Weathering of airless body surfaces by the heavy minor ions of the solar wind: inputs from Wind ion observations

The role and importance of solar wind ions heavier than helium for the weathering of airless body surfaces across the solar system remain debated. In addition, the contribution to surface weathering of suprathermal and energetic heavy ions, which have extremely low densities compared to thermal ions but high energy, is an open question.

In this presentation, we will take advantage of the advanced ion instrumentation and long duration of the Wind mission to finely characterize the spectrum and anisotropy of the heavy minor ions that bombard airless body surfaces. Specifically, we will combine heavy ion measurements from the Wind-SWICS (thermal ions), Wind-STICS (suprathermal), and Wind-STEP (energetic) experiments.

We will constrain the long-term averaged properties of the heavy ion populations, which are relevant for the development of long-term surface weathering effects. We will also study the heavy ion populations during solar wind events, relevant for short-term alteration effects. Finally, we will detail the impact of our ion-data-based results on the global field of space weathering.