On the lower altitude limit of the Venusian ionopause

Details On the lower altitude limit of the Venusian ionopause On the lower altitude limit of the Venusian ionopause

Jul 1989

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989georl..16..759m&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 16, July 1989, p. 759-762.

Physics

12

Altitude, Ionopause, Planetary Ionospheres, Plasma Dynamics, Spaceborne Experiments, Venus Atmosphere, Electron Energy, Oxygen Ions, Pioneer Venus Spacecraft, Vertical Distribution, Venus, Ionopause, Altitude, Spacecraft Observations, Pvo Mission, Plasma, Boundaries, Solar Wind, Pressure, Flow, Photoionization, Dynamics, Oetp Instrument, Calculations, Diagrams, Morphology

Scientific paper

It has been observed from the plasma experiments on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter that the altitude of the upper boundary of the ionosphere decreases in response to increasing solar wind dynamic pressure. However, at pressures above about 2.5 x 10 to the -8th dynes/sq cm, the further decrease in the ionopause height is rather small. Following the model of Cloutier et al. (1969), it is suggested that during high solar wind conditions, when the ionopause is formed at lower altitudes, the solar wind induces vertical and horizontal flows which sweep away the ionospheric plasma that is produced locally by photoionization. As a result, a disturbed photodynamical ionosphere is formed which has the scale height of the ionizable neutral constituent. It is shown that such a photodynamical ionosphere is observed at the subsolar ionopause under these conditions. As a consequence of this interaction, the ionopause altitude is observed to follow the small-scale height of the ionizable species, atomic oxygen, showing only small changes with solar wind pressure.

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