The importance of solar wind minor ions heavier than alpha particles in weathering airless body surfaces is an open debate. The fundamental question at stake is whether the variety of different minor ion species, their high masses, and their high charge states may overcome their low densities in the solar wind to enable them to significantly contribute to ion weathering processes. Here, long-term effects that develop on geological timescales are investigated. To do so, the long-term averaged energy spectrum of thermal and suprathermal solar wind ions is estimated by compiling and contrasting ion measurements gathered by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), Wind, Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), ARTEMIS, and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) missions. The long-term ion environment is then convolved with Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter simulations. Combining these data and models, we find that solar wind minor ions significantly alter airless body surfaces, as they contribute to 8%–14% of the total sputtering and create 20%–50% of atomic displacements at depths greater than 100nm. The new approach presented in this article therefore confirms that solar wind minor ions play an important role in the ion weathering of airless surfaces throughout the solar system.

在风化无空气的身体表面，比α粒子重的太阳风次离子的重要性是一个公开辩论。至关重要的根本问题是，是否存在各种不同的次要离子物种，它们的高质量和它们的高电荷态是否可以克服它们在太阳风中的低密度，从而使它们能够显着促进离子风化过程。在此，研究了对地质时标产生的长期影响。为此，通过汇总和对比由高级成分资源管理器（ACE），风能，太阳地球关系观测站（STEREO），ARTEMIS和火星收集的离子测量值，估算热和超热太阳风离子的长期平均能谱。大气与挥发性演化（MAVEN）任务。然后，在物质模拟中将长期离子环境与“停止”和“离子范围”进行卷积。结合这些数据和模型，我们发现太阳风中的次离子会极大地改变无空气的身体表面，因为它们贡献了总溅射的8％–14％，并在大于100nm的深度处产生了20％–50％的原子位移。因此，本文介绍的新方法证实了太阳风中的次要离子在整个太阳系中无气表面的离子风化中起着重要作用。