March 22, 2011
The Moon’s Role in Climate Science
The solar corona is a stream of energetic particles flowing from the Sun, the solar wind
A recent article about the role of global magnetic fields in the loss of planetary volatiles caught my attention. The article addresses planetary climate issues as they relate to Earth, Mars and Venus, but what struck me was this statement:
But in fact, we do have an excellent historical record of the Sun’s history – preserved on our nearby Moon.
The Sun constantly emits streams of high-energy particles, consisting mostly of hydrogen atoms and ions (protons). This stream, called the solar wind, has been monitored and studied since satellites were first launched. High-energy solar wind flows around the protective bubble of Earth’s global magnetic field and into interplanetary space. Some of these charged particles become trapped between magnetic lines of force, creating spectacular displays of aurora, known as the “northern lights.”
The Moon does not have a global magnetic field, so its surface is directly exposed to the solar wind. These charged particles and neutral atoms impinge directly upon the surface, where some of its atoms are retained on the grains, thus creating a recoverable record of matter from the Sun. The antiquity of the lunar surface means a preserved solar record extending back at least several billion years – the average age of the surface units of the Moon.
We have measured solar wind gas implanted onto the dust grains of the Moon using the Apollo samples and have a good indication that this record contains some significant information. One curious and obscure relation in the solar wind record recovered from the Moon suggests that the ratio of some isotopes of nitrogen (specifically, the 15N/14N ratio) has increased over the last couple of billion years. This increase is not predicted in current models of stellar evolution; the current interpretation is that it reflects the addition of a meteoritic component, but changes in the solar output have not been ruled out. So the Sun may be evolving and changing in ways we do not fully understand.
The Sun literally is responsible for our existence – without it, life on Earth would not be possible. Media coverage of climate change tends to ignore the critical fact that the primary driver of climate on Earth and all terrestrial planets is the Sun. Before we can understand how and why climate changes on Earth (and it has repeatedly throughout geological history), we must understand what historic role the Sun has played in this complex exchange.
At any given time, only the uppermost few millimeters of the Moon’s regolith is exposed to the Sun. Because the regolith is continually excavated, buried, mixed and turned over by the bombardment of meteorites, we have a very complex record to decipher. Such a chaotic, random process would seem poised to destroy exactly the very information we need to access and study, similar to the destruction of scientific clues about past climatic conditions on our geologically dynamic Earth. But our nearest neighbor has provided a process that preserves the solar record in ancient regoliths, whereby the solar record is isolated and sequestered for very long periods of time.
The dark maria of the Moon is made up of a myriad of individual lava flows, erupted sporadically but continuously, since 3.9 billion years ago, possibly to as recently as less than 1 billion years ago. These fresh surfaces are readily exposed to the solar wind, which implants its atoms onto the dust grains. From the moment the lava flow cools, this fresh surface is slowly ground up and broken apart by meteorite impact (regolith formation). Then, as new lava flows are extruded, they cover the pre-existing surface regolith, forever sealing it off, along with its preserved solar record, from active surface processes. Thus, thousands of individual lava flows in the maria have buried and preserved millions of ancient regolith deposits, all potentially available for study, allowing us to see not only the output of the current Sun, but the solar wind record of some ancient Sun as well.
Thus, the dusty regolith of the Moon acts like a tape recorder, detailing the output of the Sun throughout time. How might we find and access these ancient regoliths and read the preserved solar record? These deposits are accessible wherever there is an exposed section of bedrock in the lunar maria. On the Moon, such exposure occurs within the walls of craters, sinuous rilles and other structural depressions. Not only did we photograph such exposures during the Apollo missions, we may already have sampled a “fossil regolith” from a unit that is more than 3.84 billion years old. Finding and sampling more of these buried units will allow us to reconstruct the output and history of the Sun over the course of at least the last 4 billion years.
Here is yet another reason to return to the Moon: to understand the history of our Sun, the primary driver of climate and life on Earth. It is ironic that many people who are most ardent in their concern about Earth’s changing climate disparage lunar return because “we’ve been there.” By dismissing the Moon, they are missing one of the most important chapters necessary in understanding the grand story of the past, present and probable future of the Earth and the Solar System. That chapter – holding vital answers necessary for an informed debate about our constantly changing climate – patiently waits for us on the Moon.
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Some day in the not-so-distant future, when people stand on the near side of the Moon, after the sun has set, bathed in bright earthlight, am I correct in assuming that the landscape around them will take on a pale blue tint from the reflection spectrum of our oceans?
Comment by Nelson Bridwell — March 22, 2011 @ 5:13 pm
the landscape around them will take on a pale blue tint from the reflection spectrum of our oceans?
Yes. You can see that now, when you observe reflected Earthshine just after a new moon. The surface has a bluish cast. Earthlight is rendered blue by both oceanic and atmospheric scattering.
Comment by Paul D. Spudis — March 22, 2011 @ 6:08 pm
I agree that the Moon is an excellent place to get information about the history of the Sun, but the information that we get (as I think you’ve noted here) is on time scales that are VASTLY longer than the kind of timescales that are pertinent to modern debate about climate change. Sure, we learn more about the evolution of the Sun that way, and models that fit that evolution could inform arguments about whether the Sun can vary on a much shorter time scale, but that’s pretty indirect.
We have space probes right now that are making measurements of the Sun on timescales of a decade so. That timescale is much closer to that pertinent to climate change than is a timescale of a billion years.
You’re concerned about “dismissing the Moon”. Not sure what point you’re making. We have many more lunar science missions now than we had in the last few decades, and prospects for telerobotic sampling are quite good. That it may be some time before we put more footprints on the Moon is poorly connected to this line of reasoning. As much as I’d like to see people return to the Moon, I’m willing to bet that what we can learn about the evolution of the Sun from sampling on the Moon can be done far more economically with telerobotic probes than with people there.
Comment by Hilda — March 22, 2011 @ 6:10 pm
Paul, Thank you for your articles.
The Planetary Science Decadal Survey for 2013-2022 has been published and includes some worthy and, hopefully, ball-park accurately costed proposals. No major proposal targets the moon, which is odd considering the remote sensing and impactor discovery of lunar water. What would be your top six lunar proposals if part of those funds were directed to lunar research?
Comment by Maurice Glover — March 22, 2011 @ 11:21 pm
Maurice,
No major proposal targets the moon
Actually, two lunar missions are specifically identified in the Decadal Survey, a sample return mission from the South Pole-Aitken basin and a global geophysical network mission. A polar volatiles rover is listed as a possible “Discovery class” mission.
I envision quite a different set of missions; I discuss them here:
http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2010/12/can-we-afford-to-return-to-the-moon/
Comment by Paul D. Spudis — March 23, 2011 @ 4:05 am
Hilda,
the information that we get (as I think you’ve noted here) is on time scales that are VASTLY longer than the kind of timescales that are pertinent to modern debate about climate change.
Solar and climate cycles vary on many different time-scales. My argument is that we do not understand at a very fundamental level solar variability and its effects on climate. I further assert that such understanding is critical to understanding climate change. We can obtain such information on the Moon, in contradistinction to the assertion in the news article I linked that a historical record for the Sun is not available.
We have space probes right now that are making measurements of the Sun on timescales of a decade so. That timescale is much closer to that pertinent to climate change than is a timescale of a billion years.
No, it isn’t — that timescale is too short to draw meaningful conclusions. The climate change timescales we are specifically interested in are geological in magnitude, from several thousand to several million years. The “billion year” scale you refer to is from how long ago that record is preserved on the Moon; within any given maria are multiple lava flows that sandwich ancient regolith deposits. At least some of these flows were extruded within the thousand-to-tens-of-million year time scales.
I’m willing to bet that what we can learn about the evolution of the Sun from sampling on the Moon can be done far more economically with telerobotic probes than with people there.
The ancient regoliths are not easily accessible and require careful field observation, field work and sample collection to assure ourselves that we get the right sample. Such a mission probably requires human judgment and skill. I discuss that here:
http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2010/01/robotic-sample-return-and-interpreting-lunar-history-the-importance-of-getting-it-right/
Comment by Paul D. Spudis — March 23, 2011 @ 4:16 am
“A polar volatiles rover is listed as a possible “Discovery class” mission.”
Absolutely vital; we should really be focusing on those lunar polar ice sheets to the exclusion of almost everything else in my humble opinion. I wrote an essay explaining why available here if Dr. Spudis would be so kind as to let me post it.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7885046/water_and_bombs.html
Comment by GaryChurch — March 29, 2011 @ 8:40 pm
[...] would find a bounty of extraterrestrial samples and have an unparalleled opportunity to study the record of Earth’s climate locked in eons of undisturbed solar wind in the lunar regolith. Once humanity and technology are able to utilize the Moon’s resources to break the tyranny of [...]
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