Preliminary science report, Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment (CPLEE)

Abstract

During the first month of operation CPLEE has detected particle fluxes at the lunar surface resulting from a wide range of lunar surface, magnetospheric, and interplanetary phenomena. Preliminary data analysis has revealed that presence of a lunar photoelectron layer, an indication of modulation or acceleration of low energy electrons in the vicinity of the moon, penetration of auroral particles to lunar distances in the tail, detection of electron fluxes in the tail quite possible associated with the neutral sheet, strong modulations of solar wind fluxes, and the appearance of ions and electrons with energies up to 100 ev associated with the Lunar Module impact.