Comparative planetary space weather: Impact of the same ICME on different planetary bodies
Abstract
Planetary Space Weather is an emerging topic of increasing interest. However, forecasting it is currently challenging because each Solar System body interacts differently with its environment and because we still cannot reliably predict how the solar wind and the structures in it evolve on their way through the interplanetary space. The existence or the lack of a global planetary magnetic field plays a major role on how these bodies dissipate the energy of solar storms, such as the interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). In the case of Venus and Mars, which do not possess global magnetic fields, the solar wind interacts directly with their atmospheres, affecting the entire planet. Understanding how each (un)magnetized body reacts to space weather activity is, therefore, a key in comparative aeronomy. An efficient approach during recent years has been to compare the effects of the ICMEs with the same drivers at different bodies of the Solar System. Although a priori the same structure hits different bodies, its effects are significantly different depending on the nature of the bodýs upper atmospheres and magnetospheres. In this presentation, we explore the response of different bodies in the Solar System, namely Mercury, Earth, Mars, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and Saturn, to the same solar event. We focus on its effects on the upper atmospheres, the magnetic and plasma environments, particle precipitation, radio emissions and auroras. We also assess the impact of ICMEs during low and high solar activity phases. Special attention is be given to the evolution of ICMEs between Earth's orbit and Mars, as this is the most studied region of the Solar System. The study is based on multispacecraft observations and solar wind propagation models.
- Publication:
-
43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021cosp...43E.767S