Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings
We apply a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to study the influence of inhomogeneities in Europa's atmosphere, as, for example, water vapor plumes, on Europa's plasma interaction with the Jovian magnetosphere. In our model we have included electromagnetic induction in a sub...
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AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
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ftubkoeln:oai:USBKOELN.ub.uni-koeln.de:25922 2023-05-15T18:22:51+02:00 Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings Bloecker, Aljona Saur, Joachim Roth, Lorenz 2016 https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/25922/ eng eng AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION Bloecker, Aljona, Saur, Joachim orcid:0000-0003-1413-1231 and Roth, Lorenz orcid:0000-0003-0554-4691 (2016). Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings. J. Geophys. Res-Space Phys., 121 (10). S. 9794 - 9829. WASHINGTON: AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION. ISSN 2169-9402 ddc:no doc-type:article publishedVersion 2016 ftubkoeln 2022-11-09T07:20:27Z We apply a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to study the influence of inhomogeneities in Europa's atmosphere, as, for example, water vapor plumes, on Europa's plasma interaction with the Jovian magnetosphere. In our model we have included electromagnetic induction in a subsurface water ocean, collisions between ions and neutrals, plasma production and loss due to electron impact ionization, and dissociative recombination. We present a systematic study of the plasma interaction when a local inhomogeneity in the neutral density is present within a global sputtering generated atmosphere. We show that an inhomogeneity near the north or south pole affects the plasma interaction in a way that a pronounced north-south asymmetry is generated. We find that an Alfven winglet develops within Europa's main Alfven wing on that side where the inhomogeneity is located. In addition to the MHD model we apply an analytic model based on the model of Saur et al. (2007) to understand the role of steep gradients and discontinuities in the interaction. We compare our model results with the measured magnetic field data from three flybys of the Galileo spacecraft at Europa which included Alfven wing crossings. Our analysis suggests that the magnetic field might be influenced by atmospheric inhomogeneities during the E26 flyby. The findings of this work will aid in the search for plumes at Europa in future plasma and field observations. Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole Cologne University: KUPS South Pole |
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Cologne University: KUPS |
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English |
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ddc:no Bloecker, Aljona Saur, Joachim Roth, Lorenz Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings |
topic_facet |
ddc:no |
description |
We apply a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to study the influence of inhomogeneities in Europa's atmosphere, as, for example, water vapor plumes, on Europa's plasma interaction with the Jovian magnetosphere. In our model we have included electromagnetic induction in a subsurface water ocean, collisions between ions and neutrals, plasma production and loss due to electron impact ionization, and dissociative recombination. We present a systematic study of the plasma interaction when a local inhomogeneity in the neutral density is present within a global sputtering generated atmosphere. We show that an inhomogeneity near the north or south pole affects the plasma interaction in a way that a pronounced north-south asymmetry is generated. We find that an Alfven winglet develops within Europa's main Alfven wing on that side where the inhomogeneity is located. In addition to the MHD model we apply an analytic model based on the model of Saur et al. (2007) to understand the role of steep gradients and discontinuities in the interaction. We compare our model results with the measured magnetic field data from three flybys of the Galileo spacecraft at Europa which included Alfven wing crossings. Our analysis suggests that the magnetic field might be influenced by atmospheric inhomogeneities during the E26 flyby. The findings of this work will aid in the search for plumes at Europa in future plasma and field observations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bloecker, Aljona Saur, Joachim Roth, Lorenz |
author_facet |
Bloecker, Aljona Saur, Joachim Roth, Lorenz |
author_sort |
Bloecker, Aljona |
title |
Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings |
title_short |
Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings |
title_full |
Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings |
title_fullStr |
Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings |
title_full_unstemmed |
Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings |
title_sort |
europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: development of alfven winglets within the alfven wings |
publisher |
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/25922/ |
geographic |
South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_relation |
Bloecker, Aljona, Saur, Joachim orcid:0000-0003-1413-1231 and Roth, Lorenz orcid:0000-0003-0554-4691 (2016). Europa's plasma interaction with an inhomogeneous atmosphere: Development of Alfven winglets within the Alfven wings. J. Geophys. Res-Space Phys., 121 (10). S. 9794 - 9829. WASHINGTON: AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION. ISSN 2169-9402 |
_version_ |
1766202259952107520 |