No abstract

Abstract. In this report we present the first results from the Cluster wideband plasma wave investigation. The four Cluster spacecraft were successfully placed in closely spaced, high-inclination eccentric orbits around the Earth during two separate launches in July -August 2000. Each spacecraft includes a wideband plasma wave instrument designed to provide high-resolution electric and magnetic field waveforms via both stored data and direct downlinks to the NASA Deep Space Network. Results are presented for three commonly occurring magnetospheric plasma wave phenomena: (1) whistlers, (2) chorus, and (3) auroral kilometric radiation. Lightning-generated whistlers are frequently observed when the spacecraft is inside the plasmasphere. Usually the same whistler can be detected by all spacecraft, indicating that the whistler wave packet extends over a spatial dimension at least as large as the separation distances transverse to the magnetic field, which during these observations were a few hundred km. This is what would be expected for nonducted whistler propagation. No case has been found in which a strong whistler was detected at one spacecraft, with no signal at the other spacecraft, which would indicate ducted propagation. Whistler-mode chorus emissions are also observed in the inner region of the magnetosphere. In contrast to lightninggenerated whistlers, the individual chorus elements seldom show a one-to-one correspondence between the spacecraft, indicating that a typical chorus wave packet has dimensions transverse to the magnetic field of only a few hundred km or less. In one case where a good one-to-one correspondence existed, significant frequency variations were observed between the spacecraft, indicating that the frequency of the wave packet may be evolving as the wave propagates. Auroral kilometric radiation, which is an intense radio emission generated along the auroral field lines, is frequently observed over the polar regions. The frequency-time structure of this radiation usually shows a very good one-to-one correspondence between the various spacecraft. By using the Correspondence to: D. A. Gurnett (donald-gurnett@uiowa.edu) microsecond timing available at the NASA Deep Space Network, very-long-baseline radio astronomy techniques have been used to determine the source of the auroral kilometric radiation. One event analyzed using this technique shows a very good correspondence between the inferred source location, which is assumed to be at the electron cyclotron frequency, and a bright spot in the aurora along the magnetic field line through the source.

No abstract

Analysis of the Doppler tracking data near encounter yields a value for the ratio of the mass of the sun to that of Venus of 408,523.9 +/- 1.2, which is in good agreement with prior determinations based on data from Mariner 2 and Mariner 5. Preliminary analysis indicates that the magnitudes of the fractional differences in the principal moments of inertia of Venus are no larger than 10(-4), given that the effects of gravity-field harmonics higher than the second are negligible. Additional analysis is needed to determine the influence of the higher order harmonics on this bound. Four distinct temperature inversions exist at altitudes of 56, 58, 61, and 63 kilometers. The X-band signal was much more rapidly attenuated than the S-band signal and disappeared completely at 52-kilometer altitude. The nightside ionosphere consists of two layers having a peak density of 10(4) electrons per cubic centimeter at altitudes of 140 and 120 kilometers. The dayside ionosphere has a peak density of 3 X 10(5) electrons per cubic centimeter at an altitude of 145 kilometers. The electron number density observed at higher altitudes was ten times less than that observed by Mariner 5, and no strong evidence for a well-defined plasmapause was found.

Analysis of the radio-tracking data from Mariner 10 yields 6,023,600 +/- 600 for the ratio of the mass of the sun to that of Mercury, in very good agreement with values determined earlier from radar data alone. Occultation measurements yielded values for the radius of Mercury of 2440 +/- 2 and 2438 +/- 2 kilometers at laditudes of 2 degrees N and 68 degrees N, respectively, again in close agreement with the average equatorial radius of 2439 +/- 1 kilometers determined from radar data. The mean density of 5.44 grams per cubic centimeter deduced for Mercury from Mariner 10 data thus virtually coincides with the prior determination. No evidence of either an ionosphere or an atmosphere was found, with the data yielding upper bounds on the electron density of about 1500 and 4000 electrons per cubic centimeter on the dayside and nightside, respectively, and an inferred upper bound on the surface pressure of 10(-8) millibar.