Search Publications
Electron trapping around a magnetic null
Escoubet, C. P.; Dandouras, I.; Glassmeier, K. -H. +18 more
Magnetic reconnection is an important process in astrophysical, space and laboratory plasmas. The magnetic null pair structure is theoretically suggested to be a crucial feature of the three-dimensional magnetic reconnection. The physics around the null pair, however, has not been explored in combination with the magnetic field configuration deduc…
Confirmation and utilization of the ``production function'' size-frequency distributions of Martian impact craters
Neukum, Gerhard; Werner, Stephanie; Hartmann, William K.
On any planetary surface, impacts of interplanetary bodies create an initial (or ``production function'') size-frequency distribution (SFD) of impact craters. Recent questions have been raised about whether this size distribution can be reliably detected, especially at small sizes. In a test area, we confirm an excellent fit to the distribution we…
Behavior of current sheets at directional magnetic discontinuities in the solar wind at 0.72 AU
Russell, C. T.; Zhang, T. L.; Glassmeier, K. -H. +10 more
Venus Express interplanetary magnetic field measurements have been examined for magnetic ``holes,'' accompanied by magnetic field directional changes. We examine both the thickness of the current sheet and the depth of the magnetic field depression. We find the thickness of the current sheet is not correlated with the depth of the field depression…
Implications from Ithaca Chasma for the thermal and orbital history of Tethys
Nimmo, F.; Chen, E. M. A.
Flexural modeling of Ithaca Chasma on Tethys suggests that the elastic thickness and the surface heat flux were 5-7 km and 18-30 mW/m2 respectively, when the feature formed (~4 Gyr B.P.). Tidal heating is a plausible heat source, suggesting that Tethys' eccentricity was higher in the past. Depending on Tethys' internal structure, eccent…
Structure of Titan's low altitude ionized layer from the Relaxation Probe onboard HUYGENS
Berthelier, J. J.; Rodrigo, R.; López-Moreno, J. J. +14 more
Some of the secrets of the atmosphere of Titan have been unveiled by the Huygens Probe. The Permitivity Wave and Altimetry system detected a hidden ionosphere much below the main ionosphere, that lies between 600 and 2000 km. Theoretical models predicted a low altitude ionosphere produced by cosmic rays that, contrary to magnetospheric particles a…
Modulated reconnection rate and energy conversion at the magnetopause under steady IMF conditions
Dandouras, I.; Buchert, S.; Vaivads, A. +4 more
We use the multi-spacecraft mission Cluster to make observational estimates of the local energy conversion across the dayside high-latitude magnetopause. The energy conversion is estimated during eleven complete magnetopause crossings under steady south-dawnward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). We describe a new method to determine the reconne…
Lunar degree 2 potential Love number determination from satellite tracking data
Matsumoto, K.; Goossens, S.
The lunar potential Love number k 2 has been determined using available satellite tracking data coming from the Lunar Orbiters I-V, the Apollo 15 and 16 subsatellites, Clementine and Lunar Prospector. Some SMART-1 spacecraft tracking data are also included. A previous determination using spacecraft data reported k 2 = 0.026 +…
Alfvén vortices in Saturn's magnetosheath: Cassini observations
Saur, J.; Alexandrova, O.
First signatures of Alfvén vortices in the Kronian magnetosheath are presented. An Alfvén vortex is a non-linear bi-dimensional magnetic structure associated with sheared magnetic field and velocity perturbations, propagating obliquely to the external magnetic field direction. Such structures have been recently discovered by Cluster in Earth's mag…
On the cause of Saturn's plasma periodicity
André, N.; Coates, A. J.; Dougherty, M. K. +6 more
Periodic plasma enhancements are examined for all Cassini orbits from December 29, 2005 through September 7, 2006. The events, which have UT durations of 3-4 hours, are centered near SLS3 longitude 10° at radial distances near 15 RS and at larger W longitudes at larger distances, reaching 180°W by 49 RS. Magnetic-field data w…
Strong jet and a new thermal wave in Saturn's equatorial stratosphere
Fletcher, Leigh N.; Achterberg, Richard K.; Flasar, F. Michael +7 more
The strong jet, with a speed between 500 and 600 m/s, is inferred in the equatorial region of Saturn by combining the nadir and limb observations of Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) aboard the Cassini spacecraft. A similar jet was discovered on Jupiter (F. M. Flasar et al., 2004a). These discoveries raise the possibility that intense jets ar…