Giovanni Bacon Liam Morrissey Rosemary Killen Micah J. Shaible O.J Tucker David W. Savin P. Szabo
Understanding the role solar wind (SW) ions play on surface sputtering of Mercury is critical to any exosphere model. The most common models use binary collision approximation (BCA) tools such as SDTr..
Understanding the role solar wind (SW) ions play on surface sputtering of Mercury is critical to any exosphere model. The most common models use binary collision approximation (BCA) tools such as SDTrimSP. However, this state-of-the-art tool has many user-specific inputs and that are not immediately clear for more complex substrates such as minerals on celestial surfaces. These include surface binding energies, SW compositions, static vs. dynamic, and impact energy. Previous research has not kept these parameters consistent, making it unclear how sensitive sputtering behavior is to these parameters. As such, we have conducted a detailed sensitivity study into SDTrimSP parameters for simulating SW impacts. We have considered how several important simulation choices affect sputtering yields, composition, energy distribution, and damage. Results show that sputtering behavior is highly dependent on these parameters and can be used to establish a best practice methodology for SDTrimSP.