Interchange instability of the Venusian ionopause Original Research Article

Within the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approach, the interchange instability is studied for the subsolar magnetosheath of Venus. The instability analysis considers the profiles of magnetic field and plasma parameters between the bow shock and the ionopause which are obtained from the numerical MHD solution of the solar wind flow around the ionosphere. With the Fourier transformations, the linearized MHD equations are reduced to a second-order differential equation for the total pressure perturbation as a function of the normal distance from the ionopause. This equation is integrated numerically, and the interchange instability growth rate is obtained as a function of the wave number. The instability growth time is found to be smaller than the time scale of magnetic barrier formation.