| Session Details | |
| Section | PS - Planetary Sciences |
| Session Title | Solar Wind Interaction With Planetary Environments |
| Main Convener | Dr. Dominique Delcourt (Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas - French National Centre for Scientific Research, France) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Kanako Seki (Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Japan) Dr. Pontus Brandt (The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, United States) Mr. Robert Lillis (University of California Berkeley, United States) Dr. Francois Leblanc (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France) Dr. Anil Bhardwaj (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, India) Prof. Yasumasa Kasaba (Tohoku University, Japan) |
| Session Description | With MESSENGER at Mercury, MAVEN and MOM at Mars, Cassini at Saturn, New Horizons soon at Pluto, as well as other missions that provide a wealth of information (e.g., Mars Express, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) or are in preparation (e.g., Bepi Colombo, JUICE), it is timely to put into perspective the common knowledge that has been accumulated for many years about the only Earth's magnetosphere. This session is dedicated to analysis of the ionized environment of planets other than Earth or that of celestial bodies - including exoplanets - both for properties of their own and from a comparative viewpoint. As an example, in-situ measurements at Mercury reveal reconnection events far more frequent than at Earth as well as a rich composition of the magnetotail plasma as a result of substantial supply from the planet surface. In-situ measurements at the Moon reveal a solar wind interaction far more complex than previously thought with a vast amount of ions expelled from the surface gaining access to the lunar wake. The interaction between Mars and the solar wind is similarly investigated by a variety of spacecrafts that provide remarkable insights into the low-altitude martian environment. At Saturn, in-situ and global measurements suggest that the kronian magnetosphere is subjected to dynamical reconfigurations and energetic particle injections comparable to those observed at Earth during substorms. As for Jupiter, the ESA JUICE mission stimulates a variety of modelling efforts and comparative studies of the interaction between the planet's magnetosphere and its satellites. The aim of the proposed session is to gather works based on both in-situ and global measurements and/or numerical simulations in diverse astrophysical contexts to progress toward a global picture of the dynamics of planetary plasma environments. |