INTRODUCTION. ALTHOUGH LUNAR MAGNETIC ANOMALIES (LMAS) WERE DISCOVERED IN THE SEVENTIES BY THE APOLLO MISSIONS THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH THE SOLAR WIND PLASMA FLOW AND THEIR POSSIBLE CONNECTION WITH LUNAR SWIRLS REMAIN POORLY UNDERSTOOD. THE SUBJECT IS HIGHLY INTRIGUING BECAUSE OF THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MOON S GEOLOGICAL HISTORY AND POSSIBLE FUTURE LUNAR EXPLORATION OPPORTUNITIES. TWO MAJOR OBSTACLES HAVE BLOCKED THE PATH TO BETTER UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE SOLAR WIND PLASMA INTERACTION WITH LMAS: 1) OUR LACK OF OBSERVATIONS OF THE LMA STRUCTURE AND STRENGTH WITHIN A FEW KM OF THE LUNAR SURFACE; AND 2) THE LIMITATIONS OF COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES TO RESOLVE BOTH THE ELECTRON AND ION KINETIC PHYSICS WHILE MODELING SUFFICIENTLY LARGE SPATIAL SCALES. WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPLICIT PARTICLE-IN-CELL TECHNIQUES THE LATTER HURDLE HAS RECENTLY BEEN SUCCESSFULLY SURPASSED [DECA ET AL. PRL 2014] OPENING NEW FRONTIERS TO CONSOLIDATE MULTI-SCALE AND MULTI-PHYSICS SIMULATIONS WITH THE AVAILABLE LOW-ORBIT LUNAR OBSERVATIONS. SCIENCE GOALS OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY. WE PROPOSE TO SYSTEMATICALLY MINE THE VAST AMOUNT OF MEASUREMENTS FROM THE ARTEMIS AND KAGUYA (SELENE) MISSIONS. BUILDING ON PREVIOUS SUCCESSFUL STUDIES WE FOCUS ON THE ION AND ELECTRON DISTRIBUTIONS OBSERVED FOR A WIDE RANGE OF WEAK TO STRONG LMAS AND COMPARE THE BACK-STREAMING POPULATIONS WITH THE PREDICTIONS FROM REALISTIC FULL-KINETIC PARTICLE-IN-CELL SIMULATIONS. MOST RECENTLY TSUNAKAWA AND COLLABORATORS (JGR 2015) APPLIED A SURFACE VECTOR MAPPING (SVM) METHOD TO CONSTRUCT GLOBAL MAPS OF THE LMA STRUCTURE CLOSE TO THE SURFACE WHICH HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATED WITH OUR COMPUTATIONAL MODEL IPIC3D [DECA ET AL. UNDER REVIEW]. ANALYZING DATA FROM KAGUYA S PLASMA ENERGY ANGLE AND COMPOSITION EXPERIMENT (MAPPACE) INTERTWINED WITH THE ARTEMIS PARTICLE MEASUREMENTS WE WILL LOOK FOR PRECISE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE OBSERVED PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS/FLUXES AND THE MAGNETIC FIELD MAPS. WE WILL CONSTRUCT A RELIABLE CORRELATION MODEL BETWEEN THE OBSERVED BACK-STREAMING POPULATIONS AND THE UNDERLYING MAGNETIC FIELD TOPOLOGY TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE UPSTREAM SOLAR WIND CONDITIONS. THIS WORK WILL PROVIDE A DEFINITIVE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF WHICH KINETIC PROCESSES DOMINATE THE SOLAR WIND INTERACTION WITH LMAS. RELEVANCE. UP TO THE PRESENT ONLY THE CORRELATIONS WITH THE STRONGEST LMAS SUCH AS THE REINER GAMMA AND GERASIMOVICH ANOMALIES HAVE BEEN STUDIED IN DETAIL [E.G. FATEMI ET AL. JGR 2015 POPPE ET AL. ICARUS 2016 DECA ET AL. UNDER REVIEW]. THE PROPOSED SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF A GREAT NUMBER OF LMAS WILL SHED LIGHT ON THE GLOBAL VARIABILITY AND STRUCTURE OF THE LUNAR NEAR-SURFACE PLASMA ENVIRONMENT AROUND THESE SMALL-SCALE STRUCTURES. WE WILL IDENTIFY CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE OBSERVED PLASMA POPULATIONS AND THE POSITION OF THE LMAS ON THE LUNAR SURFACE AND/OR THE POSITION OF THE MOON ALONG ITS ORBIT. AN ADDITIONAL GOAL OF THIS WORK IS TO HELP DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE COMPETING THEORIES FOR THE FORMATION OF LUNAR SWIRLS AND DETERMINE WHETHER THEY COULD BE THE RESULT OF DIRECT SOLAR WIND INTERACTION WITH LMAS. A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE KINETIC INTERACTION WITH SMALL-SCALE MAGNETIC STRUCTURES ON THE MOON WILL ALSO BENEFIT THE ANALYSIS OF MARTIAN MAGNETIC ANOMALIES AND MERCURY S SMALL MAGNETOSPHERE.