SH052-08
Venus Gravity Assist #3 as seen by the SPAN-Ion instrument on Parker Solar Probe.

Wednesday, 16 December 2020: 10:54
Virtual
Roberto Livi1, Davin E Larson2, Justin Christophe Kasper3, Anthony W Case4, Michael Louis Stevens4, Phyllis L Whittlesey5, Ali Rahmati6, J. L. Verniero6, Michael McManus7 and Kelly E Korreck4, (1)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (2)Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (3)University of Michigan, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (4)Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, United States, (5)Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (6)University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (7)U.S. EPA, Cincinnati, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
We present ion observations of the 3rd Venus flyby made by the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons experiments on the Parker Solar Probe mission, which has finished its fifth orbit around the sun. Part of SWEAP is the SPAN-I experiment, which is designed to measure the full 3D ion distribution function of solar wind ions, is the time-of-flight mass discriminator which measures the mass-per-charge of incoming particles. During its closest approach to Venus, the SPAN-Ion sensor clearly captures the Venusian magnetosheath, which contains perturbed solar wind ions (Protons and Alphas) at high temperatures. At closest approach, several new populations of heavier ions appear at relatively low energies, which implies that the spacecraft traversed the Venusian ionosphere. In this presentation we will discuss these ions and their respective densities, temperatures, and velocity vectors, including an analysis of solar wind measurements before and after the flyby. These remarkable Venus gravity assists will help us understand the origins and the mechanism that shapes the Venusian environment.
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