IRF’s instrument SARA observes mini-magnetosphere above lunar magnetic anomaly

Together with colleagues from India, Switzerland and Japan, the IRF scientists have published their results in this week’s issue of Geophysical Research Letters. An image of the lunar magnetic anomaly in backscattered atoms is displayed on the cover of the journal (vol. 37, no. 5).

“A mini-magnetosphere is a new class of object,” says lead author Martin Wieser, IRF, “and observations from the IRF-led instrument SARA demonstrate a new technique for studying airless bodies – imaging in backscattered neutral atoms.”

Article:
“First observation of a mini-magnetosphere above a lunar magnetic anomaly using energetic neutral atoms”, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L05103, doi:10.1029/2009GL041721.

Authors:
* Martin Wieser, Stas Barabash, Yoshifumi Futaana and Mats Holmström (Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden)
* Anil Bhardwaj, R. Sridharan and M. B. Dhanya (Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Trivandrum, India)
* Audrey Schaufelberger and Peter Wurz (Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Switzerland)
* Kazushi Asamura (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan)