Observations of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along the dusk-side boundary of Mercury's magnetosphere during MESSENGER's third flyby

Details Observations of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along the dusk-side boundary of Mercury's magnetosphere during MESSENGER's third flyby Observations of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along the dusk-side boundary of Mercury's magnetosphere during MESSENGER's third flyby

Jun 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010georl..3712101b&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 37, Issue 12, CiteID L12101

Physics

6

Interplanetary Physics: Plasma Waves And Turbulence, Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Mercury, Magnetospheric Physics: Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6033), Ionosphere: Wave Propagation (0689, 3285, 4275, 4455, 6934), Ionosphere: Plasma Waves And Instabilities (2772)

Scientific paper

During the third MESSENGER flyby of Mercury on 29 September 2009, 15 crossings of the dusk-side magnetopause were observed in the magnetic field data over a 2-min period, during which the spacecraft traveled a distance of 0.2 RM (where RM is Mercury's radius). The quasi-periodic nature of the magnetic field variations during the crossings, the characteristic time separations of ˜16 s between pairs of crossings, and the variations of the magnetopause normal directions indicate that the signals are likely the signature of surface waves highly steepened at their leading edge that arose from the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. At Earth, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is believed to lead to the turbulent transport of solar wind plasma into Earth's plasma sheet. This solar wind entry mechanism could also be important at Mercury.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Observations of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along the dusk-side boundary of Mercury's magnetosphere during MESSENGER's third flyby does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Observations of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along the dusk-side boundary of Mercury's magnetosphere during MESSENGER's third flyby, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Observations of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves along the dusk-side boundary of Mercury's magnetosphere during MESSENGER's third flyby will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1830379