Developing a Model of Hydrogen Scattering from the Surface of the Moon
Paul Szabo, Research Scientist
Space Sciences Laboratory
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
Our Moon is continuously exposed to protons from the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere. Upon impact, these ions alter the Moon’s surface and contribute to the formation of water. Some of the protons end up scattered away as neutral hydrogen atoms. Instruments onboard NASA’s IBEX spacecraft have been able to observe these scattered atoms from afar over the past 15 years. Studying this scattering effect helps us observe directly how impacting ions interact with the surface of the Moon. The Moon also represents a laboratory in space: Establishing well-founded models of the ion-surface interaction is essential for interpreting observations of future spacecraft missions, for example to the planet Mercury and to Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.
This project entails developing a model of IBEX observations, combining measurements of ions at the Moon and existing simulation results of the surface scattering on a microscopic level. The model will ultimately be used for comparisons with IBEX measurements. This will allow us to learn how the protons’ interaction with the Moon varies and it will help us understand which parameters of the space environment determine the interaction.
Role: As a student researcher, your main task will be writing a program that downloads ion measurements from NASA’s THEMIS-ARTEMIS spacecraft, calculates where the ions impact the surface of the Moon, and converts this result into expected signals of scattered atoms observed by IBEX.
While representing the starting point, the research project is not necessarily limited to this task. Further opportunities for research on simulating the microscopic surface interaction or studying a similar scenario at the planet Mercury are also in scope of the project.
Qualifications: We are looking for highly motivated students that are interested in space research and want to learn more about planetary science. The ability to work independently as well as showing engagement in learning about the scientific background of the project are important. Some programming experience (ideally in Python) is required, but knowledge about spacecraft data analysis or ion-surface interaction is not necessary. Students from underrepresented groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
The research work can be done either in-person or primarily remote with weekly in-person meetings at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). SSL can be reached from campus in around 15 minutes with the free UC Berkeley Hill Shuttle.
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Engineering, Design & Technologies Mathematical and Physical Sciences