Widespread plasma jets in the Martian magnetosheath revealed by dual-spacecraft observations
- 1Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
- 2School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540
- 3The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723
Abstract
Plasma jets in planetary magnetosheaths are transient, high dynamic pressure structures capable of strongly perturbing downstream magnetospheres and modulating solar wind energy transfer. Although recently identified at Mars, their formation mechanisms and global occurrence remain poorly constrained. Using dual-spacecraft observations from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN and Tianwen-1, we show that magnetosheath jets occur throughout the Martian magnetosheath, in striking contrast to Earth where jet occurrence is strongly controlled by interplanetary magnetic field orientation and largely confined to quasi-parallel shock regions. We propose that this widespread distribution is linked to Mars’ extended hydrogen corona, which generates pickup ions that drive proton-cyclotron waves upstream of the bow shock. Because this mechanism is generic to any body with an extended corona (or exosphere) embedded in a stellar wind, this finding bears on solar–wind interactions at comets and other small bodies, and on the space environments of unmagnetized terrestrial exoplanets. These results indicate that magnetosheath jet formation can be governed not only by external solar wind forcing but also by intrinsic planetary properties, pointing to a previously unrecognized pathway for solar wind–planet coupling at unmagnetized worlds.
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BibTeX
@article{tadlock2026widespread,
title = {{Widespread plasma jets in the Martian magnetosheath revealed by dual-spacecraft observations}},
author = {Abigail Tadlock and Chuanfei Dong and Chi Zhang and Savvas Raptis and Hongyang Zhou and Xinmin Li and Jiawei Gao},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2616582123},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2616582123},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Widespread plasma jets in the Martian magnetosheath revealed by dual-spacecraft observations
AU - Abigail Tadlock
AU - Chuanfei Dong
AU - Chi Zhang
AU - Savvas Raptis
AU - Hongyang Zhou
AU - Xinmin Li
AU - Jiawei Gao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2616582123
UR - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2616582123
AB - Plasma jets in planetary magnetosheaths are transient, high dynamic pressure structures capable of strongly perturbing downstream magnetospheres and modulating solar wind energy transfer. Although recently identified at Mars, their formation mechanisms and global occurrence remain poorly constrained. Using dual-spacecraft observations from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN and Tianwen-1, we show that magnetosheath jets occur throughout the Martian magnetosheath, in striking contrast to Earth where jet occurrence is strongly controlled by interplanetary magnetic field orientation and largely confined to quasi-parallel shock regions. We propose that this widespread distribution is linked to Mars’ extended hydrogen corona, which generates pickup ions that drive proton-cyclotron waves upstream of the bow shock. Because this mechanism is generic to any body with an extended corona (or exosphere) embedded in a stellar wind, this finding bears on solar–wind interactions at comets and other small bodies, and on the space environments of unmagnetized terrestrial exoplanets. These results indicate that magnetosheath jet formation can be governed not only by external solar wind forcing but also by intrinsic planetary properties, pointing to a previously unrecognized pathway for solar wind–planet coupling at unmagnetized worlds.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -