Large‐Scale Structure and Dynamics of the Magnetosphere

Sibeck, D. G.; Murphy, K. R.

doi:10.1002/9781119815624.ch2

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The resulting interaction has been well‐studied: an extended wake forms downstream of the Moon (e.g., Michel, 1968; Ness, 1965), characterized by a drop in the solar wind number density and associated with an enhanced magnetic field (Bosqued et al., 1996; Halekas et al., 2015; Holmström et al., 2012; Ness, 1972; Zhang et al., 2014). When located within Earth's magnetosphere, however, the lunar plasma environment is vastly different; after transiting through the shocked magnetosheath plasma, the magnetotail can be characterized by nominally lobe‐like and sheet‐like plasma (Hardy et al., 1976; Sibeck & Murphy, 2021). Previous studies have applied data from multiple spacecraft missions to study the properties of these plasma populations using a handful of tail crossings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Statistical Study of the Moon's Magnetotail Plasma Environment

2022

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This study investigates the lunar plasma environment when embedded within Earth's magnetotail. We use data from 10 years of tail crossings by the Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. We separate the plasma environments by magnetosheath‐like, magnetotail lobe‐like, and plasma sheet‐like conditions. Our findings highlight that the lobe‐like plasma is associated with low densities and a strong magnetic field, while the plasma sheet is characterized by higher densities and a weaker magnetic field. These regions are flanked by the fast, predominantly tailward flows of the terrestrial magnetosheath. During a single lunar crossing, however, the magnetotail displays a wide range of variability, with transient features—including reconnection events—intermixed between periods of lobe‐like or sheet‐like conditions. We compare and contrast the Moon's local magnetotail plasma to the environments near various outer‐planet moons. In doing so, we find that properties of the ambient lunar plasma are, at times, unique to the terrestrial magnetotail, while at others, may resemble those near the Jovian, Saturnian, and Neptunian moons. These findings highlight the complementary role of the ARTEMIS mission in providing a deeper understanding of the plasma interactions of the outer‐planet moons.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Statistical Study of the Moon's Magnetotail Plasma Environment

2022

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“…10.3389/fspas. 2023.1163139 1.1 Solar wind-magnetosphere coupling parameters Both statistical and in situ case studies have shown that magnetic reconnection (MR) at the dayside magnetopause (MP), basically controlled by the southward-oriented IMF, plays a key role in determining how much energy, mass, and momentum enters the magnetosphere (Sibeck and Murphy, 2021). The southwardoriented IMF leads to the addition of magnetic flux to the tail, resulting in increased occurrence of many energetic magnetospheric phenomena, such as storms, substorms, and intensification of magnetospheric and ionospheric current systems (Dungey, 1961).…”

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How to improve our understanding of solar wind-magnetosphere interactions on the basis of the statistical evaluation of the energy budget in the magnetosheath?

Vörös

Roberts

Yordanova

et al. 2023

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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Solar wind (SW) quantities, referred to as coupling parameters (CPs), are often used in statistical studies devoted to the analysis of SW–magnetosphere–ionosphere couplings. Here, the CPs and their limitations in describing the magnetospheric response are reviewed. We argue that a better understanding of SW magnetospheric interactions could be achieved through estimations of the energy budget in the magnetosheath (MS), which is the interface region between the SW and magnetosphere. The energy budget involves the energy transfer between scales, energy transport between locations, and energy conversions between electromagnetic, kinetic, and thermal energy channels. To achieve consistency with the known multi-scale complexity in the MS, the energy terms have to be complemented with kinetic measures describing some aspects of ion–electron scale physics.

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