Abstract Ultralow frequency waves with periods greater than 2 minutes are characteristic features of planetary magnetotails. At Jupiter, changes in the wave characteristics across the boundary between the plasma sheet and the lobe have been used to identify this important plasma boundary. In the terrestrial lobes the wave amplitude can be relatively large, especially during intervals of intense geomagnetic activity. We have now evaluated the wave power seen in the lobes of the magnetotails of the Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus to evaluate a proposal by Smith et al. that the propagating waves generated by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the magnetopause can heat the plasma through a resonant absorption of these waves. Our results indicate that the wave power in the lobes is generally small and can be easily understood in the framework of coupled MHD waves generated in the plasma sheet.


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    Title :

    Ultralow frequency waves in the magnetotails of the Earth and the outer planets


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1992-01-01


    Size :

    7 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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