Particle Simulations of Electric and Dust Environment Near the Lunar Vertical Hole

We study the electric and dust environment near a complex surface structure on the moon: a vertical hole. In order to model an electric field structure near the surface, we performed the particle-in-cell simulations. The simulations provide electric field and plasma current density profiles in three-dimensional space above the complex lunar surface topography. Subsequently, we applied the obtained electric field and plasma current density data to the test-particle simulation on the dynamics of submicron-sized charged dust grains. We focus on an effect of a stochastic charging process of such small dust grains. Because of their small surface areas, the dusts will get/lose one elementary charge infrequently. The preliminary simulation results show an evidence of dust mobilization across the sunlight shadow interface formed inside the lunar hole.