Caught Between Shocks : A survey of magnetosheath properties in the terrestrialplanets and Jupiter

Sammanfattning

The magnetospheres of planets give rise to many phenomena, both visual, such as the northernlights on Earth, or non-visual, such as the atmospheric escape of ions on Venus, and the studyof magnetospheres can tell something about the planets’ origins. The magnetosphere can bedivided into different areas with different properties. In this study, the focus lies on the magne-tosheath, which is the area between the bow shock and the magnetopause. The aim of this studywas to compare the magnetosheaths between the planets from Mercury to Jupiter. To make thecomparison, the properties proton density, proton speed, proton temperature, and magnetic fieldstrength were chosen as parameters. The comparisons were done by qualitatively analyzing two-dimensional color maps of the different parameters. A linear regression was also made to see ifthere was any clear correlation between different planetary properties and the chosen parameters.From the results, it was concluded that there are many similarities between the properties of theplanets, especially between planets that have similar magnetic fields, such as Venus and Mars.It was also concluded that magnetosheath properties depend on several variables, and with theavailable data, it is difficult to make systematic comparisons. Since all satellites were equippedwith different instruments and measure the properties in different ways, it is very challenging tomake a quantitative comparison.