Submitting Campus

Daytona Beach

Department

Physical Sciences

Document Type

Article

Publication/Presentation Date

4-2017

Abstract/Description

Net plasma transport in magnetodiscs around giant planets is outward. Observations of plasma temperature have shown that the expanding plasma is heating nonadiabatically during this process. Turbulence has been suggested as a source of heating. However, the mechanism and distribution of magnetic fluctuations in giant magnetospheres are poorly understood. In this study we attempt to quantify the radial and local time dependence of fluctuating magnetic field signatures that are suggestive of turbulence, quantifying the fluctuations in terms of a plasma heating rate density. In addition, the inferred heating rate density is correlated with magnetic field configurations that include azimuthal bend forward/back and magnitude of the equatorial normal component of magnetic field relative to the dipole. We find a significant local time dependence in magnetic fluctuations that is consistent with flux transport triggered in the subsolar and dusk sectors due to magnetodisc reconnection.

Publication Title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023834

Publisher

American Geophysical Union

Grant or Award Name

NASA grant NNX14AM27G

Additional Information

Dr. Ma was not affiliated with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the time this paper was published.

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