Abstract During the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune, the plasma wave instrument detected many familiar phenomena. These include radio emissions, electron plasma oscillations in the solar wind upstream of the bow shock, electrostatic turbulence at the bow shock, electrostatic electron cyclotron waves and upper hybrid resonance (UHR) waves, whistler mode noise, and dust impacts. The radio emissions occur in a broad continuum-like spectrum extending from about 5 kHz to above 50 kHz, and are emitted in a disk-like beam along the magnetic equatorial plane. The radio emissions are believed to be generated by mode conversion from UHR waves at the magnetic equator. The inner magnetosphere has relatively low plasma wave intensities, generally less than 100 μV/m. At the ring plane crossing, many small micron-sized dust particles were detected striking the spacecraft. The maximum impact rate was about 280 impacts per second at the inbound ring plane crossing, and about 110 impacts per second at the outbound ring plane crossing. Most of the particles are concentrated in a dense disk, about one thousand km thick, near the equatorial plane. A broader, more tenuous distribution of dust also extends along the entire trajectory inside of 6 RN including the northern polar region.
Plasma wave observations at Neptune
Advances in Space Research ; 12 , 11 ; 47-54
01.01.1992
8 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Plasma wave observations at Neptune
NTRS | 1992
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Elsevier | 1992
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1938
|NTRS | 1970