Publications

2010

• Plasma and magnetic field around Mercury
  
  • Delcourt Dominique
  , 2010. Measurements during flybys of Mercury by the MESSENGER spacecraft in 2008-2009 confirm, 34 years after Mariner-10, that this planet possesses an intrinsic magnetic field. This planetary field likely is strong enough to stand off the solar wind and form a magnetosphere with characteristic spatial and temporal scales much smaller than those at Earth. So far, unlike the puzzling measurements of Mariner-10, MESSENGER data do not show evidences of bursty energetic particle injections from the magnetotail but they do display signatures of processes at work in the terrestrial magnetosphere such as flux transfer events, traveling compression regions, or Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Mass resolved measurements from MESSENGER also reveal that a variety of ion species of planetary origin such as O , Na -Mg , K -Ca are present in the inner magnetosphere. Moreover, because of the weak intrinsic magnetic field and proximity to the Sun, the magnetosphere of Mercury is expected to be very dynamical, likely leading to specific nonadiabatic features of the magnetospheric ion dynamics. On the modeling side, a number of studies using distinct approaches (single-particle, MHD, hybrid) have been carried out to investigate the large-scale plasma circulation at Mercury. I will review some of these results, both for characteristics of their own and to put them into perspective with the terrestrial case.
• GPS studies of the Ionosphere
  
  • Amory-Mazaudier Christine
  , 2010.
• Capture of solar wind alpha-particles by the Martian atmosphere
  
  • Chanteur Gérard
  • Dubinin Eduard
  • Modolo Ronan
  • Fraenz Markus
  , 2010, 38, pp.1437C. Integration along He test-particle trajectories in the self-consistent electromagnetic fields generated by threedimensional hybrid simulations of the solar wind/Mars interaction is used to evaluate the removal of solar wind alpha-particles due to charge-exchange processes with neutral species of the Martian exosphere. The total removal rate of solar wind He ions, transformed into either singly ionised or neutral helium, is equal to 6.7 x 10**23 s-1, which corresponds approximately to 30solar a-particles through the planetary cross-section. The deposition rate of helium neutral atoms, created by double electronic capture on exospheric oxygen, impacting the exobase, and penetrating below where it can be trapped, is about 1.5 x 10**23 s-1. That means an important contribution of the solar wind source to the helium balance of the Martian atmosphere. The implantation of the solar helium into the Martian atmosphere shows an asymmetry related to the orientation of the motional electric field of the solar wind.
• Europlanet-RI/IDIS: Finding information for planetary research
  
  • Schmidt Walter
  • Capria Maria Teresa
  • Chanteur Gérard
  , 2010, 38, pp.804. The "Europlanet Research Infrastructure -Europlanet RI", supported by the European Com-mission's Framework Program 7, aims at integrating major parts of the distributed European Planetary Research infrastructure with as diverse components as space exploration, ground-based observations, laboratory experiments and numerical modelling teams. A central part of Europlanet RI is the "Integrated and Distributed Information Service" (IDIS), a network of data and information access facilities in Europe via which information relevant for planetary research can be easily found and retrieved. If a scientist is looking for possible collaborating colleagues or institutes in preparation of a new space project, for addresses of possible test facilities and their capabilities or for supporting data from other missions, laboratory measurements or modeling teams in analyzing own data, Europlanet/IDIS will give fast access to this information. While still under development, the infrastructure will develop during the following three years into a virtual observatory with the possibility of combining data from different science fields, observatories and missions. IDIS presents also an efficient way to publish the information about own activities or own laboratory's capabilities to possible future partners. For more information visit http://www.idis.europlanet-ri.eu
• Coupling Photosphere and Corona: Linear and Turbulent Regimes
  
  • Verdini Andrea
  • Grappin Roland
  • Velli Marco
  , 2010, 38, pp.2836. In numerical modeling, corona is often stuck directly on the photosphere where movements are prescribed, thus fully reflecting Alfven waves running along closed loops. In reality, reflection is not complete. We consider here for the first time the combined effects of finite reflection and turbulence which both control the coronal magnetic energy injected by the photospheric velocity shear. The loop model used is that of linear Alfven wave propagation along a 1D loop model, defined by a piece-wise constant Alfven speed (chromosphere and corona), and a turbulence shell model in the perpendicular direction.
• Challenges in observations and modeling of solar wind turbulence
  
  • Goldstein M. L.
  • Sahraoui Fouad
  , 2010, 38, pp.2089.
• Inductive plasmas in Cl<SUB>2</SUB>/Ar : Comparison of hybrid model results with experimental measurements
  
  • Booth Jean-Paul
  • Sarot Rodolphe
  • Despiau-Pujo Emilie
  • Chabert Pascal
  • Gatilova L.
  • Bouchoule S.
  , 2010.
• Study of a fast gas heating : experimental approach
  
  • Mintoussov E.I.
  • Lacoste D.A.
  • Pendleton S.J.
  • Popov N.A.
  • Stancu G.D.
  • Laux C.O.
  • Starikovskaia Svetlana
  , 2010, pp.P1.39.
• Electric field measurements in surface nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge
  
  • Mintoussov E.I.
  • Sagulenko P.N.
  • Starikovskaia Svetlana
  , 2010, pp.P2.32.
• Influence of adsorbed charges on self-synchronization of streamers breakdown
  
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Marinov Ilya
  • Rousseau Antoine
  , 2010.
• Ion-Ion plasma applied to space propulsion
  
  • Aanesland Ane
  , 2010.
• Production/conversion of molecules on catalytic surfaces under plasma exposure
  
  • Marinov Daniil
  • Hübner M.
  • Guaitella Olivier
  • Roepcke J.
  • Rousseau Antoine
  , 2010.
• Study of a Micro Hollow Cathode Discharge at medium argon gas pressure
  
  • Lazzaroni Claudia
  • Chabert Pascal
  • Rousseau Antoine
  • Sadeghi N.
  , 2010.
• Some features of magnetotail ion dynamics at Earth and Mercury : A comparative analysis
  
  • Delcourt Dominique
  • Moore T. E.
  • Fok M.-C. H.
  , 2010. The early measurements of Mariner-10 in 1974-75 revealed that Mercury possesses a weak intrinsic magnetic field that leads to the formation of a miniature magnetosphere with spatial and temporal scales much smaller than those at Earth. The recent observations of MESSENGER during Mercury flybys in 2008-2009 confirm this outcome. We will review some features of plasma transport in planetary magnetotails with emphasis on the nonlinear dynamics of ions at Earth and that expected at Mercury. We will concentrate on convection of solar wind and planetary material from high latitudes into the plasma sheet, including nonadiabatic interaction with the magnetotail neutral sheet and subsequent filling of the inner magnetospheric region. We will discuss also the response of magnetospheric ions to short-lived dynamical reconfigurations of the magnetotail and the prominent nonadiabatic heating that may follow under the effect of the induced electric field.
• The role of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability for mass exchange at the magnetopause : Mercury versus Earth
  
  • Terada N.
  • Delcourt Dominique
  • Seki K.
  • Fujimoto M.
  • Ogino T.
  • Matsumoto Y.
  , 2010.
• Electrodynamic coupling of high and low latitudes
  
  • Amory-Mazaudier Christine
  , 2010.
• A Very Low 1/f Noise ASIC Preamplifier for High Sensitivity Search-coil Magnetometers
  
  • Rhouni Amine
  • Coillot Christophe
  • Leroy Paul
  • Sou Gérard
  , 2010.
• The international Resarch Group in geophysics Europe Africa: a laboratory without borders in the Earth Science and Environment
  
  • Amory-Mazaudier Christine
  , 2010.
• Ion-Ion plasmas with alternate acceleration of positive and negative ions
  
  • Aanesland Ane
  , 2010.
• Hall Thruster Microscopic Processes : Qualifying 2D PIC Simulations against Collective Scattering Experimental Data
  
  • Honoré Cyrille
  • Héron A.
  • Tsikata Sedina
  • Grésillon D.
  • Lemoine N.
  , 2010 (P4.303).
• The effect of SOL flows on edge and core radial electric field and rotation in Tore Supra
  
  • Hennequin Pascale
  • Vermare Laure
  • Fedorczak N.
  • Bernardo J.
  • Gürcan Özgür D.
  • Trier Elisée
  • Fenzi C.
  • Gunn J.
  • Monier-Garbet P.
  • Ghendrih R.
  • Garbet X.
  , 2010 (P1.1040).
• The Spectral Structure of Anisotropic MHD Turbulence
  
  • Grappin Roland
  • Müller Wolf-Christian
  , 2011, 444, pp.54. A new analysis of the anisotropic spectral energy distribution in incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence permeated by a strong mean magnetic field is carried out on high-resolution pseudo-spectral direct numerical simulations with large-scale isotropic forcing. In each direction in planes containing B<SUB>0</SUB>, starting at the forced large-scales, the spectrum exhibits an angle-dependent dissipative wavenumber k<SUB>d</SUB>(theta) but for k >= k<SUB>0</SUB> it assumes a single theta-independent functional form F(k/k<SUB>d</SUB>), In particular, the scaling law is isotropic in those planes. The previous properties still hold when increasing the mean field from B<SUB>0</SUB> = 5 up to B<SUB>0</SUB> = 10 b<SUB>rms</SUB>.
• Caractérisation de la micro-turbulence par réflectométrie Doppler dans Tore Supra
  
  • Vermare Laure
  , 2010.
• Champ électrique radial dans les plasmas de tokamak non axi-symétrique: étude par réflectométrie Doppler
  
  • Trier Elisée
  , 2010. Les recherches sur la fusion thermonucléaire par confinement magnétique visent à l'obtention de plasmas chauffés majoritairement par les réactions de fusion entre les ions Deuterium et Tritium. Cette thèse se place dans la problématique générale de l'étude du transport turbulent, qui limite les performances d'un tokamak. Le champ électrique radial (dirigé vers l'intérieur ou l'extérieur du plasma, de géométrie torique) peut être à l'origine de barrières de transport lorsque son cisaillement devient suffisamment important pour causer une décorrélation des structures tourbillonnaires. Lors de ce travail de thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés aux mécanismes à l'origine de la génération spontanée du champ électrique radial à l'intérieur de la dernière surface magnétique fermée. Sur le tokamak Tore Supra, un diagnostic de réflectométrie Doppler permet une mesure quasi-directe de la vitesse de dérive électrique associée au champ électrique radial. L'influence du ripple, ondulation de l'intensité du champ magnétique dans la direction toroïdale dûe au nombre fini de bobines, est examinée par la comparaison des mesures avec les prédictions de plusieurs modèles, associés à différents régimes de diffusion (ripple-plateau, piégeage local). Nous étudions ensuite plus en détail un cas expérimental où le champ électrique radial, usuellement négatif à l'intérieur du plasma, devient localement positif, ce qui suggère la présence de mécanismes alternatifs non-ambipolaires. Le rôle possible de l'activité MHD et des ilots magnétiques est discuté à partir des mesures effectuées.
• 2010 : Année franco-égyptienne de la Science et de la Technologie. Éléments d'information autour du thème de l'Espace
  
  • Damé Luc
  • Mahrous Ayman
  • Amory-Mazaudier Christine
  • Petitdidier Monique
  • Hady Ahmed
  La Revue de l'électricité et de l'électronique, Société de l'Électricité, de l'Électronique et des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication, 2010, 6/7, pp.114-120. En 2006, le Président Hosni Moubarak a proclamé 2007-2016, " Décennie Égyptienne des Sciences et de la Technologie ", visant à renforcer la science et la technologie en Égypte, et à instituer une " économie de la connaissance ". En conséquence, la décennie a été façonnée par des années successives de coopération scientifique et technologique avec divers pays du monde. 2007 fut l'année de la science et la technologie avec l'Allemagne, suivie par le Japon en 2008, et l'Italie en 2009. (...)