Solar plasma interaction with mars: Preliminary results

Вайсберг, О. Л.; Bogdanov, A. V.; Borodin, N. F.; Zertzalov, A. A.; Polenov, B. V.; Романов, С. А.

doi:10.1016/0019-1035(73)90172-3

Cited by 27 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Vaisberg et al 1973;Slavin et al 1980). In particular, Phobos-2 explored in detail the structure of the Martian shock in the terminator and post terminator regions and its substructures were investigated.…”

Section: The Martian Bow Shockmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Induced Magnetospheres of Mars, Venus, and Titan

et al. 2011

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This article summarizes and aims at comparing the main features of the induced magnetospheres of Mars, Venus and Titan. All three objects form a well-defined induced magnetosphere (IM) and magnetotail as a consequence of the interaction of an external wind of plasma with the ionosphere and the exosphere of these objects. In all three, photoionization seems to be the most important ionization process. In all three, the IM displays a clear outer boundary characterized by an enhancement of magnetic field draping and massloading, along with a change in the plasma composition, a decrease in the plasma temperature, a deflection of the external flow, and, at least for Mars and Titan, an increase of the total density. Also, their magnetotail geometries follow the orientation of the upstream magnetic field and flow velocity under quasi-steady conditions. Exceptions to this are fossil fields observed at Titan and the near Mars regions where crustal fields dominate the magnetic topology. Magnetotails also concentrate the escaping plasma flux from these three objects and similar acceleration mechanisms are thought to be at work. In the case of Mars and Titan, global reconfiguration of the magnetic field topology (reconnection with the crustal sources and exits into Saturn's magnetosheath, respectively) may lead to important losses of C. Bertucci ( )

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Section: The Martian Bow Shockmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Induced Magnetospheres of Mars, Venus, and Titan

et al. 2011

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“…Measurements of the Martian bow shock have been reported since the earliest missions to Mars, such as the Mariner 4 flyby (in 1964 [e.g., Smith et al , ; Dryer and Heckman , ; Spreiter and Rizzi , ]), Mars 2, 3, 5 orbiters (1971–1974 [e.g., Gringauz et al , , ; Vaisberg et al , ; Bogdanov and Vaisberg , ; Dolginov et al , ; Russell , , , , ]), and the Phobos 2 orbiter (in 1989 [e.g. Riedler et al , ; Schwingenschuh et al , ; Trotignon et al , , , ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual variations in the Martian bow shock location as observed by the Mars Express mission

et al. 2016

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The Martian bow shock distance has previously been shown to be anticorrelated with solar wind dynamic pressure but correlated with solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance. Since both of these solar parameters reduce with the square of the distance from the Sun, and Mars' orbit about the Sun increases by ∼0.3 AU from perihelion to aphelion, it is not clear how the bow shock location will respond to variations in these solar parameters, if at all, throughout its orbit. In order to characterize such a response, we use more than 5 Martian years of Mars Express Analyser of Space Plasma and EneRgetic Atoms (ASPERA‐3) Electron Spectrometer measurements to automatically identify 11,861 bow shock crossings. We have discovered that the bow shock distance as a function of solar longitude has a minimum of 2.39RM around aphelion and proceeds to a maximum of 2.65RM around perihelion, presenting an overall variation of ∼11% throughout the Martian orbit. We have verified previous findings that the bow shock in southern hemisphere is on average located farther away from Mars than in the northern hemisphere. However, this hemispherical asymmetry is small (total distance variation of ∼2.4%), and the same annual variations occur irrespective of the hemisphere. We have identified that the bow shock location is more sensitive to variations in the solar EUV irradiance than to solar wind dynamic pressure variations. We have proposed possible interaction mechanisms between the solar EUV flux and Martian plasma environment that could explain this annual variation in bow shock location.

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“…Shock-associated energetic electrons may also be detected upstream. Moreover, in view of the suprathermal component showing up in the ion energy spectrum ahead of Mars (Vaisberg et al 1973a), plasma instabilities driven by this component may generate field fluctuations and electron heating independent of the bow shock. So it may well be erroneous to distinguish a subsonic region simply by the presence of magnetic fluctuations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%