Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p11b1264g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P11B-1264
Physics
2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 5737 Magnetospheres (2756), 6220 Jupiter, 6275 Saturn
Scientific paper
A comprehensive statistical analysis of observed Jovian magnetopause and bow shock crossings revealed a bimodal distribution in the standoff distances of these boundaries [Joy et al., JGR, 2002], which was attributed to bimodality in the solar wind dynamic pressure. Recently a similar bimodality was identified also in the location of the Kronian magnetopause based on Cassini observations [Achilleos et al., Saturn Book Symposium, 2008]. It is still controversial whether this bimodality at Saturn is a result of a corresponding bimodal distribution in the solar wind or comes from internal magnetospheric processes characteristic to rotationally driven magnetospheres with significant internal mass loading rates. We investigate this question in two different ways. First, we analyze propagated upstream solar wind data at Jupiter and Saturn to test the presence of bimodality in the solar wind driving. For this purpose we use 13 years of upstream data obtained by the Michigan Solar Wind Model (MSWiM) that is a 1.5-D MHD model to propagate solar wind conditions from 1 AU to the outer planets. Second, we use our 3-D global MHD model of Saturn's magnetosphere to test whether the model can produce a bimodal distribution of standoff distances under conditions of low solar wind dynamic pressure and relatively high mass loading rate. Our model includes two magnetospheric plasma sources, a major disk-like source from Enceladus and the rings and a secondary toroidal plasma source from Titan. We fit a 9-parameter analytical magnetopause model and a 4-parameter bow shock model for Saturn to the simulated MHD boundaries at different times of the simulation to obtain a simulated distribution of the standoff distances. We expect that the internal magnetospheric dynamics is more likely to cause the observed bimodal distribution in the Kronian magnetopause locations rather than a bimodal distribution in the upstream solar wind.
Gombosi Tamas I.
Hansen Kenneth Calvin
Zieger Bertalan
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