The Venus bow shock - Detached or attached

Abstract

Examination of the locations of the bow shock encounters of Mariner 5 and 10 and Venera 4, 6, and 9 suggests that the bow shock of Venus is on the average detached from the ionosphere. However, the standoff distance of the nose of the shock is closer to the planet than the distance that one would obtain by simply scaling the solar wind Venus interaction under the assumption that Venus completely deflects the solar wind. This fact implies that there is a significant influx of solar wind plasma into the Venus ionosphere. If the absorption of the solar wind by Venus is great enough, the shock may become attached to the ionosphere. The Mariner 10 bow shock encounter may have occurred during such a period. A rough estimate of the average fraction of the solar wind incident on the cross section of the planet that is absorbed is 29%.