Jupiter's deep magnetotail boundary layer

Nicolaou, Georgios; McComas, D. J.; Bagenal, F.; Elliott, H. A.; Ebert, R. W.

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2015.03.020

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Nonetheless, Nicolaou et al . [, , ] developed a technique as described above. Figure shows the Nicolaou et al .…”

Section: Plasma Moments and Mass Loss Down The Jovian Magnetotailmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nicolaou et al . [] subsequently developed a forward model of plasma parameters through the SWAP instrument, minimized the differences between this output and the observations, and thereby quantified the bulk plasma parameters in the distant magnetosheath, magnetosheath/tail boundary layer [ Nicolaou et al ., , ], and for 64 analyzable intervals in the deep Jovian magnetotail [ Nicolaou et al ., ]. These latter authors also quantified the interval of cold coflowing H + and H 3 + in the tail found by McComas et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Jovian deep magnetotail composition and structure

et al. 2017

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We analyze plasma ion observations from the Solar Wind Around Pluto instrument on New Horizons as it traveled back through the dusk flank of the Jovian magnetotail from ~600 to more than 2500 Jovian radii behind the planet. We find that at all distances, light ions (mostly protons) dominate the heavy ions (S++ and O+) that are far more abundant in the near Jupiter plasma disk and that were expected to be the primary ions filling the Jovian magnetotail. This key new observation might indicate that heavy ions are confined closer to the equator than the spacecraft trajectory or a substantial addition of light ions via reconnection and/or mixing along the magnetopause boundary. However, because we find no evidence for acceleration of the tail plasma with distance, a more likely explanation seems to be that the heavy ions are preferentially released down the dawn flank of the magnetotail. Perhaps, this occurs as a part of the process where flux tubes, after expanding as they rotate across the near‐tail region, need to pull back inward in order to fit within the dawnside of the magnetopause. A second major finding of this study is that there are two dominant periods of the plasma structures in the Jovian magnetotail: 3.53 (0.18 full width at half maximum (FWHM)) and 5.35 (0.38 FWHM) days. Remarkably, the first of these is identical within the errors to Europa's orbital period (3.55 days). Both of these results should provide important new fodder for Jovian magnetospheric theories and lead to a better understanding of Jupiter's magnetosphere.

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“…Nonetheless, Nicolaou et al . [, , ] developed a technique as described above. Figure shows the Nicolaou et al .…”

Section: Plasma Moments and Mass Loss Down The Jovian Magnetotailmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jovian deep magnetotail composition and structure

et al. 2017

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“…We use the well-established forward-modelling technique (see, e.g., in [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ]) to simulate the expected SWA-EAS observations in the solar wind. We focus on the characterization of supra-thermal electrons, which we consider more challenging due to the high energy tails of their VDFs.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining the Bulk Parameters of Plasma Electrons from Pitch-Angle Distribution Measurements

Nicolaou

Wicks

Livadiotis

et al. 2020

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Electrostatic analysers measure the flux of plasma particles in velocity space and determine their velocity distribution function. There are occasions when science objectives require high time-resolution measurements, and the instrument operates in short measurement cycles, sampling only a portion of the velocity distribution function. One such high-resolution measurement strategy consists of sampling the two-dimensional pitch-angle distributions of the plasma particles, which describes the velocities of the particles with respect to the local magnetic field direction. Here, we investigate the accuracy of plasma bulk parameters from such high-resolution measurements. We simulate electron observations from the Solar Wind Analyser’s (SWA) Electron Analyser System (EAS) on board Solar Orbiter. We show that fitting analysis of the synthetic datasets determines the plasma temperature and kappa index of the distribution within 10% of their actual values, even at large heliocentric distances where the expected solar wind flux is very low. Interestingly, we show that although measurement points with zero counts are not statistically significant, they provide information about the particle distribution function which becomes important when the particle flux is low. We also examine the convergence of the fitting algorithm for expected plasma conditions and discuss the sources of statistical and systematic uncertainties.

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“…We use the forward modeling method (e.g., [ 20 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]) to simulate solar wind proton observations by a typical top-hat electrostatic analyzer with an electrostatic aperture deflector system and a position-sensitive Multi-Channel-Plate (MCP) detector. Our model instrument measures protons within the energy range from 200 ev to 20 keV, in 96 electrostatic steps of the electrostatic analyzer, each with resolution Δ E / E ~ 5%.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Determination of Kappa Distribution Functions from Space Plasma Observations

Nicolaou

Livadiotis

Wicks

2020

Entropy

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The velocities of space plasma particles, often follow kappa distribution functions. The kappa index, which labels and governs these distributions, is an important parameter in understanding the plasma dynamics. Space science missions often carry plasma instruments on board which observe the plasma particles and construct their velocity distribution functions. A proper analysis of the velocity distribution functions derives the plasma bulk parameters, such as the plasma density, speed, temperature, and kappa index. Commonly, the plasma bulk density, velocity, and temperature are determined from the velocity moments of the observed distribution function. Interestingly, recent studies demonstrated the calculation of the kappa index from the speed (kinetic energy) moments of the distribution function. Such a novel calculation could be very useful in future analyses and applications. This study examines the accuracy of the specific method using synthetic plasma proton observations by a typical electrostatic analyzer. We analyze the modeled observations in order to derive the plasma bulk parameters, which we compare with the parameters we used to model the observations in the first place. Through this comparison, we quantify the systematic and statistical errors in the derived moments, and we discuss their possible sources.

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Jupiter's deep magnetotail boundary layer

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

Jovian deep magnetotail composition and structure

Jovian deep magnetotail composition and structure

Determining the Bulk Parameters of Plasma Electrons from Pitch-Angle Distribution Measurements

On the Determination of Kappa Distribution Functions from Space Plasma Observations

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