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Bursty escape fluxes in plasma sheets of Mars and Venus
Author(s) -
Dubinin E.,
Fraenz M.,
Woch J.,
Zhang T. L.,
Wei J.,
Fedorov A.,
Barabash S.,
Lundin R.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl049883
Subject(s) - venus , mars exploration program , physics , plasma , atmosphere of venus , plasma sheet , astrobiology , solar wind , spacecraft , geophysics , magnetic field , astronomy , magnetosphere , quantum mechanics
High resolution measurements of plasma in the plasma sheets of Mars and Venus performed by almost identical plasma instruments ASPERA‐3 on the Mars Express spacecraft and ASPERA‐4 on Venus Express reveal similar features of bursty fluxes of escaping planetary ions. A period of bursts lasts about 1–2 min. Simultaneous magnetic field measurements on Venus Express show that these burst‐like features arise due to flapping motions of the plasma sheet. Their occurrence can be related to large‐amplitude waves propagating on the plasma sheet surface and launched by reconnection in the magnetic tails.