ON THE STABILITY OF THE IONOPAUSE OF VENUS.

R. C. Elphic*, A. I. Ershkovich

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

The stability of the Venus ionopause is examined in light of the importance of gravitation and curvature. Using a one fluid approximation for the equation of motion of the plasma, and ignoring the effects of neutrals, a dispersion relation is obtained that includes the effects of magnetic field, sheared plasma flow, buoyancy, centrifugal force, and magnetic tension due to boundary curvature. Buoyancy is found to act to neutralize the flute instability. As expected, the Kelvin-Helmholtz mode is the dominant instability over most of the dayside ionopause.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)997-1002
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research
Volume89
Issue numberA2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1984

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'ON THE STABILITY OF THE IONOPAUSE OF VENUS.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this