Development of a Fully Kinetic Particle Simulation Code For Coupled Plasma-Dust Transport

Abstract

We present our ongoing effort of developing a fully kinetic particle simulation code for coupled plasma-dust transport in order to study localized plasma-dust environment near the lunar surface. The electrostatic field caused by charged species including plasma and charged dust grains will be resolved by a finite-difference (FD) particle-in-cell (PIC) code. Trajectories of lofted charged dust grains will be traced coupled with plamsa species including solar wind electrons and ions, and photoelectrons. The new code will be employed to study localized plasma and dust environment. Results will be compared against decoupled methods.