Interplanetary field control of the location of the Venus bow shock: Evidence for comet‐like ion pickup

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Abstract
The location of the Venus bow shock is found to be sensitive to both the angle of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) to the solar wind flow and the phase of the solar cycle. We attribute the former dependence to the effect of planetary ion pickup by the magnetosheath convection electric field analogous to cometary ion pickup by the solar wind electric field. We attribute the latter dependence to the solar‐cycle variation in the density of exospheric neutrals in the magnetosheath analogous to the cometary response to distance from the sun. We also find both a north‐south and a pole‐equator asymmetry in the location of the bow shock, controlled by the direction of the IMF in the plane perpendicular to the solar wind flow, for those data where the perpendicular component dominates. These observations suggest how the comet‐solar wind interaction should also respond to the combination of the IMF orientation and the intensity of the ionizing solar radiation.

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