Viscous dissipation in the fluid core of the Moon

TL;DR

This study models viscous dissipation in the Moon's fluid core, revealing how core size and nutation frequency influence energy loss and implications for lunar core properties and magnetic dynamo potential.

Contribution

It introduces a rotational model linking core boundary dissipation to phase lead angle, providing new insights into lunar core dynamics and constraints on core size.

Findings

Viscous dissipation at the ICB can surpass CMB dissipation when the inner core radius exceeds 80 km.

Constraints on core radii can be derived from observed phase lead angle and improved tidal dissipation estimates.

Dissipation levels are likely insufficient to sustain a thermally driven lunar dynamo.

Abstract

The spin axes of the mantle, fluid core and solid inner core of the Moon precess at frequency $\Omega_p=2\pi/18.6$ yr$^{-1}$ though with different orientations, leading to viscous friction at the core-mantle boundary (CMB) and inner core boundary (ICB). Here, we use a rotational model of the Moon with a range of inner core and outer core radii to investigate the relative importance of viscous dissipation at the CMB and ICB, and to show how this dissipation is connected to the phase lead angle ($\phi_p$) of the mantle ahead of its Cassini state. We show that when the inner core radius is $>80$ km and the free inner core nutation frequency $\Omega_{ficn}$ approaches $\Omega_p$, viscous dissipation at the ICB can be comparable to that at the CMB, and in the most extreme cases exceed it by as much as a factor 10. If so, the viscous dissipation in the lunar core projected back in time depends on how $\Omega_{ficn}$ has evolved relative to $\Omega_p$. We further show that constraints on the CMB and ICB radii of the lunar core can in principle be extracted by matching the observed phase lead of $\phi_p=0.27$ arcsec; this requires an improved estimate of tidal dissipation and an accurate model of the turbulent viscous torque. Lastly, when our rotational model is constrained to match $\phi_p=0.27$ arcsec, our results suggest that the viscous dissipation at the ICB is likely insufficient to have ever been above the threshold to power a thermally driven dynamo.