Solar wind reflection from the lunar surface: The view from far and near
L. Saul, P. Wurz, A. Vorburger, D.F. Rodr\'iguez M., S.A. Fuselier,, D.J. McComas, E. M\"obius, S. Barabash, Herb Funsten, Paul Janzen

TL;DR
This study combines lunar ENA observations from Chandrayaan-1 and IBEX to model solar wind reflection, revealing a modestly higher global neutralized albedo than previously estimated, enhancing understanding of lunar surface interactions.
Contribution
It introduces a model that integrates angular scattering data from Chandrayaan-1 with IBEX observations to refine estimates of lunar solar wind reflection.
Findings
Global lunar neutralized albedo is approximately 0.11.
Including angular scattering increases the estimated reflection by 25%.
Refined estimates improve understanding of lunar surface-solar wind interactions.
Abstract
The Moon appears bright in the sky as a source of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). These ENAs have recently been imaged over a broad energy range both from near the lunar surface, by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission (CH-1), and from a much more distant Earth orbit by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite. Both sets of observations have indicated that a relatively large fraction of the solar wind is reflected from the Moon as energetic neutral hydrogen. CH-1's angular resolution over different viewing angles of the lunar surface has enabled measurement of the emission as a function of angle. IBEX in contrast views not just a swath but a whole quadrant of the Moon as effectively a single pixel, as it subtends even at the closest approach no more than a few degrees on the sky. Here we use the scattering function measured by CH-1 to model global lunar ENA emission and combine…
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