Aspects of MHD flow about Venus

Details Aspects of MHD flow about Venus Aspects of MHD flow about Venus

Jun 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999jgr...10412617b&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 104, Issue A6, p. 12617-12626

Physics

17

Interplanetary Physics: Planetary Bow Shocks, Interplanetary Physics: Discontinuities, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosheath

Scientific paper

We describe the ``magnetic string'' approach to integrating the dissipationless magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for flow around planetary obstacles and apply it to some aspects of the flow in the magnetosheath of Venus. Our method has both analytical and numerical components and is particularly suited to study the structure of the magnetic barrier (depletion layer). We do not include ion pickup processes and thus discuss only the contribution to the structure of the Venus magnetosheath made by the flow of the shocked solar wind. We work with an interplanetary magnetic field which is directed orthogonal to the solar wind bulk velocity. Magnetic forces on the flow are strongly dependent on the Alfvén Mach number upstream of the bow shock, and one aim of this work is to study the dependence of field and flow quantities in the Venus magnetosheath on this parameter, thus allowing further future comparisons with data under a variety of interplanetary conditions. A second aim is to compare our MHD model results to a synopsis of observations made by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. As one main conclusion, we show that this method leads, in principle, to a standoff bow shock position in good agreement with observations. We find, namely, that for a low but reasonable Alfvén Mach number, our MHD-modeled magnetosheath is only ~3.6% thinner in the Sun-Venus direction than that given by observations. Our method is complementary to three-dimensional, global MHD simulations of the solar wind-Venus interaction and offers versatility to modeling other aspects of the complicated interaction of the solar wind with Venus.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Aspects of MHD flow about Venus 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 Aspects of MHD flow about Venus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Aspects of MHD flow about Venus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1502805