Journal article
Foreshock Cavities at Venus and Mars
Journal of geophysical research. Space physics, Vol.125(8), e2020JA028023
08/2020
DOI: 10.1029/2020JA028023
Abstract
“Foreshock cavities” are regions of turbulent and heated solar wind plasma that form upstream of Earth's bow shock. Despite being common at Earth, none have yet been reported at other planets. Here we present a survey of events encountered by the ESA Venus Express spacecraft consistent with foreshock cavities at Venus and a case study of a foreshock cavity encountered at Mars by NASA's MAVEN orbiter. Cavities appear to be common at Venus, and their properties appear to be very similar to those at Earth. Foreshock cavities appear to be observed preferentially in fast solar wind and when the interplanetary magnetic field is “radial” (parallel to the Sun‐planet line). Our collected observations are consistent with the hypothesis that “foreshock cavities” are simply the result of a transient encounter with a planetary foreshock. We posit foreshock cavities represent one of the following two possibilities: (1) a spacecraft encountering a traveling foreshock formed by a finite bundle of interplanetary magnetic field lines connecting to a shock or (2) the transient temporary motion of the foreshock over the spacecraft.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Foreshock Cavities at Venus and Mars
- Creators
- Glyn Collinson - Goddard Space Flight CenterDavid Sibeck - Goddard Space Flight CenterNick Omidi - Solana ScientificRudy Frahm - Southwest Research InstituteTielong Zhang - Space Research InstituteDavid Mitchell - University of California, BerkeleyJasper Halekas - University of IowaJared Espley - Goddard Space Flight CenterYoshifumi Futaana - Swedish Institute of Space PhysicsBruce Jakosky - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of geophysical research. Space physics, Vol.125(8), e2020JA028023
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union
- DOI
- 10.1029/2020JA028023
- ISSN
- 2169-9380
- eISSN
- 2169-9402
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2020
- Description audience
- PUBLIC
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984428686102771
Metrics
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