Previous
abstract 
Next abstract
It is believed that a substantial population of levitated dust is present in the terminator region of the moon. Although quantitative data on the levitated lunar dust distribution is meager, it is possible to estimate column densities and sizes. In this paper we summarize the estimates of particulate sizes and number densities of previous authors, and construct a nominal terminator dust distribution, as a function of particulate radius and altitude above the lunar surface. Using the model we estimate the brightness of scattered sunlight for three wavelength bands. For the results in the visible wavelengths, we compare the estimated brightness with the known brightness of selected astronomical objects. We find scattering of sunlight by levitated dust in the terminator region results in a lunar sky at least an order of magnitude brighter than the terrestrial nioght sky, yielding increased backgrounds for lunar-based astronomical telescopes.
