Abstract Turbulence in the outer planetary magnetospheres has been relatively less studied than in the Earth’s magnetosphere, especially for the ice giants which have been visited only by the Voyager-2 spacecraft so far. The aim of this work is to study the turbulence in Neptune’s dayside magnetosheath. Voyager-2 magnetometer 3-s averaged magnetic field data were analyzed with several data analysis techniques. It was found that most of the magnetosheath magnetic field is aligned in the direction. The -component spectrum showed the predominance of short-period (5minutes) oscillations, while the - and - components showed the occurrence of longer-period (20–50minutes) oscillations. The Fourier spectrum of the magnetic field showed a breakpoint near 0.00165Hz. The lower frequency portion showed index (absolute values) smaller than 1.0. The higher frequency portion showed a much steeper spectrum, with power law values varying from about 2.0 to 2.4. The statistical kurtosis parameters for and are higher than 3 in almost all scales, while the component (main field direction) has a more Gaussian or sub-Gaussian behavior, specially in scales higher than 20minutes. The kurtosis is very high at the low frequency spectral power of 40minutes for the -component, indicating asymmetric or non-Gaussian magnetic field distribution in the magnetosheath. The multifractal spectrum is well spread in the magnetosheath revealing a rich and dynamic activity in this region. Overall, the Neptune’s magnetosheath is found to have a strong turbulence activity that is comparable to that of other planetary magnetosheaths.
Study of Neptune dayside magnetosheath fluctuations during Voyager-2 flyby
Advances in Space Research ; 71 , 8 ; 3468-3478
2022-12-09
11 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Neptune , Voyager , Solar wind , Waves , Turbulence , Magnetosheath
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