Current Sheets on the Dayside of the Mars Magnetosphere
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Laila Andersson1, Christopher M Fowler2, Robert Ergun3, Gregory T Delory4, Michiko W Morooka2, Tristan David Weber5, David J Andrews6, Anders I Eriksson6, Jared R Espley7, John E P Connerney8, David L Mitchell4, James P McFadden4, Jasper S Halekas9 and Tess McEnulty1, (1)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)LASP, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (6)IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden, (7)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (8)Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)University of Iowa, Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, IA, United States
Abstract:
The MAVEN mission frequently observes current sheets and Alfvenic activities on the dayside magnetosphere of Mars. A subset of them that are associated with density gradients and electric field fluctuations are resolved by the Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument on the MAVEN mission. This presentation focuses on the dayside current sheets inside the shocked solar wind plasma in correlation to the upper ionosphere density profiles. This initial study shows different plasma environment that result in current sheet; estimates their thickness; and evaluate if they are more stationary or dynamic in nature. This investigation strives to understand how the Martian Magnetosphere is filamented. This is important in understanding how energy and information is propagated between the solar wind and upper atmosphere.
