Abstract :
The objective of this paper is to explore the structure and properties of the region between the shocked solar wind and the planetary plasma on the dayside of Venus and Mars. It was shown already in 1980 by the retarding potential analyser carried aboard PVO that above the Venussian ionosphere there is a special plasma region where both the shocked solar wind and planetary plasma are present, this region was called the dayside mantle. The observations obtained by the plasma instruments carried on board the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, the Phobos 2 spacecraft, and the Mars Global Surveyor have proven that the dayside mantle is a permanent region (or layer) around non-magnetic planets. In the mantle different plasma features are ordered in altitude; some of these features are the consequence of the natural behaviour of the solar wind flow at the edge of its “container”, and are described by current 3-D MHD models in fluid approach. Other features are the result of the local interaction of the flow and the plasma of the obstacle, requiring a kinetic approach.
