Comparative Processes in Planetary Magnetospheres

The Solar System is gifted with a diverse array of magnetospheric systems, from the familiar Dungey-cycle-driven system at Earth, to the extreme Vasyliunas-cycle-driven Gas Giants. Together, this diverse set of planetary magnetospheres make it possible to probe fundamental physical processes by exploring how and under what conditions they operate in and across the Solar System. Furthermore, if we can make sense of this large parameter regime then we may be able to close the gap in our understanding of plasma physics elsewhere in the cosmos, e.g., magnetospheres of pulsars and brown dwarfs. However, to reach that goal requires the Earth and Planetary space physics communities to give serious consideration to the physics behind the similarities and differences between these systems. Fortunately, we are in an exciting era in space physics because NASA’s fleet of past and current Heliophysics and Planetary missions have and continue to provide us with rich data sets. For example, Juno—a polar orbiting Jupiter spacecraft—and Cassini—a equatorial orbiting Saturn spacecraft— missions make it possible to compare magnetospheric and auroral processes revealed by Earth missions such as, the Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST), Van Allen Probes and the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to name a few. Therefore, in this presentation we highlight a few notable similar and differing aspects of Earth, Saturn and Jupiter that collectively span solar wind-driven to internally-driven magnetospheric archetypes. Specifically, we will discuss auroral phenomenon, magnetospheric boundary processes and the source, transport and loss processes that ultimately form and sustain planetary radiation belts. Finally, the Heliophysics community is undergoing preparations for the upcoming Solar and Space Physics decadal report. In this spirit, we will briefly discuss a new and exciting Heliophysics mission concept with the goal of understanding fundamental physical processes throughout the Solar System and extend what Van Allen Probes has accomplished at Earth to even more extreme environments