46
Plasma populations throughout the universe interact with solid bodies, gases, magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, magnetohydrodynamic waves, shock waves, and other plasma populations. These interactions can occur locally as well as on very large scales between objects such as galaxies, stars, and planets. They can be loosely classified into electromagnetic interactions, flow-object interactions, plasma-neutral interactions, and radiation-plasma interactions.
Magnetospheres in the Solar System
http://stars5.netfirms.com/compmag.htm
A magnetosphere is a comet tail-shaped region of ionized and magnetized plasma, associated with a planet or a moon, linked to the interaction of the planet with the solar wind. As far as moons are concerned, our Moon, Jupiter's Ganymede and Callisto are the sole bodies to have been found with a magnetic field and/or a magnetosphere. All magnetic fields of these bodies are of type magneto.
What Happens When the Solar Wind Collides with Obstacles Such as Planets or Comets?
http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?c ... /swq5.html
Since the solar wind flows past the planets and other sizeable objects supersonically, the slowing and deflection of the flow about the obstacle is frequently accomplished by means of a shock wave. Normally, waves would propagate upstream of the obstacle to communicate its existence to the incident gas, but with supersonic flow the waves aren't fast enough. The supersonic flow sweeps waves downstream, so the wind does not know about an obstacle until it "collides" with it. We therefore need a bow shock to deflect the supersonic flow and divert it around the obstacle. A bow shock is similar to a bow wave about a rock in a fast moving stream.
The Moon: A Unique Laboratory for Study of the Fundamental Physics of Magnetized Collisionless Plasmas.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/nlsc2008/pdf/2128.pdf
The interaction of solar wind, magnetosheath, and magnetotail plasmas with the Moon is important for fundamental (space) plasma physics studies. First, the Moon has numerous patches of surface magnetic fields, ranging in size from kilometer scale, well below the solar wind thermal ion gyro-diameter, to hundreds of kilometers, large enough to produce fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) behavior. Thus, studies of the plasma interactions with these magnetic patches allow us to explore the fundamental physics of the transition from kinetic to fluid (MHD) scales and the related phenomena of shock formation.
What’s the Moon Got to do with It?
Just About Everything!
http://www.llewellynjournal.com/article/1422
The Moon influences almost every area of life on earth. Its gravitational pull causes the ocean’s tides. Its electro-magnetic influence affects the way we think and feel.
Electrodynamics is the Answer. Many scientists explain the relationship between life on Earth and the Moon’s cycles this way: All life is electrical in nature, and throughout Nature there is an electrical rhythm that coincides with the Moon’s Cycles. All plants and animals have special cycles, and we can use the Moon as a simple guide to living and working in accordance with these cycles and the natural rhythms of life.
Observations of Moon-Plasma Interactions by Orbital and Surface Experiments
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1974/R ... 0592.shtml
Extensive magnetic field observations together with crucial plasma measurements by the Explorer 35 lunar orbiter and Apollo surface and orbital experiments have established the basic nature of the moon’s interaction with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field. The effective absorption of the incident solar wind by the moon creates a plasma void or cavity behind the moon. The cavity-associated magnetic signature is characterized by an enhancement in magnetic field magnitude B within the cavity as compared with the mean level of B in the surrounding interplanetary plasma and dips or decreases in B near the cavity boundaries with the solar wind. The axis of the lunar wake is aberrated from the moon-sun line by the relative velocity of the solar wind with respect to the moon, and the cross section of the wake is elliptical, reflecting the anisotropic propagation of magnetoacoustic waves in the solar wind.
Loss of Solar Wind Plasma Neutrality and Affects on Surface Potentials Near the Lunar Terminator and Shadowed Polar Regions
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2 ... 2653.shtml
As the solar wind is absorbed on the lunar dayside, a clear and obvious plasma void is created in the anti-solar direction that extends many lunar radii behind the Moon. Plasma adjacent to this void will expand into the depleted region and this process is modeled here using a particle-in-cell code. It is found that thermal electrons will diffuse into the void ahead of the ions, creating a break in plasma quasi-neutrality. In essence, immediately trailing behind the lunar terminator/polar regions there is a magnetic-field aligned E-field peaking near 400 mV/m associated with a standing double-layer, this layer consisting of fast thermal electrons (electron cloud) moving into the central void ahead of an ion-enhanced layer.
Magnetospheric Protons and Electrons Encountered by the Moon in the Plasma Sheet
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j310r086u18174m7/
During its passage through the geomagnetic tail, the Moon encounters the plasma sheet. Properties of plasma sheet electrons and protons, first detected at lunar distances by Explorer 35, are described. Implications for migration of grains on the lunar surface are also pointed out and it is suggested that strong terrestrial polar winds in the early history of the Earth-Moon system may have caused some erosion of the Earth-facing side of the Moon, and that gravitational shielding of interplanetary rock flux by the Earth may also be an explanation of the relative smoothness of the front side.
Blasts of Magnetic Energy between the Earth and the Moon Illuminate Skies
http://www.infoniac.com/science/magnetic-energy.html
According to the researchers, the blasts of energy that occur 1/3 the way between our planet and the moon, power the substorms thus causing wavy radiances and quick movements of the northern lights. It is worth mentioning that magnetic substorms can have an impact on the electrical systems of our planet. These substorms can knock out satellites and cause a disruption of electricity and transmission systems. A similar effect is caused by sudden discharges of plasma from the Sun.
Substorms are caused by magnetic reconnection, which represents a process that commonly takes place across the universe when stressed magnetic field lines spontaneously form a new shape, resembling an overstretched rubber band.
The Moon: Earthquakes
http://www.pulseplanet.com/dailyprogram ... p?POP=2848
That tells you when the moon is highest and lowest in the sky at a particular month. And these are times, especially around the times of new moon or full moon, when it’s possible that there might be a greater triggering mechanism for earthquakes.
Earthquakes and the Time of Day and Moon Phase
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/g ... n99048.htm
Question: Over the years I have noticed that most major earthquakes seem to happen in the early morning hours between 12:00 midnight and 6:00 a.m. Is there any truth in this observation? Could there be a correlation between full and new moon and the frequency of earthquakes (land tides)?
Solar and Lunar Triggers on Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions
http://www.livingcosmos.com/unity.htm#Solar2
Many plate tectonics theorists dismiss lunar effects, because tides have little effect on the Earth's crust. They criticize any correlation between maximum global tidal forces and quake regions where local tides are not at a maximum, or can even be at a minimum. Meanwhile, studies of lunar phase triggers in 21 earthquakes show that fourteen occurred at the Quarter Phase, five at Full Moon, and two followed an eclipse. Interestingly, the majority of Quarter-Phase quakes took place in the Southeast, in the region of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Columbia, South Carolina, which surrounds the North Atlantic Field's stem. In contrast, California earthquakes, which are triggered by the dynamics of the descending limb of the Field, show a peak with a three- to four-day delay.
The Moon and the Magnetotail
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008 ... totail.htm
"Earth's magnetotail extends well beyond the orbit of the Moon and, once a month, the Moon orbits through it," says Tim Stubbs, a University of Maryland scientist working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to electrostatic discharges."
Diamagnetic Solar-Wind Cavity Discovered behind Moon
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/a ... /3804/1040
Preliminary Ames-magnetometer data from Explorer 35, the lunar orbiter, show no evidence of a lunar bow shock. However, an increase of the magnetic field by about 1.5 gamma (over the interplanetary value) is evident on Moon's dark side, as well as dips in field strength at the limbs. Interpretation of these spatial variations in the field as deriving from plasma diamagnetism is consistent with a plasma void on the dark side, and steady-state (B = 0) magnetic transparency of Moon.
Lunar Surface Magnetic Fields and Their Interaction with the Solar Wind: Results from Lunar Prospector
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/f ... /5382/1480
This finding provides further evidence for the hypothesis that basin-forming impacts result in magnetization of the lunar crust at their antipodes. The crustal magnetic fields of the Imbrium antipode region are strong enough to deflect the solar wind and form a miniature (100 to several hundred kilometers across) magnetosphere, magnetosheath, and bow shock system.
Global Kinetic Simulations of the Interaction between the Solar Wind and the Moon
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/nlsc2008/pdf/2150.pdf
A density depletion region is formed on the Moon’s nightside when the solar wind interacts and flows past the lunar surface, which acts as a diamagnetic obstacle removing plasma from the solar wind.
Dusty and Nonnuetral Plasma
http://flux.aps.org/meetings/YR00/DPP00/abs/S160.html
The solar wind interaction with the moon creates a plasma void which infills, and the details of this infilling process are studied in this paper. The evolution of the lunar wake in simplified geometry can be simulated via a 1 1/2D electromagnetic particle-in-cell code. By using a sufficient number of particles per cell, we are able, for the first time, to resolve the full phase space dynamics of both electrons and ions. This simulation begins immediately downstream of the moon, before the solar wind has infilled the wake region, then evolves in the solar wind rest frame.
Inconstant Moon
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/moon_ap_per.html
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, with a substantial eccentricity (as major Solar System bodies go) of 5.49%. In addition, the tidal effect of the Sun's gravitational field increases the eccentricity when the orbit's major axis is aligned with the Sun-Earth vector or, in other words, the Moon is full or new.
The Moon's orbit is inclined 5.145396° with regard to the ecliptic (the plane in which the Earth's orbit around the Sun lies or, more precisely, the plane in which the centre of gravity of the Earth-Moon system [its barycentre] orbits the Sun), so as seen from the centre of the Earth the Moon drifts up and down slightly more than five degrees in the course of each orbit. The dark grey wedge shows the limits of the Moon's excursion above and below the plane of the ecliptic.
Gravitational Waves and Their Interaction with Electro-Magnetic Radiation
http://www.rialian.com/rnboyd/karita3.htm
Is this because the gravitational waves are changing the shape of the space which the electromagnetic waves are passing through? Or is it because of a direct interaction between the gravitational waves and the electromagnetic waves?
Gravity Waves and Earthquakes
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fun ... 721258.700
CATACLYSMIC events that release large amounts of energy are not only felt at the point where they strike. Here on Earth, for example, an earthquake will send seismic waves echoing around the world. These disturbances of the Earth's crust distort the rocks through which they pass, and can transfer some of the earthquake's energy to the far side of the world. Seismic waves illustrate three characteristics common to all types of wave: they are created by an event that releases energy; the disturbance is passed from one place to another at a finite speed through a connecting medium; and they transfer energy from the original disturbance to other bodies.
An "Earth-planet" or "Earth-star" couplet as a gravitational wave antenna
http://www.allbusiness.com/science-tech ... 489-1.html
An "Earth-planet" or "Earth-star" couplet can be considered as a gravitational wave antenna. There, in such an antenna, a gravitational wave should lead to a peak in the microseismic background spectrum on the Earth (one of the ends of the antenna). This paper presents numerous observational results on the Earth's microseismic background. The microseismic spectrum, being compared to the distribution of the relative location of the nearest stars, found a close peak-to-peak correspondence. Hence such peaks can be a manifestation of an oscillation in the couplet "Earth-star" caused by gravitational waves arriving from the cosmos.
Use the following simplest model. Focus on two gravitationally-connected objects such as the couplets "Earth-Moon", "Earth-Jupiter", "Earth-Saturn", "Earth-Sun", or "Earth-star" (a near star is meant). Such a couplet can be considered as a gravitational wave antenna. A gravitational wave, falling down onto such an antenna, should produce an oscillation in the system that leads to a peak in the microseismic back-ground spectrum of the Earth (one of the ends of the antenna)