Measurement of solar wind electron density and temperature in the shocked region of Venus and the density and temperature of photoelectrons within the ionosphere of Venus

摘要

Presented herein are measurements of the solar wind electron number density and temperature near and within the bow shock of Venus. The measurements were made by the Pioneer Venus mission Orbiter Retarding Potential Analyzer operating in its suprathermal electron mode. The measurements are essentially point measurements. The spacecraft travels approximately 0.8 km during the 0.1 s time interval required to record a single I-V curve. The dual measurement of a density and temperature is obtained from one sweep by least squares fitting a mathematical Maxwellian expression to the I-V curve. The distance between successive measurements is approximately 100 km. In many orbits, when the spacecraft is crossing or traveling within the bow shock, the derived densities and temperatures (high density, high temperature (HDHT)) are large, densities of the order of 100 cm~(-3) and temperatures of the order of several hundred eV. We interpret these HDHT measurements as measurements in regions where the large, directed kinetic energy of the solar wind ions is being degraded into randomized, more thermal-like energy distributions of the electrons and ions through wave-particle interactions. The HDHT values define the electron energy distribution in the limited energy interval 0 to 50 eV. We assume that the underlying electron flux distributions are flat topped like those measured in the Earth's bow shock. We also report densities and temperatures of EUV produced photoelectron energy distributions measured within the ionosphere.