Magnetosphere of Saturn

Models of the Saturnian magnetosphere based on the application of magnetospheric scaling relations to a spin-aligned planetary magnetic dipole, that produces a surface equatorial field strength in the range 0.5 to 2 gauss, exhibit the following properties: (1) The orbit of Titan lies inside of the magnetosphere essentially all of the time, even when variations in the size of the magnetosphere resulting from solar wind pressure changes are taken into account; (2) the Brice-type planetary plasmasphere reaches a peak density of about 10 protons cm/3 at L approximately 7 (L = planetocentric distance in units of planetary radii); (3) Saturn's rings have a profound effect on the energetic particle population and the plasmaspheres derived from interstellar neutrals and Titan's torus; (4) the model calculation suggests that the Titan-derived plasmasphere may be self-amplifying with a feed-back factor greater than unity, which implies the possibility of a non-linearly saturated, highly inflated Saturnian magnetosphere; and (5) this same source can have important eroding effects on the outer edge of the rings determined by Brown-Lauzerotti sputtering rates

Investigation of the magnetospheric boundary plasma and magnetic field data from Explorers 33, 43, and 50

Understanding of the plasma depletion process in the dayside magnetosheath, the nature of magnetotail boundary motion, and the geometry of the magnetospheric boundary layers was examined. A model of the dayside boundary layers, based on the hypothesis that merging occurs only for strictly anitparallel fields was developed which provides a qualitative solution to the problem of the half-wave rectifier response of the magnetosphere to the solar wind electric field. Regarding magnetotail boundary motion, consideration of the data led to the conclusion that at lunar distance, substorms are associated with very large amplitude compressional wave motion of the sausage type. A study of IMF orientation for depletion and nondepletion cases suggests that depletion is most likely to occur for angles between the IMF and the normal to the magnetopause at the measurement location near 90 deg, in agreement with predictions. Observations of the heat flux in the dayside magnetosheath plasma suggest that the energized plasma ions have their source along a given flux tube at that intersection with the bow shock where the magnetic field is most compressed

An east-west asymmetry in the solar wind velocity

East-west asymmetry in solar wind velocit

Substorms on Mercury?

Qualitative similarities between some of the variations in the Mercury encounter data and variations in the corresponding regions of the earth's magnetosphere during substorms are pointed out. The Mariner 10 data on Mercury show a strong interaction between the solar wind and the plant similar to a scaled down version of that for the earth's magnetosphere. Some of the features observed in the night side Mercury magnetosphere suggest time dependent processes occurring there

Search for an onset mechanism that operates for both CMEs and substorms

Substorms and coronal mass ejections have been cited as the most accessible examples of the explosive energy conversion phenomenon that seems to characterize one of the behavior modes of cosmic plasmas. This paper addresses the question of whether these two examples – substorms and CMEs – support or otherwise the idea that explosive energy conversion is the result of a single process operating in different places and under different conditions. As a candidate mechanism that might be common to both substorms and CMEs we use the Forbes catastrophe model for CMEs because before testing it appears to have the potential, suitably modified, to operate also for substorms. The essence of the FCM is a sudden onset of an imbalance of the forces acting on an incipient CME. The imbalance of forces causes the CME to start to rise. Beneath the rising CME conditions develop that favor the onset of magnetic reconnection which then releases the CME and assists its expulsion. Thus the signature of the FCM is a temporally ordered sequence in which there is first the appearance of force imbalance which leads to upward (or outward) motion of the CME which leads to magnetic reconnection under it which expedites rapid expulsion. We look for the FCM signature in the output of two global magnetospheric MHD simulations that produce substorm-like events. We find the ordered sequence of events as stated but with a significant difference: there is no plasmoid prior to the onset of rapid reconnection, that is, there is no counterpart to the incipient CME on which an imbalance of forces acts to initiate the action in the FCM. If this result – that rapid tailward motion precedes the rapid reconnection of substorm expansion – is ultimately verified by other studies, it suggests that a description of the cause of substorm expansion should identify the cause of the preceding rapid tailward motion, since this leads necessarily to rapid reconnection, whatever the reconnection mechanism turns out to be. Clearly then, it is important to identify the cause of the preceding tailward motion

Developing service promises accurate space weather forecasts in the future

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94931/1/eost10236.pd

On the use of a sunward-libration-point orbiting spacecraft as an IMF monitor for magnetospheric studies

Magnetospheric studies often require knowledge of the orientation of the IMF. In order to test the accuracy of using magnetometer data from a spacecraft orbiting the sunward libration point for this purpose, the angle between the IMF at ISEE 3, when it was positioned around the libration point, and at ISEE 1, orbiting Earth, has been calculated for a data set of two-hour periods covering four months. For each period, a ten-minute average of ISEE 1 data is compared with ten-minute averages of ISEE 3 data at successively lagged intervals. At the lag time equal to the time required for the solar wind to convect from ISEE 3 to ISEE 1, the median angle between the IMF orientation at the two spacecraft is 20 deg, and 80% of the cases have angles less than 38 deg. The results for the angles projected on the y-z plane are essentially the same

Interaction of the solar wind with Venus

Two topics related to the interaction of the solar wind with Venus are considered. First, a short review of the experimental evidence with particular attention to plasma measurements carried out on Mariner-5 and Mariner-10 is given. Secondly, the results of some recent theoretical work on the interaction of the solar wind with the ionosphere of Venus are summarized