Lunar South Pole Hydrogen & Water Ice Deposits:1 Constraints from Lunar Prospector magnetic field2 observations3

• Main Authors: Ethan W. Schaler, Michael E. Purucker
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Drogen; Nobile; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.554.8942; http://core2.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/mag_field/purucker/grl_south_pole_preprint.pdf

Abstract. The south polar region of the moon has long been believed to7 contain preserved deposits of water ice. Examinations have been performed8 by both neutron spectrometers and long-wave radar as a means of identi-9 fying regions that potentially contain these deposits, but doubts remain. Mag-10 netic field measurements from the Lunar Prospector’s fluxgate magnetome-11 ter were used to model the region’s internal magnetic field via an equivalent12 source dipole technique. Magnetic fields originating from the moon can act13 to stand off the solar wind and prevent the implantation of solar wind hy-14 drogen. We find a positive correlation between high hydrogen presence and15 an elevated magnetic field, suggesting that implanted hydrogen is not a sig-16 nificant hydrogen source. Six craters- Shoemaker, Nobile, and unnamed craters17