Abstract
Abstract. Out of the two Venus flybys that BepiColombo uses as a gravity assist manoeuvre to finally arrive at Mercury, the first took place on 15 October 2020. After passing the bow shock, the spacecraft travelled along the induced magnetotail, crossing it mainly in the YVSO direction. In this paper, the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Magnetometer (MPO-MAG) data are discussed, with support from three other plasma instruments: the Planetary Ion Camera (SERENA-PICAM) of the SERENA suite, the Mercury Electron Analyser (MEA), and the BepiColombo Radiation Monitor (BERM). Behind the bow shock crossing, the magnetic field showed a draping pattern consistent with field lines connected to the interplanetary magnetic field wrapping around the planet. This flyby showed a highly active magnetotail, with e.g. strong flapping motions at a period of ∼7 min. This activity was driven by solar wind conditions. Just before this flyby, Venus's induced magnetosphere was impacted by a stealth coronal mass ejection, of which the trailing side was still interacting with it during the flyby. This flyby is a unique opportunity to study the full length and structure of the induced magnetotail of Venus, indicating that the tail was most likely still present at about 48 Venus radii.
Highlights
The interaction of Venus with the magnetoplasma of the solar wind gives rise to the creation of a so-called induced magnetosphere
The first flyby passed into the induced magnetosphere, where strong kinetic-scale turbulence was found in the magnetosheath (Bowen et al, 2021) as well as sub-proton-scale magnetic holes (Goodrich et al, 2021), whereas the second flyby grazed Venus’s bow shock at the dawn terminator and double layers were observed at this boundary (Malaspina et al, 2020)
This paper focuses on the first BepiColombo flyby that occurred on 15 October 2020
Summary
The interaction of Venus with the magnetoplasma of the solar wind gives rise to the creation of a so-called induced magnetosphere (see e.g. Luhmann et al, 1986; Phillips and McComas, 1991; Bertucci et al, 2011; Dubinin et al, 2011; Futaana et al, 2017). The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is stopped at the sunward side of the planet and cannot penetrate into the ionosphere This boundary extends downstream to at least 11 planetary radii and encloses the induced magnetotail, where planetary plasma escape mainly occurs (Bertucci et al, 2011). The first flyby passed into the induced magnetosphere, where strong kinetic-scale turbulence was found in the magnetosheath (Bowen et al, 2021) as well as sub-proton-scale magnetic holes (Goodrich et al, 2021), whereas the second flyby grazed Venus’s bow shock at the dawn terminator and double layers were observed at this boundary (Malaspina et al, 2020). The BepiColombo trajectory was such that by making a long transit into the Venusian-induced magnetotail, it allowed for a precious opportunity to study the dynamics and structures of the tail, including the far tail, a region mostly unexplored
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