Momentum transport at the Mars magnetopause

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91JA01017· OSTI ID:5316797

Perez-de-Tejada, H ^[1]

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1. Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Ensenada, Baja California (Mexico)

The conditions leading to the transport of momentum of the shocked solarwind to the Mars magnetosphere are examined. It is argued that planetary pickup ions born in the magnetosheath and scattered across the magnetopause by local turbulent waves carry that momentum and deliver it to the magnetospheric plasma. It is further suggested that as the pickup ions experience momentum scattering interactions with the wave field in the velocity shear adjacent to the magnetosphere they are subject to a gradual internment within that region of space. The end effect of this phenomenon is that the pickup ions deliver a larger amount of momentum to the local flow than what they can subtract from it. Calculations of the efficiency of the process lead to values of the effective mean free path of the pickup ions of the order of a few hundred kilometers.

• OSTI ID: 5316797
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 96:A7; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
MARS PLANET
MAGNETOPAUSE
ACCELERATION
ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTIONS
IONS
MAGNETOSHEATH
MEAN FREE PATH
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES
PLASMA
PLASMA DRIFT
SCATTERING
SOLAR WIND
ATMOSPHERES
CHARGED PARTICLES
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
PLANETS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
640107* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena