Electric Fields and Waves in the Venus Nightside Magnetosphere

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
On November 6, 2024, the Parker Solar Probe flew past Venus to make the first accurate electric field measurement in the nightside Venusian magnetosphere. To achieve this result, the electric field antennas were current biased in a way never before experienced by an electric field detector at Venus. This biasing requirement, that the positive bias current in the Venus shadow be about equal to the electron thermal current, is discussed and illustrated. About one minute of useful electric field data in the eight minute nightside magnetosphere crossing was obtained, during which the only feature observed was a few Hz signal. This result, along with the magnetic field measurements, showed that there were few if any electromagnetic waves, such as low frequency electromagnetic turbulence or whistlers, in the nightside crossing. Instead, a few Hertz, purely electrostatic signal was found. This suggests that the interaction of the solar wind with an unmagnetized body having an ionosphere may be different from that of previously studied magnetized bodies. In the sunlit flanks, many electromagnetic wave modes were observed. An additional result of this research is development of an improved algorithm for biasing electric field antennas in the Sun’s shadow which improves on guessing the bias current as done in this research.
Funding Information
  • Astrophysics Science Division (NASA contract NNN06AA01C.)

This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit: