Mini-magnetospheres and Moon-magnetosphere interactions: Overview Moon-magnetosphere Interactions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the physics of moon-magnetosphere interactions, emphasizing how plasma flows and magnetic fields around moons reveal both local and distant geophysical and plasma physics insights.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the basic physics and recent findings related to moon-magnetosphere interactions across the solar system.

Findings

Interactions form Alfvén wings instead of bow shocks

Local interactions depend on moons' atmospheres and interiors

Far-field interactions reveal properties of moons

Abstract

"Moon-magnetosphere interaction" stands for the interaction of magnetospheric plasma with an orbiting moon. Observations and modeling of moon-magnetosphere interaction is a highly interesting area of space physics because it helps to better understand the basic physics of plasma flows in the universe and it provides geophysical information about the interior of the moons. Moon-magnetosphere interaction is caused by the flow of magnetospheric plasma relative to the orbital motions of the moons. The relative velocity is usually slower than the Alfv\'en velocity of the plasma around the moons. Thus the interaction generally forms Alfv\'en wings instead of bow shocks in front of the moons. The local interaction, i.e., the interaction within several moon radii, is controlled by properties of the atmospheres, ionospheres, surfaces, nearby dust-populations, the interiors of the moons as well as the properties of the magnetospheric plasma around the moons. The far-field interaction, i.e., the interaction further away than a few moon radii, is dominated by the magnetospheric plasma and the fields, but it still carries information about the properties of the moons. In this chapter we review the basic physics of moon-magnetosphere interaction. We also give a short tour through the solar system highlighting the important findings at the major moons.