Physics
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusm.u24a..06b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #U24A-06
Physics
2152 Pickup Ions, 2756 Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6033), 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities (2471), 6235 Mercury
Scientific paper
Multiple wave packets with frequencies just below the proton cyclotron frequency were detected in Mercury's magnetosphere by the Magnetometer instrument on the MESSENGER spacecraft. These packets were observed primarily outbound from the closet approach, during which a transition region was crossed that is a consequence of either a sudden decrease in solar wind pressure or a boundary-layer crossing. The wave amplitude of these packets changed from about 2 nT to 5 nT on crossing this boundary. No lower-frequency component was detected before this boundary crossing, while a lower-frequency component just below the Na+ cyclotron frequency was present after the crossing of this boundary. This lower-frequency component exhibits strong compressional power, indicating that it is not an electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave. Preliminary analysis of the higher-frequency wave packets yielded wave vectors ranging from nearly parallel to nearly perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field direction. The wave packets with wave vectors nearly parallel to the magnetic field tended to be right handed and therefore require a significant Doppler shift to interpret them as proton cyclotron waves. The interpretation of the preliminary analysis is difficult because the lower-frequency component was not separated from the higher-frequency component. With a more detailed analysis we attempt to separate the two frequency components, and we investigate whether these packets can be associated with field line resonances.
Anderson Benjamin J.
Boardsen Scott A.
Korth Haje
Slavin James Arthur
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