Synodic and Semiannual Oscillations of Argon-40 in the Lunar Exosphere

Abstract: The neutral mass spectrometer on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft collected a trove of exospheric data, including a set of high-quality measurements of radiogenic Ar-40 over a period of 142 days. Data synthesis studies, using well-established exosphere simulation tools, show that the LADEE argon data are consistent with an exosphere-regolith interaction that is dominated by adsorption and that the desorption process generates the Armand distribution of exi…