Observations of the dayside ionopause and ionosphere of Venus

Abstract

Some of the principal features of the dayside solar wind ionosphere interaction at Venus are presented. The dayside ionopause and ionosphere are observed to respond dramatically to solar wind pressure variations. The ram pressure of the solar wind is manifested mainly as magnetic pressure just external to the subsolar ionopause, and the ionopause location is controlled principally by this pressure. The ionosheath field is observed to drape across the dayside ionosphere, and ionopause currents over most of the dayside usually act to exclude the high ionosheath field from the generally low‐field ionosphere. Tenuous, warm ionospheric plasma is sometimes observed on field lines outside the ionopause current sheet, suggesting that this dayside ionospheric plasma can be transported to the nightside and into the Venus wake. Some of the magnetic and thermal plasma features of the dayside ionosphere are shown, and modeling and distribution of flux ropes, small scale helical magnetic structures, are discussed in the context of thermal plasma observations.