Proton cyclotron waves in the solar wind at Venus

Abstract

Magnetometer data from two Venus years of the Venus Express mission in orbit are investigated for the occurrence of ion cyclotron waves. Proton cyclotron waves were recently detected in the upstream region of Venus by the spacecraft, indicating pickup of planetary protons from Venus's exosphere by the solar wind and loss of hydrogen to interplanetary space. A study of representative cases illustrates the waveform, spectrum, duration, and higher‐order resonances of the transverse waves with left‐hand circular polarization and propagation nearly along the magnetic field; their properties in the magnetic field principal axes system are determined. A statistical approach studies the wave properties as a function of the angle between the solar wind and magnetic field direction, as a function of their occurrence in space, and with respect to the motional solar wind electric field. Proton cyclotron waves are found up to 9 Venus radii from the planet, for a large range of angles between the solar wind and magnetic field direction, independent from foreshock geometry and independent from the direction of the motional electric field. This reveals that cyclotron wave generation from local pickup of neutral hydrogen is efficient over a large volume of space upstream of the planet and imposes the existence of an extended reservoir of planetary neutral hydrogen at Venus.