Plasma Turbulence in the Lunar Environment Across Solar Wind and Magnetotail Conditions: Observations From Chandrayaan-2 Radio Science Experiment

Abstract

The Moon's transit between the solar wind and Earth's magnetotail exposes the near-lunar environment to large and rapid variations in plasma density and flow structure. Two-way coherent S-band radio occultation measurements from Chandrayaan-2 were used to quantify electron-density fluctuations integrated along the Earth-Moon line of sight. Observed frequencies were processed to remove geometric Doppler contributions derived from relativistic light-time modeling. The remaining frequency residuals represent the cumulative effect of plasma irregularities along the ray path. Power spectral densities were computed for 54 intervals from 2022, yielding temporal spectral indices in the range (Formula presented.), corresponding to spatial indices (Formula presented.) indicating ion-kinetic and dissipation-range scales. Of the 54 intervals, 9 were classified as inside the modeled magnetopause, 17 in the bow shock/magnetosheath, and 28 in the solar wind. Spectral indices measured inside the magnetopause are marginally higher than those in the bow shock and solar wind, though the difference is not statistically significant given the limited magnetotail sample. No measurable correlation is found between spectral slope and geomagnetic activity, indicating that the observed variability is dominated by local plasma structure rather than inner-magnetospheric conditions. © 2026 American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial intelligence technologies or similar technologies.