EGU22-4130, updated on 27 Mar 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4130
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Observations of the Time Domain Sampler receiver from the Radio and Plasma Wave instrument during the Solar Orbiter Earth flyby 

David Pisa1, Jan Soucek1, Ondrej Santolik1,2, Miroslav Hanzelka1,2, Milan Maksimovic3, Antonio Vecchio3,4, Yuri Khotyaintsev5, Thomas Chust6, Matthieu Kretzschmar7,8, Lorenzo Matteini9, and Timothy Horbury9
David Pisa et al.
  • 1Institute of Atmospheric Physics of Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia (dp@ufa.cas.cz)
  • 2Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
  • 3LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Univ. Paris Diderot, Meudon, France
  • 4Radboud Radio Lab., Department of Astrophysics, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  • 5Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Uppsala, Sweden
  • 6LPP, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France
  • 7LPC2E, CNRS, Orléans, France
  • 8Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France
  • 9Department of Physics, Imperial College, London, UK

On November 27, 2021, Solar Orbiter completed its only flyby of Earth on its way to the following Sun’s encounter in March 2022. Although this fast flyby was performed primarily to decrease the spacecraft’s velocity and change orbit to get closer to the Sun, the Radio and Plasma Wave (RPW) instrument had the opportunity to perform high cadence measurements in the Earth’s magnetosphere. We review the main observation of the Time Domain Sampler (TDS) receiver, a part of the RPW instrument, made during this flyby at frequencies below 200 kHz. The TDS receiver operated in a high cadence mode providing us with the regular waveform snapshot with 62 ms length every ten seconds for two electric components. Besides the regular captures, we have got more than five hundred onboard classified snapshots and the statistical products with a sixteen-second cadence. Before entering the terrestrial magnetosphere around 02:30UT, the spacecraft wandered through the foreshock region, registering intense bursts of Langmuir waves. After the bowshock crossing, Solar Orbiter was for more than two hours in the morning sector of the magnetosphere, recording various plasma wave modes. The closest approach was reached at 04:30UT above North Africa at an altitude of 460 km. Then the spacecraft continued into the Earth’s tail and entered the magnetosheath around 13:00UT. After 15:00UT, the Solar Orbiter crossed the bowshock, and bursts of Langmuir waves were detected again pointing out to the deep downstream foreshock region. Further from the Earth, intense Auroral Kilometric Radiation (AKR) at frequencies above 100 kHz was also detected.

How to cite: Pisa, D., Soucek, J., Santolik, O., Hanzelka, M., Maksimovic, M., Vecchio, A., Khotyaintsev, Y., Chust, T., Kretzschmar, M., Matteini, L., and Horbury, T.: Observations of the Time Domain Sampler receiver from the Radio and Plasma Wave instrument during the Solar Orbiter Earth flyby , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4130, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4130, 2022.