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As the solar wind is incident upon the lunar surface, it will occasionally encounter crustal remanent magnetic fields. These fields are small-scale, highly non-dipolar, have strengths up to hundreds of nanotesla, and typically interact with the solar wind in a kinetic fashion. Theoretical analyses and spacecraft observations have shown that crustal magnetic fields can reflect a significant fraction of incident solar wind proton through a combination of electrostatic and non-adiabatic magnetic reflection; however, the full, self-consistent plasma environment within lunar crustal magnetic anomalies is not yet fully known. In this study, we use a 1.5-dimensional, self-consistent, electrostatic particle-in-cell code to model the interaction between the solar wind and lunar crustal remanent magnetic fields. Our first investigations have focused on the electrostatic environment within the cusp regions of crustal magnetic fields, how the interaction between crustal fields and the solar wind can lead to the generation of large ambipolar electrostatic potentials, and finally, how the presence of photoemission from the lunar surface can alter these ambipolar potentials. We also present an initial comparison of our results with in-situ observations by the Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) mission.
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