Venus Express observations of magnetic field fluctuations in the magnetosheath

Magnetic field fluctuations within a planetary magnetosheath play an important role in the solar wind interaction with the planet, since they can reconfigure the plasma flow and the magnetic field and transfer energy from the bow shock to the lower boundary. Many studies have been presented on the fluctuations in the terrestrial magnetosheath; however, hardly any studies have so far been carried out for Venusian magnetosheath fluctuations, except for Luhmann et al. [1983] and Vörös et al. [2008] who performed some case studies on the magnetosheath fluctuations at Venus. It was shown that the fluctuations are probably convected from the vicinity of the quasi-parallel bow shock along the streamlines. Based on the Venus Express observations in 2006 and 2007, we investigate the spatial distributions of magnetic field fluctuations in the Venus magnetosheath statistically.