Characterization of Solar Wind Interaction With Magnetized Bodies

Details Characterization of Solar Wind Interaction With Magnetized Bodies Characterization of Solar Wind Interaction With Magnetized Bodies

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsm21a0530o&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SM21A-0530

Physics

2700 Magnetospheric Physics, 2753 Numerical Modeling, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 6205 Asteroids And Meteoroids

Scientific paper

Since the dawn of the space age, the magnetosphere has been studied extensively not only to understand the geospace environment but also how solar wind, or stellar winds in general, interact with magnetized bodies. Early theoretical investigations of solar wind interaction with magnetized asteroids suggested that in addition to a magnetospheric type interaction it was possible that, instead, only a whistler wing would be generated. Recently, through 2-D global hybrid (fluid electrons, kinetic ions) simulations, we have demonstrated that depending on the magnetic dipole strength of a body its interaction with the solar wind can be even more diverse and that a variety of solutions exist. For example, in addition to a whistler wing it is possible for a magnetized asteroid to have a set of fast and slow magnetosonic wakes. In another type of solution, a fast magnetosonic wake is the dominant feature of the interaction region. Our studies have also demonstrated that depending on the magnetic field strength of a body, the size of the interaction region may be comparable or smaller than ion gyroradius and, as a result, kinetic motion of the ions has a profound influence on the global structure of the interaction region. We have found that a useful parameter in characterization of the interaction region is Dp, the distance from the body at which solar wind ram pressure is balanced by its magnetic pressure. In this presentation, we illustrate the transition of the interaction region from a single whistler wing to a full magnetospheric type interaction as Dp, normalized to ion inertial length, is increased from values less than 1 to over 100. Implication of these results for various bodies in the solar system is also discussed.

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