| 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 (Nagoya University, Japan) Mr. Robert Lillis (University of California, Berkeley, United States) Prof. Yasumasa Kasaba (Tohoku University, Japan) Dr. Pontus Brandt (The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, United States) |
| Session Description | A variety of missions (both present such as MAVEN at Mars, Cassini at Saturn or Rosetta at the comet, and future such as JUNO at Jupiter or BepiColombo at Mercury) are dedicated to analysis of planetary environments (both neutral and ionized) and it is thus timely to put into perspective the common knowledge that has been accumulated over the years about the only Earth's magnetosphere. This session focuses on 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, MESSENGER observations at Mercury have revealed 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 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. |