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Dawn-Dusk Asymmetries in Planetary Plasma Environments
Haaland
ISBN: 978-1-119-21632-2
Hardcover
350 pages
December 2017, ©2016
This is an out of stock title.
  • Description

A dawn-dusk (or morning-evening) asymmetry implies that a particular process or feature is more pronounced at one side of a planet than the other. For example, recent observations indicate that Earth's magnetospheric magnetopause is thicker at dawn than at dusk. Likewise, auroral breakups at Earth are more likely to take place in the premidnight sector. Such dawn-dusk asymmetries are ubiquitous features of the plasma environment of many of the planets in our solar system. Properties or processes where one would expect axial symmetry, are in reality asymmetric. Some of these asymmetries are constant and predictable and related to the orbital motion and rotation of the planet. The planet's orbital motion introduces an aberration - a component of the solar wind perpendicular to the Sunplanet line. The amount of variation varies with the bulk speed of the solar wind. A planet's rotation will also introduce a dawn-dusk - asymmetry. Since the magnetosphere is magnetically connected to the ionosphere - an ionized part of the planetary atmosphere - asymmetries are coupled between regions. This coupling, as well as other asymmetries, including the above mentioned asymmetry in auroral breakups or difference in magnetopause thickness between dawn and dusk are still poorly understood. Even the dipolar like magnetic field of a planet is in itself sufficient to set up an asymmetry. Due to gradients and curvature of the magnetic field, ions and electrons will drift in different directions~ Ions will drift duskward and electrons will drift dawnward. Since the electrons and ions will undergo different loss processes, an asymmetry is introduced.

In recent years, increasing availability of remote sensed an insitu measurements of the Earth's ionosphere, magnetosphere and magnetosheath have revealed significant and persistent dawn-dusk asymmetries in the coupled solar wind - magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Similar asymmetries have also been discovered on other planets in our solar system, although the observational basis is smaller. As yet there is no consensus regarding the source of many of these these asymmetries, nor the physical mechanisms by which they are produced and maintained. In particular, many of the observations in the Earth's magnetotail remain elusive. The purpose of the planned volume is to compile and present a comprehensive and updated overview of our present knowledge about dawn-dusk asymmetries in the plasma environments of planets in our solar system and the mechanisms behind them.

This volume will be an invaluable resource for academic researchers in space physics, planetary science, astrophysics, physics, geophysics, energy science and earth science, and scientists at NOAA, DOE, NASA and other space agencies.

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