Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aps..dppar1001k&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, 42nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics combined with the 10th International Congre
Physics
Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Nearing the end of the first half century of in situ measurements of the environments of the bodies of the solar system, we will take note of some remarkably distinct properties of the solar system magnetospheres that have been encountered by spacecraft. This talk will describe some of the ways in which the important spatial length scales, dimensionless plasma parameters, satellite orbits, and characteristics of the central body affect the structure and dynamics of a planetary magnetosphere. At one end of the spectrum of sizes is Jupiter, vast and rapidly rotating. At the other end are Mercury and Ganymede, the one embedded in the supersonic flow of the solar wind, the other in the sub-Alfvenic flow of the Jovian plasma sheet, threaded by the gently rocking magnetic field of Jupiter, a magnetosphere embedded within a magnetosphere. Earth's magnetosphere, which is better (though not yet fully) understood, has been more thoroughly explored. Comparison of planetary magnetospheres with Earth's reveals the effects of unusual plasma sources and exotic energy supply mechanisms, and dramatizes the role of the confining plasma.
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