Two-Dimensional Non-Linear Alfvén Wings Generated by the Electrodynamic Interaction between Callisto and the Jovian Magnetosphere

Abstract

When a highly conducting magnetized plasma passes an object with lower conductivity, or a body with inhomogeneous conductivity, 2-D structures are formed, the so-called’ Alfvén wings’. These structures may arise, for example, at a Jovian moon without an intrinsic magnetic field (Callisto). In this case, Alfvén wings could be generated in the magnetized Jovian magnetospheric plasma flow owing to the inhomogeneity of the moon’s ionosphere/atmosphere conductivity. Such Alfvén wings may be considered as a satellite magnetosphere; the satellite magnetospheric magnetic field is a disturbed field of the Jovian magnetospheric plasma flow. An analytical solution is obtained in a simple proposed model.