HR: 15:35h
AN: SA33C-07    [Abstracts]
TI: The Martian bow shock and magnetic pileup boundary: two plasma boundaries induced by the interaction of the solar wind with the planetary ionosphere
AU: * TROTIGNON, J
EM: Jean-Gabriel.Trotignon@cnrs-orleans.fr
AF: LPCE/CNRS, Universite d'Orleans, 3A, avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, Orleans cedex 02, F-45071, France
AU: MAZELLE, C
EM: Christian.Mazelle@cesr.fr
AF: CESR, Universite Paul Sabatier, 9, av. du Colonel Roche, BP 4346, Toulouse cedex 04, F- 31028, France
AB: The Phobos 2 and Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) planetary missions have confirmed and/or established that the interaction of the solar wind with the space environment of Mars was complex and could be unique in the solar system. The MGS observations have, in particular, definitely proved that no dipole-like planetary magnetic field exists at Mars and therefore, on the global scale, the interaction should be between the heavy ions of the ionosphere/exosphere and the solar wind protons. This interaction leads to the creation of two outer permanent plasma boundaries, the bow shock and the magnetic pile-up boundary, MPB. A great many Martian bow shock and magnetic pile-up boundary crossings have been identified in the Phobos 2 and Mars Global Surveyor, MGS, data. From these observations the positions and shapes of the bow shock and magnetic pile-up boundary, MPB, have been derived and modelled, using curve-fitting techniques. The purpose of the paper is to show the results obtained from the mixing of the Phobos-2 and MGS data bases and to compare the derived bow shock and MPB models with the ones obtained previously. The underlying objective was to see whether it was possible to determine improved bow shock and MPB models or not. The answer is definitely yes, and particularly for the MPB, thanks to the complementary nature of the observations. The boundaries crossed close to the subsolar direction or mostly far downstream by Phobos 2 indeed allow a better coverage of the Martian space environment to be considered.
DE: 6225 Mars
DE: 6295 Venus
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly