The flapping motion of the Venusian magnetotail: Venus Express observations

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Abstract
With a newly developed technique and magnetic field measurements obtained by the magnetometer on Venus Express, we study the flapping motion of the Venusian magnetotail. We find that the flapping motion generally comprises contributions both from a nonpropagating steady flapping and a propagating kink‐like flapping. The flapping motion tilts the current sheet normal significantly in the plane perpendicular to the Venus‐Sun line. The kink‐like flapping waves traveling along solar wind electric field or its antidirection can be found in either magnetotail hemisphere where solar wind electric field pointing toward/away. The traveling behaviors suggest that the locations of the triggers for kink‐like flappings are near the boundaries between magnetotail current sheet and magnetosheath, not near the central region of magnetotail as is for the Earth's magnetotail.
Funding Information
  • Chinese State Scholarship Fund (201304910018)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-01-2)
  • National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2011CB811405)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (41104114, 41374180, 41321003, 41131066)
  • CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, University of Science and Technology of China

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