Premium
Properties of plasma ions in the distant Jovian magnetosheath using Solar Wind Around Pluto data on New Horizons
Author(s) -
Nicolaou G.,
McComas D. J.,
Bagenal F.,
Elliott H. A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2013ja019665
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , jovian , pluto , physics , swap (finance) , magnetopause , solar wind , plasma , gas giant , jupiter (rocket family) , planet , ion , astronomy , computational physics , astrobiology , astrophysics , geophysics , exoplanet , spacecraft , finance , quantum mechanics , saturn , economics
Abstract The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on New Horizons (NH) made in situ observations of ions in Jupiter's distant magnetotail and magnetosheath during its 2007 flyby. NH observed 16 magnetopause crossings between 1654 and 2429 R J antisunward from Jupiter. We have developed a method to calculate the bulk properties of the plasma ions (density, velocity, and temperature) based on a forward model of the SWAP instrument response. We fit the observations using both Maxwell and kappa distributions. In this paper we describe our technique, which includes accounting for the detailed and asymmetric response of the SWAP electrostatic analyzer, and present the results for the distant Jovian magnetosheath. Finally, we discuss the characteristics of the derived bulk properties and compare these results to previously developed gas dynamic models for magnetospheres of giant planets.